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!

HGB Ep. 477 - Investigation of Lilian Place

Moment in Oddity - Mimizuka Ear Mound

On History Goes Bump, we often discuss mounds of different varieties left by indigenous people. Sometimes they are mounds for holding rituals, sometimes they are gathering places, or they can also be burial mounds. There is a very unique burial mound found in Kyoto Japan called the Mimizuka Ear Mound. This is a memorial burial mound in south east Kyoto for the noses of Korean soldiers and some Chinese civilians killed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invading armies in the late 16th century. Although the location is commonly known as the ear mound, it's original name was Hanazuka, or 'Nose Mound'. In 1597, Hideyoshi ordered a campaign to try and seize the Korean Peninsula while heading towards conquering Ming China. During this time Hideyoshi ordered the entire populace of certain locations killed and their heads to be shipped back to Japan as proof. As it turned out, there were so many bodies that the soldiers needed to conserve space in the shipping of the corpses, so they began removing the noses from the heads to reduce the size of their "proof". It is told that tens of thousands of noses were buried in the Mimizuka Mound. Hideyoshi ordered the memorial built in what is perceived as an act of contrition, however it also could have served as a warning to other nations not to challenge the Japanese military. Regardless of the reason for building the mound, one thing is for certain, a burial mound containing just noses, certainly is odd.

This Month in History -  Penn's Pennsylvania Land Grant

In the month of March, on the 4th in 1681, King Charles II of England granted a huge tract of land in the New World to William Penn. This transaction served as a method to settle an outstanding debt that the English crown owed to William's father. Once Penn received the 45,000 square miles of land from the Crown, he set about attracting investors and settlers. By the year 1685, he had sold 600 individual tracts making up 700,000 acres of Pennsylvania’s land in the Quaker settlement. By 1700, that number increased to 800,000 acres sold. Although Englishmen made up the majority of the First Purchasers, Penn also concentrated advertising efforts in continental Europe as well. This attracted individual investors from Germany, Holland, and France. William Penn offered land tracts of varying sizes which not only appealed to those of higher means, but also to those of more humble circumstances with some plots as small as 125 acres. William Penn established Pennsylvania as one of the largest Restoration colonies eventually making it the geographic center of British colonial America. 

Investigation of Lilian Place

Lilian Place is a Victorian house named after a member of the Thompson family. This was a pioneer family of Daytona Beach and the house remained in the family for decades. We had done a daytime historical tour several years ago and produced a BonusCast based on that visit in which we actually captured EVPs and heard some ghost stories after the tour was over. We couldn't pass up a chance to return and do some investigating. Join us and our listener Bailey as we share the history of this great historic house and the results of our investigation!  

Getting out to island strips along the Atlantic Coast of Florida wasn't easy during the Victorian era. Living there would be even harder. The only way to make this feasible was to build bridges and many have been built through the past 150 years. Many people know Daytona Beach for two things: beaches and auto racing. But there was much more to this town that actually started as three towns that merged together: Daytona, Daytona Beach and Seabreeze. Daytona was founded by and named for Ohio entrepreneur Mathias Day. In 1870, he bought part of a land grant along an uninhabited mainland riverfront and dreamed of selling lots. That venture didn't work out well and only a few families built homes there, but Day was still referred to as the Pied Piper of Cincinnati since he convinced several families to leave the prosperous city and come down to this rugged area of humidity and mosquitos. Daytona Beach eventually became a place for the testing of automobiles and then racing and the hard packed beach made this one of the most famous beaches in the world, which is one of only a handful that allow cars to drive and park on the beach.

But long before all that, another entrepreneur was attracted to the area, Laurence Thompson. He and his wife Mary Eliza had lived in Ohio and knew Mathias Day who invited them to come on down. This wasn't an easy trip as the train only traveled as far south as Jacksonville. They had to take a boat to get further down to a place called Enterprise and then it was a horse-drawn wagon to New Smyrna and another boat to Tomoka, which is what Daytona was originally known as. Once there, they stayed at Day's hotel called the Palmetto House. Laurence and Mary Eliza did this all with two kids in tow, three-year-old Lilian and six-month-old Laurence Junior. Laurence was in the dry goods business and he bought property on South Beach Street from Day's brother Calvin and lived in the house that was already there. They built a dry goods store next door. This was in 1875 and the store served about seventy inhabitants living in the area. Laurence's brother Graham ran the business with him and they opened the upper hall as a meeting room. 

A little fun side story that we ran across connected to Thompson's store is connected to the start of the Daytona Beach News-Journal. The man who launched the paper in 1883, Florian A. Mann, had promised the small community that the paper would be out on February 1st, but that date passed with no paper. Apparently, the schooner carrying the newsprint had sunk. People were restless and Mann walked by the Thompson dry goods and got an idea when he saw the bolts of cloth in the window. He ran in and bought a roll of white cotton cloth that had a border of red-and-blue forget-me-nots and ran that through his press since it was about the same size. It worked!

Laurence eventually became city clerk for the fledgling town and tried his hand at growing citrus, but decided real estate would be more profitable. And that's where he made some serious money. Enough to build his family a mansion, the first one on the beachside penisula of Daytona Beach. This house would overlook the Halifax River and was built in 1884. This is an Italianate Victorian styled house with a tall middle column that for many years was the highest structure in Daytona Beach. That seems almost laughable now with all the nearby high-rise condos and hotels. The tower has a widow's walk that comes out from it like a small balcony. The interior featured high ceilings, wood crown moldings, carved wood mantle pieces and heart-of-pine floors. There are only a couple of pieces of furniture in the house original to the family, but period pieces were found that match a Victorian timeline and there are many interesting antiques inside. The house is painted to match its original look in yellow with green and red trim. The house also features some pocket windows. The most unique feature of the house is the staircase. The balusters are made to look like Ts for Thompson and the stairway branches off into two. We didn't get to visit the third floor when we came to do the historical tour, but for the ghost hunt we did and we spent most of our time there. There are two small rooms up there. There were several bedrooms on the second floor. The first floor had the parlor and dining room.

In 1896, The Halifax River Yacht Club was founded and Laurence was one of those founding members. As a matter of fact, he allowed the club to build a wharf off of his property. This club is the oldest on the East Coast that is still meeting in its original spot. Laurence also donated land for building one of the bridges to the mainland. Mary Eliza was very active in her husband's businesses and in social circles, besides raising three children. She and Laurence added Harrison to their family about eight years after moving to Florida. She was a charter member of the Palmetto Club and helped with their Children of Working Negro Women where she met Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune was an educator and Civil Rights leader who was best known for starting a black school in Daytona Beach, Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, that is today Bethune-Cookman University. She also helped found the United Negro College Fund and counseled U.S. Presidents. Her relationship with Mary Eliza was special enough that Dr. Bethune spoke at her memorial.

But like many moms, legend claims that Mary Eliza could be a little meddling in the love lives of her children and when she found out her only daughter was in love with a commoner, she ran the man off. So Lilian never married and lived with her parents. Mary Eliza died in 1909 and Laurence died in 1920 from a stroke and Lilian inherited the mansion that is now named for her. She raised her nephew Harrison Thompson Jr. when his parents Lucy and Harry divorced. She stayed in the house until her death in 1934 and the house was sold to a relative named Alice Dalton to keep it in the family and Alice is the one who named it Lilian Place. She rented the house to the Wells family and eventually gave the house to Patricia Thompson Bennett who was the daughter of Laurence Jr. 

Pat moved into the house with her husband in 1949. There had been an apartment on the southeast side of the house and that is where she lived. Diane was listening to an interview with Pat and she very nonchalantly mentioned that the apartment was interesting because that is where the ghost Lucille lives. Nobody really knows where Lucille comes from or her history. Before our hunt, Sherry our guide said that there is a legend that Harry was supposed to marry Lucille, but he fell in love with a Lucy instead and so Lucille climbed up to the widow's walk and threw herself to her death. We'll talk more about that in a bit. Pat stayed in the house until 1984 when the house was sold to Greg and Susan McDole and they restored the house. A carriage house on the property was turned into four apartments. Michael and Suzanne Riccitiello acquired the property in 2002 and renovated it into a six-room bed and breakfast and furnished it with 1880s furnishings and embraced its Victorian heritage. Suzanne passed away in 2006 and Michael left, leaving the property abandoned. The Heritage Preservation trust was able to buy the house with a grant in 2009 and today it is a museum hosting tours and events. The events we especially like are the ghost hunts the last weekend of every month. And another we want to partake of are their dinner ghost hunts on the first weekend of the month.

