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Haunted Collector – Ghost of Geneva and Fort Fear – S03E07

Geneva, New York

For the first part of the episode, John heads to Geneva, New York to help a woman who’s having some problems in her own home. She’s experienced being pushed, the shower curtain has been whisked open, her sheets have been torn, she’s been scratched and she’s seen an apparition. Margaret, the home owner, also notes that she had a relative convicted of murder. Oh, he was indeed a bad guy; responsible for raping and killing a woman. Sounds like a hell of time in her house!

They start off an investigation with Margaret participating. She claims she’s heard the names Beth and Tom. When calling out those names, they get a response for Tom and then John nearly jumps off the couch as he’s being touched by something unknown. There was a lot of bleeping going on there.

Brian and Chris investigate the bathroom and quickly dismiss the claims of the shower curtain. Much to their surprise, as they leave the bathroom they hear the sound of the shower curtain moving. Did it really move? Is it truly level?

For the second night of the investigation Jason and Jesslyn visit the site where William Fee would have been hung for the murder and rape. When asking about the beams and if he was hung from them they get multiple responses. It seems William is ready to confess to his crimes. However, he doesn’t give any responses when asked if he’s causing the issues at Margaret’s house. Seems there is another spirit.

Brian and John investigate the bathroom and capture what appears to be a figure in the shower curtain. The first question to ask, isn’t that a reflection of John or Brian? They just proved that John’s heat and reflection were projecting onto the shears, but that same principle wouldn’t apply to the shower curtain? I must say, I’m a bit confused by that. I think they’re looking at themselves.

John does some investigation and finds out there was a boy abandoned during the war who took on the name Thomas. He was taken in by the soldiers, but would die of smallpox within a year. Tom is the name that Margaret says she heard and it’s the name John was saying when he was touched. He draws the conclusion that Thomas is the boy they saw in the shower curtain and is the spirit in the house. John makes a small marker to commemorate his passing.

That all sounds well and good, but let’s back up a minute. Margaret says she was pushed, pinched, scratched and that the bed sheets were torn. Thomas is responsible for this and there is nothing to worry about? It we take Margaret’s claims as true then this is one vengeful kid hell bent on destruction. To me there is a massive disconnect here. What John is saying and what Margaret is supposedly experiencing don’t match up. Are we just going to ignore all the violence?  Are you really saying a three year old would be capable of all those things? If not, then maybe you ended thing a little soon and more investigation needs to be done.

Fort Wayne – Detroit, Michigan

For the second part of the episode, John heads to Detroit, Michigan to investigate Fort Wayne where there are reports of people being pinched, hair being pulled, the sounds of footsteps and the sight of a figure who then rushed the two tour guides. His presence left a cold blast of air behind.

During the first part of the investigation, Brian believes he sees a dark figure darting across the grounds outside. He and Chris give chase, but they aren’t able to find anything. They also hear the sound of pencils falling to the floor, but Brian isn’t convinced it had anything to do with the paranormal. This may also explain some of the noises other people here.

On the second night of the investigation, Chris, Brian and Jason search the grounds for this shadow figure. They come across a building with a bulb flickering in the basement. Like moths to a flame they investigate. It leads them to a box where they uncover roofing spikes that would have been attached to your boots. They believe these correspond to the death of a roofer during the riots of 1967, where a man was mistaken for a sniper and was gunned down. He was in fact trying to fight the fire that had broken out. John believes this is the connection and feels the spikes should be placed on display.

It seems awfully convenient that the light was flickering and that after all these years a pair of old roofing spikes would be in a cardboard box just waiting to be discovered. They didn’t have to do any digging or even any real searching. They just turn around and poof there a box full of relevant antiques. I wish I had that kind of luck.

Both of these episodes come across a little suspect to me. I don’t think John has his facts straight for the first part and the second has a tinge of planted evidence to it. But maybe that’s just me.

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Haunted Collector – Spirits of Gettysburg and Headless Horseman – S03E06

Spirits of Gettysburg

Gettysburg, perhaps on of the most famous names and places in the US. John heads out to the Herr House in Pennsylvania to investigate reports of knives embedding themselves into the floor, doors slamming, apparitions and even disembodied body parts. It all sounds a bit gruesome, but the house was seized during the war and turned into a Confederate hospital. Amputations would have been common so death and the removing of injured limbs would have certainly taken place.

Chris spends the night in the house and hears someone trying to open the door to his room. This leads him to investigate and he feels he hears the trap door opening. This is a trap door reportedly used by Davey Lewis and his partner Vincent Connelly to smuggle and hide counterfeit money.

As they continue the investigation they capture what looks to be a very solid and very tangible shadow figure walking towards that same trap door. Chris and John search the small little room and find an usual key. It turns out to be the key to the pick proof lock. It would have been expensive and would have been used to keep people out of something like a small strongbox.