An interesting connection to this house centers on the author of "The Red Badge of Courage," Stephen Crane. On New Year’s Eve of 1896, Crane was riding aboard a ship called The Commodore which was beginning its fifth attempt to take munitions to Cuban insurrectionists. He was going as a journalist to cover the insurrection against Spain. A Captain wrote of the ship, "The Commodore was a fine boat. She carried her load like a cork and breasted the waves like a duck." It was foggy when it was off of Jacksonville and it hit a sandbar. They managed to get off the sandbar, but the ship started taking on water. People boarded lifeboats and Crane got into an open boat that was only ten feet long, barely big enough for the four men in it. The men spent a day in the boat, barely holding on until they were to Daytona Beach and a young man named John Kitchell jumped into the cold water and brought each man to shore. He saved three of them, but a fourth had died. One of the men was the Captain of the ship and he was taken with another man to Surf Crest cottage and Crane was taken to Lilian Place to recoup. His girlfriend Cora spent time with him there and as a thank you, Crane sent an autographed copy of "The Red Badge of Courage" to the family. The book became lost through the years. Stephen Crane must have liked his time here because his spirit has been seen in the house. There are some who claim that Cora also joins him in spirit form. Crane died young at the age of 28 and he and Cora never had the chance to marry. She took on his last name though and is buried under a headstone as Cora Crane. Their time here must have been very special.

When we visited the house the first time, we didn't know much about any hauntings here. We were excited when our tour guide who was a seventy-year-old gentleman brought up spirit activity in the house. So when we decided to join the ghost hunt here, we knew there was a little bit of activity, but we had no clue about just how many spirits are thought to be in this location. And the activity for us didn't stop. We bought a new piece of equipment and it worked like a charm! (Explain the Ghost Stop SBox) And we also brought a Poor Man's Boo Bear with us. It worked great too and we have a video up on YouTube that shows that.

So let's talk about experiences in this house before we share our results. We mentioned Lucille earlier. Visitors have reported seeing an apparition of a woman walking into rooms or down hallways and then disappearing. And this spirit has been seen looking out of the second floor windows. And these sightings have been going on for over a hundred years. They got the name Lucille because this entity gave it. One night some visitors were staying on the second floor when they were awakened by a presence. This was a woman in a period dress with a high collar and she was pouring a glass of water from a pitcher. She turned to them and said, "Don't be afraid. My name is Lucille. I am not going to harm you." She set down the glass and left the room. She looked very real so the guests asked why this woman had been sent to their room and no one knew who they were talking about. The description didn't fit anybody in the house. 

When Pat lived in the house, she had placed her infant daughter in a crib on the second floor and when she went to check on the baby, she found her on the floor, swaddled neatly in blankets and peacefully asleep. All three of Pat's daughters reported paranormal experiences throughout all the years they lived there, although they never saw the ghost. The vacuum cleaner would turn itself on, windows would lock on their own and door knobs would rattle. Sometimes the water faucets would turn on on their own and footsteps were heard on the staircases. Mike Riccitiello, who started the B&B, shared some of his stories with Nancy Zrinyi Long in her 2012 book "The Ghosts of Lilian Place." He said, "My wife and I moved into Lilian Place in 2002. We had heard some rumors of the house being haunted, but we had no encounters or strange occurrences during the long year we spent renovating the old house into a period bed & breakfast. Occasionally we might find a light turned on, or did we leave it on? Sometimes water would be running in the second floor bathroom, but we assumed it was human forgetfulness. One strange occurrence was on Christmas Day shortly after we moved in and had decorated the site. We had a nine-foot Christmas tree set up in the Parlor, fully decorated with old ornaments and lights. When the family came downstairs Christmas morning, the huge tree was lying on the floor between the table and couch as if someone had slowly lowered it to the ground. Not a bulb or ornament was broken, and no one had heard any noise during the night, but there lay the tree on its side!"

Also during that tenure, they hosted weddings and one bride told them she saw a woman in a white dress that looked to be from the 1800s looking out at her from a window during the ceremony. She asked who the woman was and why she hadn't been seated down on the lawn with the rest of the guests. Mike then explained to her that the house had been locked up during the ceremony and that no one was inside. Another guest reported awakening at 7am and seeing a man in a old period jacket and ruffled shirt, standing at the foot of the bed. This man turned, opened the door and walked out. When the guest and his wife went down to breakfast, they commented about the employee waking them up that morning. Mike looked at them funny and then said they didn't do that kind of thing and had no employees dressed like that. And the couple were the only people on the second floor. Later the couple was looking at a book about the history of the house and saw a picture of Stephen Crane in there. They told Mike that was the man in their room that morning. 

This was a large group for the ghost hunt, probably about twenty of us, so we were at first worried that this wouldn't be such a good investigation and since it was Bailey's first time, we wanted it to be good. This group turned out to be very respectful and pretty darn quiet. We only had two hours, so we knew we wouldn't get to the whole house, but we certainly weren't expecting to basically just stay on the third floor, but that place was hopping for us! Sherry introduced herself and our ghost hunt leader Mr. Ed and told us a bit about the house. (Sherry Intro) Mr. Ed shared a story with us and a picture and if it was real, it was amazing. It really looked like the spirit of a little girl next to this door he talks about. (Mr Ed Story) During the introductions, we could hear that a REM Pod was going crazy above us, so we headed up the stairs first. We went into a bedroom that had a REM Pod in it, but this probably wasn't the right one because we seemed to get no interaction in here. Based on our later experiences, we're pretty sure the REM Pod that was going off was the one on the third floor. It is up there that people claim to interact with children and that was certainly our experience.

The staircase leading to the third floor is very narrow and opens into a room with a low ceiling. There are only two rooms up here. The further room looks over the river through two arched windows that Sherry told us people had captured pictures of spirits in. That room had the REM Pod and a laser grid. We started in the first room and popped a squat to conduct our first Estes Session with our new SBox and what we are going to do is intersperse the Sbox recording with this and see what you guys hear. Is it the same as Diane? And here at the beginning you'll hear Diane say "speak" a couple times. That literally came up dozens of times. Made us wonder if there was a bunch of spirits here and one of them was running the show to keep it orderly. (Estes Lilian 1) Wait, what was that?! (Homosexual) Diane was talking fairly loudly and got a bit of attention with that. So was this referring to us or something else? Here is the rest of that session.(Estes Lilian 1 Part 2) There was about 30 seconds of the SBox still going without Diane listening and we got this (Estes Walk with Me) Is it walk with me or fuck with me? And then almost sounded like a woman saying swimming. Kelly used her dowsing rods to ask a few questions during this too.

Bailey tried her hand at the Estes Method and right at the beginning I'm throwing in the first word that came through, but it wasn't heard by Bailey yet. We think it was "sacred" (Estes Lilian 2) So at the beginning Bailey had said "dead" but we think it said Ed and we were wondering if this was referring to our ghost host. And the "record yourself" sounded more like core truth? Not sure what that was referring to. The scary actually sounded like it might be a woman saying Mary. Was this Mary Eliza? (Mary SBox) Towards the end you hear us interacting with a cat ball, which did light up on command in Diane's hand. This was Bailey's first time doing this so there were some things that came through that she might not have heard. Is this Thompson, the family name? (Thompson SBox) This came through when we were asking about going to beach and swimming. (Didn't want SBox) Is this saying they didn't want to swim? And listen to this clear sentence from a female (Well maybe I'm weak SBox) And See us (See us SBox)

We decided to go into the other room since the REM Pod kept going off and we took the Boo Bear. We did our third and last Estes Session in here. A little warning, about 3.5 minutes in the REM Pod goes off and it is high pitched. (Estes Lilian 3) At the end Bailey asks who this is, but I'm already in the process of taking off the headphones so I didn't hear that we might have gotten the name Howie. That singing part was so cool!

Then Kelly got out the dowsing rods. Another warning, there is REM Pod activity at the beginning so watch your ears. (Lilian Dowsing) It seems we were communicating with a 12-year-old boy, although the REM Pod went off when we asked if we had a girl too. And Kelly definitely felt like there was more than one spirit using the rods and we got two different positions in the room pointed out. We have the video of the EMF going off with the bear on our YouTube channel and it's up on the Facebook Crew and Instagram.

Then we moved onto the nursery and set the bear on the floor. There was a small crib with a baby doll in it and a smaller REM pod. (Lilian Nursery) So the REM Pod was going off quite a bit and on command. And the ball lit up on command too. And yes, we did leave the bear.

This was such a fun investigation and for a place not really known for its activity, it was very active for us. Probably one of the best investigations we have been on. This is a wonderful Victorian mansion with so much history and love connected to it. Is Lilian Place haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 472 - Investigation of the Whaley House

Moment of Oddity  -  Larger than life balloons

Many of us have had the fun experience of a clown twisting and turning balloons into this object or that. However most of us have not had a balloon artist create something taller than us and worthy of an artistic award. Let me introduce you to Mark Verge of Canada. This man creates larger than life sculptures that require thousands of balloons to assemble. This artist began twisting balloons around 30 years ago and is today an eight time world champion of balloon artistry. His company is appropriately named Xtreme Balloons. Some of his pieces of art encompass a life-sized Flintstone car with Fred and Dino in the vehicle. He has also created Bumblebee from the transformers amongst many others. However his most popular pieces of balloon art are various dinosaurs like a T-Rex using 1,400 balloons, a Stegosaurus, Utahraptor, Allosaurus and Spinosaurus. The artist has had commissioned work from the Royal Ontario Museum, Field Station: Dinosaurs, in the U.S. and even a T-Rex balloon costume in Shanghai. According to Mark his favorite creation to date was the Bumblebee Transformer. To be certain, creating balloon creatures larger than the average man, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Birth of Andre Michelin

In January, on the 16th in 1853, Andre Michelin was born in Paris, France. Andre was a French industrialist who, along with his brother, ended up founding the Michelin Tyre Company. Due to a cyclist asking the brothers for assistance with fixing a flat tire, the brothers began exploring methods of creating detachable tires. At the time, cycling was one of the most common modes of transportation for the area. During this timeframe, the common way for mounting tires was for them to be glued directly to the rims of the wheels. Andre's brother, Edouard, developed a patent for a detachable pneumatic bicycle tire. Once this bike tire patent became instantly popular, the brothers set their sights on automotive tires. In 1895, the brothers entered the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris automobile race using their patented tires. Their entry did not win the race, but due to the impressive tires, the race launched the market for the detachable pneumatic tires for cars. After this, the Michelin brothers quickly became the leading Automotive tire supply company to the newly begun car industry and still remains one of the largest suppliers in the world today.

Investigation of the Whaley House

History Goes Bump featured the Whaley House on an episode in 2016 and it has been on our bucket list to investigate for quite a while. We finally had the opportunity to do that in January of 2023 during a quick trip to hang out with family back in California. The Whaley House is the oldest brick structure in southern California and was built by Thomas Whaley, Jr. The home served a variety of purposes and sits on an old hanging ground, so it isn't surprising that people claim that this is one of the most haunted houses in America. Join us as we share our investigation of the Whaley House!

The Whaley House is located in Old Town San Diego that today is a historic district with buildings dating from 1820 to 1870. Adjacent to Old Town is Presidio Park. Originally this area was a military outpost set up by the Spanish and named the San Diego Presidio. For decades it served as the primary settlement because of the military presence. After most of the major threats were dealt with, the settlers moved to the lower part of the bluff that the Presidio sat upon and this newer settlement became the center of the government. By the 1820s, the town of San Diego was flourishing. The Mexican government gave San Diego its city charter in 1834. Mexico referred to cities as pueblos and San Diego only held this status for a few years because the population declined. California became a state in 1850 and San Diego was named the county seat of San Diego County. By the 1860s, people were moving from the area to what is now Downtown San Diego because it made shipping easier and Old Town moved into the background.

The Whaley family were of Scots-Irish origin and they immigrated to America in 1722, laying down roots in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Alexander Whaley was an American patriot and contemporary of General George Washington. He was one of the participants in the Boston Tea Party and he later fought in the Revolutionary War. He was a gunsmith by trade and used his skills to provide flintlock muskets to the soldiers. He also gave them use of his Long Island home. The gunsmith business would continue on in the Whaley family. Alexander's grandson, Thomas Whaley, Sr., served in the New York Militia during the War of 1812.  He married Rachel Pye whose father, William, manufactured locks in Brooklyn. They had ten children together and on October 5, 1823 Thomas Whaley, Jr. was born in New York City, New York. In 1832, Thomas Whaley, Sr. died. In his will, he directed that young Thomas should receive a liberal education at the Washington Institution.

The California Gold Rush called many men and one of those men was Thomas Whaley. He wasn't interested in mining, but he was interested in the businesses that formed around mining operations. On January 1, 1849, Thomas Whaley left New York on a steamer cargo passenger ship called the Sutton, headed for San Francisco, CA, which wouldn't arrive until July 22, 1849. Whaley set up a store with another businessman, named George Wardle, on Montgomery Street. They sold hardware and woodwork from Whaley’s family business, Whaley and Pye, that was located in New York.  They also offered mining equipment and utensils on consignment to the many men coming to California during the gold rush. Whaley was so successful that he was able to establish his own store on Montgomery Street, build a two story house near the bay, and he rented out Wardle’s building.

Tragedy struck in May of 1851 when an arson-set fire destroyed Whaley’s buildings on Montgomery Street. He decided at that time, based on the advice of Lewis Franklin, to relocate to Old Town San Diego.  Lewis Franklin was a merchant who operated stores in San Francisco and Old Town San Diego, so he knew what he was talking about. Once Whaley arrived in San Diego, he set up various businesses with Franklin, Ephraim Morse, Frances Hinton, and even his brother Henry Whaley. With the success of his many businesses, he quickly amassed enough money to return to New York. On May 14, 1853, Whaley married his sweetheart, Anna Eloise Delaunay, the daughter of French-born parents. They set sail for California and arrived on Dec, 7 1853.  Once the couple returned to San Diego, Whaley entered into various business partnerships, most of which lasted less than a year.  On December 28, 1854 Anna gave birth to the couple’s first child, Frances Hinton.  He was named after a business associate of Whaley's and Francis would be key in the Whaley House surviving through the years.

In May of 1855, Henry Whaley, Thomas’ brother, and his wife Annie came west from New York.  After arriving they lived with Thomas and his family.  Thomas and Henry went into business together and opened Whaley and Co., a general store. Starting a business with his brother would prove to be a poor business decision. Henry liked his liquor and was often publically drunk. Thomas and Henry did not get along and quarreling was a normal way of life. Finally, Thomas had enough and in November of 1855, Whaley and Co. was dissolved. He noticed when he studied their records that Henry often over charged customers. Thomas told Henry he was ending the business and Henry reacted bitterly and assaulted Thomas in the store. After he was sent out into the street, he shouted insults and obscenities and challenged Thomas to come out and fight. This ended not only their business partnership but their personal one as well.

In September 1855, Whaley purchased land that contained the public gallows and cemetery and he knew that was the case because he watched one of the executions. This was the hanging of the infamous Yankee Jim Robinson in September of 1852. He had been convicted of attempted grand larceny. Upon Yankee Jim's conviction the Los Angeles Star wrote on August 28, 1852: "At the recent term of the County Court at San Diego, James Robinson, otherwise called 'Yankee Jim,' was tried for burglary, and sentenced to be hung. Two accomplices, Gray and Harris, were each sentenced to be imprisoned one year in the State Prison. The charge upon which they were tried was for stealing a boat, but they are strongly suspected of horse stealing and even murder. Yankee Jim made powerful resistance to the arrest, and was finally captured by the aid of the 'lasso', which in the hands of a person expert in its use is irresistible. His execution is fixed for the 18th of September, and he says that before that time he will make a confession that will tonish the natives." Yankee Jim was a tall man and he had been hanged off the back of a wagon.  It is said that he kept his feet in the wagon until they finally pulled them off.  He then swung like a pendulum until he was strangled to death.  It took nearly an hour for him to die. Thomas Whaley would use the wood from that gallows to build an archway in the parlor, so that the spot of execution would always be marked in the house, probably as an interesting conversation piece.  

In May of 1856, Whaley built a single-story granary for 300,000 to 400,000 pounds of grain with bricks manufactured in his brickyard on Conde Street. On August 18, 1856, Anna gave birth to the couple’s second child, Thomas Whaley, III. Construction began on a two-story house and store addition in September of 1856. The Whaley House was built from brick in the Greek Revival style and cost $10,000 to build. Whaley boasted, “My new house, when completed, will be the handsomest, most comfortable, and convenient place in town or within 150 miles of here.” Construction finished on August 22, 1857 and the family moved into the second floor of the house, which was meant to be their living area. The lower level was the store. Across the 32-foot wide front area, there were five pairs of doors which corresponded to five windows upstairs. The Whaleys' new home was known as the finest in Southern California.  It was furnished with mahogany and rosewood furniture, there was wall-to-wall Brussels carpet and damask drapes hung at the windows. Despite being considered small in our era, at the time, it was a mansion. The store downstairs was a general store and Thomas solicited cash customers only. The store did not do well because the location proved to be too far from the center of the small community. Whaley rented a frame building on the plaza and relocated the store there.

Things were going well, but only a few months after moving into the house, little Thomas contracted Scarlet Fever. He was only 18 months old and the disease proved fatal. He died in the home on January 28, 1858. Anna was pregnant at the time with the couple's third child who was born on June 27, 1858. They named the baby girl Anna Amelia. The joy evaporated when another arson-set fire destroyed Whaley’s business on the plaza two months later.  Despondent from the loss of their son Thomas III and the loss of the business the family decided to move to San Francisco. They rented out their home in Old Town. Mail agent Robert E. Doyle and his wife Sarah Doyle moved into the Whaley House in 1860. The house was large enough for more than just their family and three mail carriers joined them: James E. Mason, Samuel A. Aimes and Gabriel Parades. Unfortunately, the Doyle's did not pay rent and they were quickly evicted and in July of 1860, Augustus S. Ensworth, a lawyer and Justice of the Peace, moved into the Whaley House. Because the home had sat vacant for a while, it was infested with rats. Ensworth managed the Whaley’s business interest during this time. 

In San Francisco, Thomas gained employment as a U.S. Commissary Storekeeper under Capt. M.D.L. Simpson. While living in San Francisco, Anna gave birth to three more children: George Hays Ringgold (named for Major Ringgold) was born on November 11, 1860, Violet Eloise was born on October 14, 1862 and Corrine Lillian was born on September 4, 1864. A major earthquake in San Francisco in 1868 sent the family back to San Diego. Whaley opened the Whaley & Crosthwaite general store out of the house. The family's lack of funds made them decide to rent out the front upstairs bedroom for $20 in gold coins to the Tanner Troupe. This was a theater group ran by T.W. Tanner, who within 17 days of setting up the theater died. They had a small stage and benches that held up to 150 people. One night a member of the theater group was drunk and accused his girlfriend of being unfaithful.  She denied it, but he stabbed her to death at the back door anyway.  In January 1869, the Tanner Troupe moved on.

The San Diego County Courthouse utilized the former granary and rented three upstairs rooms for record storage.  After the establishment of New Town San Diego by Alonzo Horton in 1868, the town focus changed to present day downtown San Diego. During a March 1871 raid, courthouse documents were removed from the Whaley House and taken to Horton’s Hall on 6th and F in San Diego.  After the County’s exit, Whaley connected the former granary and courtroom to the residence, changed windows and doors, and altered the front portico. For some reason, Thomas Whaley returned to New York. He claimed he was settling his father’s estate, but more than likely, he was running away. He left Anna and the kids in San Diego and when he returned in 1879, they were in dire straits living off of Francis Whaley for support.

Violet and Anna Amelia Whaley both married on January 5, 1882 in Old San Diego. Anna married her first cousin, John T. Whaley and Violet wed George T. Bertolacci. That marriage was unhappy and Violet and George divorced in 1884. This caused her tremendous humiliation. Violet suffered from severe depression after that and attempted suicide. She climbed to the roof of the brick two-story home she shared with her family and jumped into a nearby well.  Hearing her screams as she fell, her father ran outside and was able to save her. The family never let her out of their sight as the melancholy deepened. It was almost as though Violet were in a trance. After about three weeks, she seemed to be doing better and her mother Anna let Violet out of her sight. Violet went to her father's desk, took out his gun and went to the outhouse. This was on August 18, 1885 and Violet shot herself in the chest. Thomas ran out to the outhouse when he heard the shot and he carried Violet to the parlor and laid her on a couch there, where she died.  

After the tragic death of Violet, Thomas Whaley built a single-story frame home for his family at 933 State Street in downtown San Diego.  Attempting to capitalize on the boom in that area, he maintained a real estate office at 5th and G in the First National Bank Building, with various partners. Thomas became ill in 1888 and retired from the business. He died at the State Street residence on December 14, 1890. The Whaley House remained vacant and fell into desperate disrepair until late 1899, when Francis Whaley returned to the old home and undertook the restoration of the building.  After restoring the Whaley House, Francis lived in the residence and made it a tourist attraction where he posted signs outside promoting its history and entertained visitors with his guitar. Other members of the family moved in and by 1912 siblings Francis, George and Anna and her daughter Lillian all lived in the old house. Anna died in the house on February 24, 1913 and Francis passed away on November 19, 1914 in the home.  Lillian continued to live in the house until 1953 when she moved out to enter a nursing home. The house had once again fallen into disrepair while Lillian had been living there alone.

Before Lillian’s death the old Whaley House was placed under court order for immediate liquidation to provide physical care for her. A progressive Old Town realtor listed the property for sale recommending that it be used as a motel. Activists rallied to save the Whaley House. On September 14, 1953, Lillian Whaley died and two and a half years later the county of San Diego assumed ownership of the Whaley House.  The house was a dilapidated mess by this time and the county undertook an immediate renovation. From 1956 through 2000, The Historic Shrine Foundation, under the guidance of June and Jim Reading, took charge of the Whaley House as a historic site.  The Whaley house was officially named a Historical Site on May 25, 1960 and has been open to the public as a museum since.

The hauntings here at the Whaley House are numerous. Famous ghost hunter Hans Holzer had said that the Whaley House was "possibly the most haunted house in America." The Whaleys themselves told people about their haunting experiences. Thomas was the first to hear the disembodied footsteps coming from the second floor of the house. It was not long before Anna heard them too and complained about an oppressive feeling that would envelope her. She felt the home was cursed. And based on their experiences, some might agree. The Whaleys' eighteen month old son, Thomas III, had died of Scarlet Fever in 1858 in the house. His disembodied cries are heard throughout the home.

No one knows if the Whaleys heard those cries, but they definitely felt the presence of Yankee Jim. Yankee Jim's heavy booted footfalls have been heard by staff and guests. The Whaleys' youngest daughter Lillian lived in the house until 1953. She was convinced that Yankee Jim haunted the house. A visitor to the house once commented that "the ghost had driven her family from their visit there more than 60 years [earlier], her mother was unnerved by the phantom walking noise and the strange way the windows unlatched and flew up." There is an apparition that seems to be from the time when the home served as a courthouse. It was in October of 1960 that a woman from British Columbia, Canada named Mrs. Kirbey observed the following: "I saw a small figure of a woman who had a swarthy complexion. She was wearing a long full skirt, reaching to the floor. The skirt appeared to be of calico or gingham, small print. She had a kind of cap on her head, dark hair and eyes and she was wearing gold hoops in her pierced ears. She seemed to stay in this room, lives here, I gather, and I got the impression we are sort of invading her privacy." This female specter seems to have been caught in a picture as well appearing as a shadowy female figure.

Mr. and Mrs. Whaley haunt the house as well according to multiple witnesses. Staff members claim that occasionally the doors will all lock simultaneously at the end of a tour day as if the Whaley family is saying that they are done having guests. Their spirits seem to be residual in nature carrying on the same duties in the afterlife as those that they did when they were living. Thomas Whaley has been photographed smoking his cigar.  He has been seen walking throughout the house. Former museum curator June Reading said that a little girl of about 5 or 6 waved to a man she said was standing in the parlor. No one else could see him. He has been seen by adults as well who describe him as wearing a frock coat and pantaloons with his face turned away. He suddenly fades away after being seen.

Anna Whaley has been seen rocking a baby in a chair and tucking a child into bed as well as folding clothes. In 1964, Anna's floating, drifting spirit appeared to television personality Regis Philbin.  “All of a sudden I noticed something on the wall,” Philbin reported. “There was something filmy white, it looked like an apparition of some kind. I got so excited I couldn’t restrain myself! I flipped on the flash light and nothing was there but a portrait of Anna Whaley, the long-dead mistress of the house.” The reason Philbin was at the house was because he had just finished an interview with Hans Holzer who had told him about the Whaley House. Philbin decided to visit the house with a friend. He detailed the experience over forty years later with psychic Kim Russo on her TV show The Haunting Of in 2013.

The upstairs rooms have cold spots in the heat of summer and even during the winter when the heat is on in the house. Violet, who committed suicide at the house, is seen upstairs sitting or walking and her spirit seems full of sorrow. Animals aren’t left out.  A parapsychologist reported that he saw a spotted dog that looked like a fox terrier run down the hall with his ears flapping and go into the dining room.  The dog was an apparition.  The Whaley’s owned a terrier named Dolly. Every sense is touched by the supernatural here. There are the scents of cigar smoke, perfume and baked goods. There is the sound of children laughing.  There is the feel of an icy touch. And many apparitions are seen.

(Skunk story)

We started our tour in the re-creation of the courthouse. The judge's chair and the witness stand are original to the courthouse. This room has a heavy feeling and it is a favorite haunt of Francis Whaley, who was the first tour guide at the house after he turned it into a museum. Sam told us that many tour guides have felt his presence and also seen him. He likes to sit in the jury box and we later conducted an Estes Spirit Box Session with Diane sitting where Francis usually is seen, always wearing all black. The REM Pod was going off a lot. Sam says that several psychics who have visited the house claim that there is some kind of portal in this part of the house and that is why this seems to be the most active room. What was interesting for us is that Kelly immediately wanted to sit in the jury box when we walked in. The four walls of the courthouse were the first part of the house built in 1856, the rest of the house was built in 1857.

As we toured the house, we were struck by how much of the furnishings are original to the family. And how small the Whaley family was in stature. Doorways and windows have changed and some of the apparitions seen, appear to be going through walls that had once been doors, especially a closet area in the former general store area where Thomas Whaley's desk is located. It was in this room that we heard about the black sheep of the family, George Whaley. He died in the house like most of the family. He too was named for a business partner. We then went on to the Dining Room, which was relatively small. Thomas was 5'3" and Anna was 4'9". The walls are lined with family pictures. Our tour guide Sam seemed surprised to see one of the chairs pulled out awkwardly at the table and he said, "That's not cool," but didn't elaborate as to whether this was something paranormal or something else. We heard about the special relationship between Grandma Anna and her great-grandaughter Marion. Unfortunately, Marion ate ant paste right before her third birthday and passed away. We also were told that Anna was a secret smoker. Corinne Lillian Whaley was the last surviving family member to live in the house and she was there until 1953. She never married or had children and it is believed that her spirit is still in the house. The family had two Chinese servants and a Native American girl named Modesta who worked in the kitchen. Not all at the same time. Modesta was unhappy here and ran away many times, only to be returned by her family. She leaves an angry feeling in the kitchen dining room area. The kitchen had an opening like a window to the dining room.

We went upstairs where there is the recreation of the theater that had been in the house for three months. This has a very small stage and it is tilted up higher in the back than in the front. There are several benches for sitting. The back corner is said to have a dark presence that hangs out there. People fell a heaviness in here and get scratched. Sam told us that on four separate nights, with different groups, it was reported that the first word to come out of the Spirit Box was "Leave." We went to the Master Bedroom and Sam wouldn't join us inside the room because he had a harrowing enough experience that he doesn't want to tempt fate. Our group then went to Violet's room and heard her tragic story. They keep lots of artifacts that they have dug up on the property in 2008 and 2012. The floor boards in this room are original and were the same floors that Violet stood on when she decided to end her life. We next went downstairs to the only bedroom on the first floor, which has many belongings from the family like Thomas Whaley's mustache cup. Next was the parlor and we heard about the gallows wood and the archway. A clock on the mantle sometimes goes off even though it isn't supposed to work anymore. Sam also shared this and then an interesting thing happened with another person on the tour. (Parlor Choking)

We decided to investigate the theater first and Diane turned on the Ghost Tube app on the phone. And interestingly, we got Don't Leave, rather than leave. (Ghost Tube Whaley) Sam came up and talked to Kelly about the corner in the theater. (Sam Theater) Then we started our first Estes Session. (Estes Session 1) Did we catch an EVP at the end there? (EVP Theater) Here is the rest of the Estes Session in the theater. (Estes Session Theater) So I said Yankee there at the end. Could that be Yankee Jim? We then went to the Master Bedroom and put the Spirit Box on. I thought this was interesting because it stretches over 5 seconds and sounds like a similar voice through the whole thing. Can you understand it? (Spirit Box Master) The end sounds like Did Ma and then can't understand the rest. Maybe cry? Did Ma cry? (Did Ma Cry) There was this on Spirit Box (Spirit Box Tom) Kelly felt very uncomfortable in this room, which goes back to Sam not liking the room.

Next we hit the dining room where Marion is said to play and pull on people's clothing. We did manage to get someone to light up one of our cat balls for us and it moved slightly. This is the first quick EVP Session we conducted and it sounded like we may have gotten a couple of answers. We'll play the full audio first without amplification of the answers. (Whaley House EVP Session1) We think after we asked if someone was with us that we got a breathy yes and then when we asked the name, it sounds like a name was given. (Whaley House Yes) Diane thought the name sounded like Curtis? And then there was this (Whaley House Gulp) Was that a gulp? 

Next, we went into the former store area and we stood around Mr. Whaley's desk. (Whaley House Desk EVP) Sounded almost like a kid saying Dad or yeah to me. And we finished the evening in the courtroom. The REM Pod was going off a lot in here. Diane sat in the jury box and did an Estes Session. (Estes Courtroom) Interesting that the EMF went off after I said "Anna." At the end, everybody shared their experiences. (Wrap-up)

The Whaley House makes it hard to be a skeptic with the hundreds of photographs that seem to have captured ghostly mists and figures and the hundreds of eyewitness accounts of interaction with things unseen. And we definitely feel like we interacted with possible spirits. Have most of the members of the Whaley family that once lived here decided to stay here in the afterlife? Are the spirits of the executed still haunting the land and the home built here? Is the Whaley House haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 397 - Ghost Hunting New Orleans and Beyond

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Moment in Oddity - Corpse Flower at Abandoned Gas Station (Suggested by: Scott Booker and Paula Mitchell)

The Titan Arum is most famously known as the Corpse Flower and first became known to the world in 1878. It is thought to be the world's largest flower and it most definitely is the stinkiest. This is a tropical plant that is native to the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. The Corpse Flower starts as a bulb that likes lots of water and to stay above 60 degrees. The nickname comes from its foul stench it exudes that is similar to rotting meat. The plant gives this off to attract nighttime pollinators like sweat bees, flesh flies and carrion beetles. The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in California has several plants that it brings out on occasion so everyone can enjoy seeing a very rare sight. There is no predicting when these flowers will bloom. One of these Corpse Flowers recently caught some attention in May of 2021. A gardener named Solomon Leyva lives in Alameda, California and he raises succulents and rare plants, one of which was a Corpse Flower. He noticed one day that a stalk had shot up and he knew that soon the flower would bloom. He decided he wanted to share this delight with people, particularly because of the Covid Pandemic. He loaded the huge plant onto a wagon and wheeled it through town. He found a patch of asphalt in front of an abandoned gas station and off-loaded the plant for people to come see. It was quite a treat since this only happens every few years and the bloom only lasts for a couple of days. It really is quite beautiful and extraordinary, but it certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Maggie Kuhn, Gray Panther founder, Born

In the month of August, on the the 3rd, in 1905, elder rights activist Maggie Kuhn was born. Kuhn was born in Buffalo, New York and she never fit into the social norms of her time when it came to women. She began her social activism in the 1930s and she started teaching some controversial stuff at the YWCA. This included unionizing and women's issues and then she really pushed the limits by starting a human sexuality course that discussed mechanics, birth control, pregnancy and she also promoted that being single was okay in a society that pushed marriage. But her real claim to fame came when she hit the age of 65 and was forced to retire. In 1970, there was a mandatory retirement law. Kuhn was so angry she formed the Gray Panthers. Their motto was "Age and Youth In Action." This was because they welcomed teenagers into their movement to help with the activism. The group advocated for nursing home reform and fought ageism. She died in 1995 at the age of 89.

Ghost Hunting New Orleans and Beyond

One thing History Goes Bump knows is ghost tours. We've been joined by several tour guides on the podcast and on this episode, we are joined by our favorite, Cedric. Cedric has served our country in the military, worked as a Firefighter/Medic and founded a company creating leathercraft for the movies. He and his wife Eevie are also tour guides in New Orleans and he is an amazing storyteller. On top of that, Cedric and Eevie have their own paranormal investigation group called N.O.P.E. Cedric joins us to share his techniques and experiences while ghost hunting and to talk about some of the haunts in New Orleans, particularly in the French Quarter. Join us as we discuss ghost hunting New Orleans and beyond!

We may not know until we ourselves are spirits how all of this works, but the questions and the search for answers is interesting and fun. Are any of these places that Cedric talked about haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 200 - The History of Ghost Hunting

Moment in Oddity - The Big Chicken
Suggested by Brianne Barre

Marietta, Georgia has one of the most unique roadside attractions in the United States and it happens to be attached to a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. The large monstrosity is known affectionately as “The Big Chicken.” The KFC is located at Cobb Parkway and Roswell Road. The chicken was not built for the KFC though. Originally, the Big Chicken was built for Stanley R. "Tubby" Davis and his Johnny Reb's Chick-Chuck-N-Shake restaurant. The Big Chicken rises to seven stories, is steel-sided and has a moving beak and eyes. A few years after it was completed, Davis sold Johnny Reb’s to his brother who turned it into a franchise of KFC. The landmark was almost razed in 1993, but the public convinced KFC to restore the structure to its former glory. A Big Chicken roadside landmark, certainly is odd!

This Month in History- Francis Gary Powers Shot Down Over the USSR

In the month of May, on the 1st, in 1960 an American U-2 spy plane flying at 60,000 feet was shot down over central Russia on the eve of an American/Soviet Summit. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was supposed to meet with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, but the summit was quickly cancelled after the event and heightened Cold War tensions. The pilot of the plane was a CIA agent named Francis Gary Powers. He survived the crash and was captured by Soviet agents. Powers was tried and convicted for spying and was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Russian court. America captured a Soviet spy and arranged an exchange for Powers after he had been in prison for two years. The American public was hostile to him upon his return because they thought he should not have allowed himself to be captured. He later died in a helicopter crash in 1977.

The History of Ghost Hunting (Suggested by: Sylvia Mason and Aimee Sandoval)

Supernatural activity has been a part of the human experience since the dawn of mankind. Our fascination and for some, reverence of this activity has lasted into our modern era. The desire to understand where this phenomenon originates and to somehow prove its existence via scientific means has come to be known as paranormal investigation or simply, ghost hunting. While we encourage people to not tempt the spirits, we are just as fascinated with the paranormal and it would seem only natural for us to explore the history of ghost hunting in our more recent history. On this episode, we will delve into the history of ghost hunting, explore the different techniques and equipment employed and discuss tactics that can be used to protect yourself from spiritual attachment and attack.

As we discussed in our Spiritualism episode (no. 191), modern day ghost hunting originated within the Spiritualism Movement of the 1800s. One of the first famous reports of ghost hunting dates back to 1834. Major Edward Moor was a British soldier who had written the book, "The Hindu Pantheon." He moved into the Bealings House in Great Bealings in Suffolk, England when he retired. This house was reputedly haunted with various phenomenon that started with the ringing of the servants' bells all on their own. For a two month period, the bells in the dining room and kitchen would ring erratically. Moor watched them and tried to recreate the experience by various means. He studied the system for flaws as well. He never found a rational explanation. After investigating the activity, he reported his experiences and findings in his 1841 book, "Bealings Bells."

A pamphlet titled “Authentic Account of a Visit to the Haunted House at Willington near Newcastle-Upon-Tyne” features a reported haunting at a house in the village of Willington in the mid-1800s. The story featured the experiences of Dr. Edward Drury as he conducted an overnight ghost hunt at the home. The haunting became famous and the story was reprinted by William Howitt in the May 22, 1847 issue of Howitt’s Journal of Literature and Popular Progress. Drury was a novice ghost hunter. He surveyed the entire house before he spent the evening inside it in July of 1840. Drury wrote, "I sat down on the third story landing, fully expecting to account for any noises that I might hear, in a philosophical manner. This was about eleven o’clock p.m. About ten minutes to twelve we both heard a noise, as if a number of people were pattering with their feet upon the bare floor, and yet so singular was the noise that I could not minutely determine from whence it proceeded. A few minutes afterwards we heard a noise as if some one was knocking with his knuckles among our feet; this was followed by a hollow cough from the very room from whence the apparition proceeded. The only noise after this was as if a person was rustling against the wall in coming upstairs...In taking my eyes from the watch, they became riveted upon a closet door, which I distinctly saw open, and saw also the figure of a female attired in grayish garments, with the head inclining downwards, and one hand pressed upon the chest, as if in pain...the right hand—extended towards the floor, with the index finger pointing downwards. It advanced with an apparently cautious step across the floor towards me; immediately as it approached my friend, who was slumbering, its right hand was extended towards him; I then rushed at it, giving, as Mr. Procter states, a most awful yell; but instead of grasping it, I fell upon my friend, and I recollected nothing distinctly for nearly three hours afterwards. I have since learnt that I was carried down stairs in an agony of fear and terror." The Spiritual Magazine later called Drury a “ghost detector” in 1860.

Sir William Crookes was a British physicist and chemist who invented the Crookes Tube. The Tube was used to discover the properties of the cathode rays, which led to those rays being called electrons. Crookes was fascinated with Spiritualism and psychical phenomenon. In 1870, he began experiments to help facillitate his study of paranormal phenomena. His fellow scientists thought he was crazy, but Crookes believed that if something really was going on, it was the duty of science to study it and perhaps prove that it was real. He spent much of his life trying to find what he called "an outside intelligence." He began his experiments with no preconceptions, but when he died, he firmly believed in the paranormal. He set the conditions for testing mediums. They had to come to his house and he chose the appartus he used for testing. He studied several well known mediums like Daniel Dunglas Home, Florence Cook and Kate Fox, of the Fox Sisters. One of the things that Daniel Home was known for was levitation. It was said that he once floated out of a window and then back in another window on the third floor of a home. Crookes witnessed rappings, levitation, luminous objects and apparitions. He then published a report of his findings in 1874. The science community outright rejected his report.

Another key point in ghost hunting history is the formation of The Ghost Club in 1862 in London, England. It began as a social discussion group at Cambridge University in 1855. Fellows at Trinity College decided to discuss paranormal phenomenon, which was reaching popularity through Spiritualism. The Club was formally launched in London in 1862. It seemed to dissolve in the 1870s, but relaunched in 1882 when the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) began. A.A. Watts helped to revive the club with a medium named the Reverend Stainton Moses. The Ghost Club differed from the SPR because members believed in the paranormal, whereas the SPR was more devoted to conducting scientific research. Attendance at meetings was obligatory and membership remained small for the next 54 years with only 82 members. The names of members alive and dead were recited every November 2nd, the Feast of All Souls. There were those who claimed that deceased members made their presence known during the recitations.

The organization served as a place of refuge for some controversial figures. Attendance fell starting in the 1930s and Harry Price, Bligh Bond and a handful of surviving members agreed to wind up the Club in 1936 after 485 meetings. Within eighteen months, the Ghost Club was opened again. The club's membership has gone up and down and there was political turmoil in the 1990s. After this, the Club was opened to the public. Before, it had been invite only. Studies into other paranormal phenomenon like cryptozoology also began at this time. Today, the Ghost Club is the oldest organization in the world associated with psychical research. The Club moved from just discussing the supernatural to studying it via ghost hunting. Overnight investigations have been conducted at hundreds of sites for decades. They merely study and do not perform clearings or exorcisms. They are very serious about their work and have an elite list of former members including Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, Harry Price, Donald Campbell, Peter Cushing, Peter Underwood, Maurice Grosse, Sir Shane Leslie, Eric Maple and the aforementioned William Cookes.

The Society for Psychical Research, SPR, was founded in London in 1882 by Henry Sidgwick, Frederic Myers, and Edmund Gurney. The SPR went forward with the purpose of "investigating mesmeric, psychical and ‘spiritualist’ phenomena in a purely scientific spirit." Leaders of the group created a framework with which to go forward with study and they started a scholarly journal for reporting their research. Most members were prominent figures in science and philosophy. Coming from this scientific basis, the group became adept at spotting fake mediums and were not misled by tricks. Investigations were conducted into all varieties of psychical phenomenon from hypnotism to mental telepathy to apparitions to haunting activities. The first volume written on this research, "Phantasms of the Living,"  was published in 1886. Seven hundred personal experiences were cataloged in the book and Edmund Gurney concluded that most were a form of telepathically-generated hallucination caused by life-threatening situations.

The Census of Hallucinations was the next project tackled by the SPR and today is still the largest survey of its kind ever to have been attempted. This research delved into whether the crisis apparitions discussed in the Phantasms book could just be a matter of coincidence. Their equations ruled out coincidence. Nearly every physical medium that the group studied was found to be a fraud. One of those declared a fake was Helena Blavasky who founded Theosophy and inspired Aleister Crowley. Mental mediums fared better and they regarded as trustworthy, Leonora Piper of Boston, Gladys Leonard and Winifred Coombe Tennant (‘Mrs Willett’) of London. Three years after the SPR was founded, they would have an American counterpart.

The American Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1885 by Harvard psychologist William James. Early members of the club included Sigmund Freud and Carl G. Jung. The American society worked closely with their European counterpart and both groups worked with other scientists that were not members, but they coordinated methodology together. These scientists included French Professor Charles Richet and American Botanist J.B. Rhine, who founded a parapsychology lab at Duke University in the 1930s. These two men developed test criteria in controlled environments for psychic testing. One of the most fascinating conclusions to some out of much of this research came through a series of automatic writings done by mediums that featured allusions to Greek and Latin literature. The key here was that the mediums had not studied these languages, but the researchers had and they understood what the references were about. This left the scientists with the impression that there was an organized intelligence that they could not see. Even further, they began to become aware that founding members Gurney and Sidgwick, who had passed by this time, were probably responsible for the writings and were trying to provide proof of survival after death. These correspondences continued for thirty years and are still debated to this day.

Harry Price was born in London on January 17, 1881. He would become the real father of ghost hunting. He was a writer who became a psychical researcher and he for this reason, he documented much of his work in books and articles. One of his first interests was magic and he himself became an amateur conjurer, joining the Magic Circle in 1922. This would help him to identify fraud in mediums. Price joined SPR in 1920. He spent most of his life investigating hauntings and psychical phenomenon. Many of his cases are still famous to this day, including Gef the Talking Mongoose and the haunting at Borley Rectory. He also investigated other mundane things like fire-walking. He was controversial not only for his work, but he also championed legislation to regulate psychic practitioners. One of his greatest contributions to ghost hunting was his development of a ghost hunting kit.

One of the first cases he took on was in regards to the spirit photography of William Hope. The way that Price unmasked Hope as a fraud was very simple. He secretly marked Hope's photographic plates with the logo of the Imperial Dry Plate Co. Ltd. Hope's photos would then be marked with this logo. The photographer was unaware that the plates had been altered and he went forward with taking photographs as part of his SPR testing. Hope later handed over his photos to the SPR and they contained spirits in the pictures. Price knew that Hope was a fraud after this because none of those pictures had the logo on them. It was clear that Hope had exchanged the materials provided by Price with his own prepared materials containing the fake spirit images. Price wrote in his SPR report "William Hope has been found guilty of deliberately substituting his own plates for those of a sitter ... It implies that the medium brings to the sitting a duplicate slide and faked plates for fraudulent purposes."

It would be the haunting at Borley Rectory in Essex that would capture his lifelong obsession. He first visited the location in 1929 after hearing about the phantom of a nun appearing in the garden at the house. Other reports included disembodied footsteps, various apparitions, including the man who built the rectory, and ghost lights. He asked a local for directions and the man said, "Oh, you mean the most haunted house in England?" Price would name his first volume about Borley Rectory just that, "The Most Haunted House in England," which was published in 1940. He lived at the rectory for a year in the late 1930s. Many believe that the wife of Rev. Lionel Foyster, who lived at the rectory from 1930 to 1935, had faked the paranormal activity that Price was following up on and members of SPR claimed that Price faked phenomenon while he lived at the house. Their later studies came to the conclusion that any weirdness was caused by natural things like rats. But before one writes off the haunting at Borley Rectory, consider that Price came to know the nun spirit as Marie and she told him that one day the rectory would burn and that proof of the fact that she was murdered would be found. The house did indeed suffer a fire that gutted it and when Price excavated the basement, female bones were found.

One of the next famous ghost hunters would be Austrian born Hans Holzer. He emigrated to America in 1938 with his family when he was eighteen. His paranormal investigations took him all over the world and he eventually wrote more than 140 books on the paranormal. Some claim that Holzer came up with the term "ghost hunter," but H. Addington Bruce wrote a book in 1908 titled “Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters.” One of Holzer's most famous cases was the Amityville Horror house. For those who don't know, this home was the scene of a horrific murder. Nearly the entire Defeo family was slaughtered and the eldest son, Ronald Jr., was charged with the crime. He claimed that the Devil made him to do it. It was in January of 1977 that Holzer first entered the house in Amityville, New York. He took with him a psychic he trusted, medium Ethel Meyers. Meyers told him the house was built on a Native American burial ground and that spirits of the dead had taken over Ronald's body. There never was any proof of the burial ground and the historical society denied the claim. Holzer believed that something was going on at the house and he was a true believer. The SPR thought Holzer's claims were dubious and they disliked his use of psychics. But he is still considered an authority even today, nearly ten years after his death.

Probably the most famous couple in ghost hunting is Lorraine and Ed Warren. The paranormal investigators have received a resurgence into popular culture with the success of recent horror films like Annabelle, the Conjuring and the Conjuring 2 that feature cases with which the Warrens are connected. The Warrens are also a very controversial couple. Ed is no longer alive, but Lorraine is and she lives in New England where she had run the couple's Occult Museum featuring haunted items like the Annabelle doll. Ed was a demonologist and Lorraine is a trance medium. For fifty years they investigated all manners of hauntings and generally held to the belief that paranormal activity was demonic in nature. The couple began investigating early in their relationship. Ed had grown up in a haunted house and he was fascinated by what he experienced as a child. Any time he heard that a house was haunted, he dragged Lorraine along to check it out.

Their most famous cases were the Amityville House, Annabelle the haunted doll (which we covered in our haunted dolls episode), the Perron Home, which is what the Conjuring is about and the Enfield Poltergeist, which is featured in the Conjuring 2. The couple began the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952. They claimed to have done 10,000 investigations. What makes them controversial are their claims of hauntings in places that seem to have been invented, possibly for money. It is thought by most today that the Amityville Horror was an entirely made-up event. Those who worked directly with the Enfield Poltergeist claim the Warrens spent one day at the house and had no real involvement, while the Conjuring 2 movie makes it seem as though this was entirely their case. For us, the jury is still out. They seem to have found some real evidence in their time and they seem to have helped some people with problematic spirits. They definitely were pioneers in the field of ghost hunting.

Our modern era has witnessed a saturation of paranormal investigative shows. Before these was "In Search Of" hosted by Leonard Nemoy in the 1970s. "Unsolved Mysteries" followed in the late 1980s and then there was "Sightings" in the 1990s. But it has been the paranormal reality TV that began in the early 2000s that really made popular the idea that the average person on the street could be an amateur ghost hunter. Since then, hundreds have formed or joined their own teams, made the t-shirts and conducted their own investigations.

TV Shows:

Ghost Hunters (TAPS)
Ghost Adventures
Ghost Lab
Haunted Collector
Ghost Mine
Fact or Faked
Destination Truth
Paranormal Witness
Celebrity Ghost Stories
Ghost Asylum
My Ghost Story
Ghost Brothers
Kindred Spirits
Dead Files
Most Haunted
Haunted Highway
Paranormal State
Paranormal Lockdown

Equipment:

EMF Meters (K2) - These meters measure the rate of change of the surrounding magnetic field, so they are sensitive to changing magnetic fields. Those fields have frequency above 0 hertz. EMF Meters are designed to measure many frequency ranges, which you will hear as ELF, visible light and X-Rays. Most meters read frequencies of about 30 - 10,000 hertz. It is believed that ghosts use electrical activity for energy and so they will cause spikes in EMF detectors. Most EMFs that you have seen have color zones ranging from green to orange to red,with a red spike indicating a spirit nearby.

EDI Meters - An all in one device (EDDY). This has an EMF Meter, a temperature gauge, humidity gauge and geophone vibration detection. A geophone converts ground movement into voltage. These vibrations are caused by seismic waves.

EVP Recorder - This is a digital recorder like a Zoom H1 or various version thereof like a Sony or Olympus. Somehow, a spirits vocal cues are picked up by the digital recording and can only be heard during playback. There is a version of recorder that provides Real-Time recording meaning that it rewinds and plays back as you go, so that you can listen while investigating. The EVPs have three rankings: Class A voices are very clear and easily understandable, Class B voices are fairly loud and clear and are sometimes audible without headphones and Class C voices are very soft and often indecipherable.

Ghost Boxes or Shack Hacks - At a basic level, a ghost box is a broken AM/FM radio. It is modified so that it continuously scans the radio bands and when a spirit uses this to communicate, words can be heard, sometimes even a full sentence. The theory is that the white noise is manipulated by spirits to form words.

FLIR Thermal Cams - FLIR is the name of the company that makes these thermal cams. They call themselves the world's sixth sense. Their cameras detect infrared light and thermal patterns. Our vision detects a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Thermal energy has a much longer wavelength than visible light, which makes it impossible for us to see it. Thermal imaging allows us to see thermal energy emitted from an object. In the infrared world, everything with a temperature above absolute zero emits heat. It works with light or dark.

MEL Meter - Gary Galka created the MEL Meter after his daughter passed away as something to communicate with his daughter's spirit. It is named for her. These meters are handheld and show EMF and ambient temperature.

REM-Pod - The REM circuit was originally developed to be part of the Mel Meter Series. The REM-Pod uses a mini telescopic antenna to radiate its own independent Magnetic Field around the device. When something electrical gets close to the device, it gives off an alarm and LED lights flash on. It also can detect vibrations.

Full Spectrum Video Camera - Our eyes can't see ultraviolet or infrared light. A Full Spectrum camera detects all of these levels of light. The theory is that ghosts show themselves in UV or IR light ranges. These cameras are the best to use because they give you the most light possible.

Laser Grid - Green is the most visible color of laser, so generally that is the color grid chosen. This is a device that you face towards a wall or open area like a small room and hallway. When on, it throws a grid pattern up like small squares or dots of light. What hunters watch for are shadows to pass through the grid.

Flashlights - The best flashlight to use are the kind that twist. You twist until it just goes off and then set it alone. Ask the spirit to respond by clicking the light on and off.

Ovilus - An Ovilus reminds me of a Speak & Spell. This device converts environmental readings into words. It was created by Bill Chappell and he devised a synthesizer chip that modulates energy changes into audible speech. The device has seven modes of operation. Dictionary mode contains 512 stored words. Phonetic mode sounds out words by syllable. A combination mode puts those both together. There is a “yes” or “no” mode. An electromagnetic field (EMF) mode that verbally outputs EMF levels in milligauss. A level mode that graphically displays EMF levels. Finally there is a dowsing mode that simulates virtual dowsing rods.

Dowsing Rods - They are also known as divining rods and were used in the past to detect water beneath the ground. They also can detect gemstones and metals. Basically, they are moved by energy. Ghost hunters use them to get responses from spirits by asking yes and no question and then if the rods cross, it indicates an answer to a question.

Protection against attachment and hauntings:

-First and foremost, we are Christians, so when people ask us what to do for protection, our go-to is prayer and for us, specifically calling on the name of Jesus.
-Positivity. Negative entities will be attracted to negative thoughts. If feeling depressed, tired or sick, you should stay away from anything that is reputed to be haunted.
-Be of sober mind. It's not just a Biblical recommendation. When high or drunk, the human mind is susceptible to attack because your defenses are down.
-Speak authoritatively directly to the spirit. Take control of the situation and tell them to leave, leave you alone or quit doing whatever they doing.
-Salt is a very powerful weapon and it comes up in the Bible more than people might think. It was a symbol of friendship and integrity when shared between people. The Disciples were called to be the Salt of the Earth. That means not bland, but most importantly, not contaminated. Also, we believe that demons are without a body and out in the desert if you will. They seek bodies so that they can have water again. The human body is mostly water. What does excessive salt do to water. It dehydrates. A thirsty spirit wants nothing to do with salt. Salt on window sills and doorways is thought to keep evil from passing through. We have also heard that you should do this at the four corners of your home.
-White Sage for Smudging. Dried sage can be found at metaphysical stores and can be used as a repellent to spirits. The most common practice is to light the sage so that it smokes. Crack a window in each room of the house and start at the furthest point from the window, waving the smoke from the sage in all the corners and sweeping it across the room towards the window. The thought is that if a spirit is in a room, the sage will cause it to flee out the window.
-Blessed water and oil. Some believe you need a priest to bless the water or oil, but we believe you can bless the water yourself in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Putting these in the four corners of the house is said to be effective as well as the thresholds of a home and on a person, the forehead is usually where the mark is made in the sign of the cross.
-Burning lavender incense
-Covering mirrors at death
-Exorcism in extreme cases.
-Most important, don't tempt the spirits.

After decades of scientific research and probably what amounts to millions of paranormal investigations, we really have no substantive proof that there are ghosts or what ghosts may be and perhaps that is what keeps us all so passionate about the subject. Perhaps it would actually be a sad day if we ever found all the answers.And that is why we always end our episodes with the question about whether a place is truly and leave it to the listener to decide. Do ghosts exist? That is for you to decide!