John believes this key is linked to Davey Lewis who was hiding money from his partner in crime Vincent Connelly. Is John trying to find the money or is Vincent? It makes for a good story, but the team doesn’t capture any of the evidence surrounding the place. There are no footsteps, there are certainly no knives flying around the place, there are no severed limbs, scream or footsteps. There is the doorknob shaking which is interesting, but no conclusive on it’s own. And there is the figure walking across the room. Now, that could have been the shadow of someone behind the camera or a play of light coming in from outside. But if not, that definitely looks like a figure crossing the room. Tying it to Davey Lewis might be a stretch, but it’s worthy of more investigation.

Headless Horseman

This has got to be the most absurd and preposterous story I’ve heard in a long time! Are you really going to believe in Headless Horseman outside of a Disney story? Now, there is truth to this legend in that Julian Garesh was indeed decapitated by a cannonball while his friend, William Rosecrans rode along with him. A complete accident that may have happened more times than we would think.

The claims of the paranormal include blood on the stairs, apparitions, footsteps and of course the headless horseman. Nothing even remotely close to this makes an appearance during the investigation. To be honest, this all sounds like wishful thinking by a Bed and Breakfast owner who wants to generate some business for himself.

About the only thing they do come up with is the name "Rosie" when Jason and Aimee get to the end of the path and enter the family cemetery. While at the Bowyer mausoleum they speak to John and he hears that name in the static. Is this referring to Rosecrans who was there when the Garesh was killed? It’s quite a stretch but to keep things moving the get reading off a military patch that would have been worn by officers.

John links the two and takes the patch out of the house which causes all the non-existent activity we’ve seen so far to stop and there are no further reports of the headless horseman.

Really? Words fail me at how to describe the second part of this episode. No more reports of a headless horseman, who would have thought that possible????

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Deep South Paranormal – I Fear That Train A Comin – S01E01

 

I’m not sure we really need to have any more paranormal shows, but SyFy keeps pushing them out. This time we have Deep South Paranormal, a bunch of good ‘ol boys that happen to hunt spirits. The group consists of Jonathan, Benny, Hart, Kali, Kevin and Keith. For their premiere episode the head out to Long Leaf Sawmill in Louisiana to investigate apparitions and activity at the old sawmill. Rumor has it that a man was pushed into the wood chipper itself, while another was suffocated from sawdust. The "Skidder" has also claimed several lives while in operation. There is no doubt that an old sawmill like this didn’t spend too much time or effort of safety measures, so I have no doubt there were plenty of accidents.

The team starts off the investigation in Planer Mill where they get several K2 spikes and hear quite a few bumps and scratches. Since this is an old building out in the woods, we should discount those noises as nothing but the animals. However, there is an odd glow by the railroad tracks and there appears to be shadow movement down in the basement of the building. Unfortunately, they really don’t pursue or get to the bottom of either event.

The K2 meter goes off again as they talk about the train in the machine shop. It’s likely this train would have transported dead or injured workers out of the city. Keith plays some guitar for the ghosts while they set up a laser grid. The grid doesn’t seem to lead to any results.

As they investigate the sawmill, they go to the location where the man was pushed into a wood chipper. The Rem Pod goes off several times and when ask if the spirit wants them to leave, they get a response of yes. Trying to be respectful, they pack up and move on.

In the train depot there is a board connected to the roof that starts to sway as Randy gets a little terse with the spirits. It’s an old building, it’s an old board, so why do we think this is paranormal? There is no other reason a rotted board would move in a trashed out building? But wait there’s more. Randy calls the spirits "sissies" and then the camera goes out. Are these two things really related or was the footage edited to make it seem a lot cooler than it was? Randy heads out of the building to investigate and may actually get a hit of a cloaked figure in the window. He doesn’t seem to react to it who knows what was there.

In the Furnace Room Keith and Benny get K2 hits and hear footsteps. There are also sounds on the corrugated metal roof. Again, are these to be taken as paranormal in nature or the sound of animals in an rotting building? The K2 does go off in response to the question of whether the man died in this spot.

For the final part, Jonathan sits on the Skidder with the FLIR and gets some quite unusual. There is a long lasting circular orb in the center of the screen. It doesn’t seem to move or pulse, but hovers there. It disappears and comes back. Are they getting some spirit energy off this thing or has the camera gone nuts? It looks compelling isn’t just a bit too circular and perfect? Hard to say.

This is an interesting crew and their first episode. They won’t score points for being the most eloquent of groups, but how are they at capturing evidence? Well, most of it can probably be traced to animals. Those scratches and footsteps don’t quite fall into the uniquely paranormal realm.

However, the orb on the FLIR is interesting. Again, camera glitch or real evidence. Since it didn’t move, but it did disappear, what should we make of that? There is also the odd figure in the window that looks like someone wearing a cloak. They didn’t really follow up on that one. And finally, what about the shadow in the basement of the Planer Mill? They seemed to skip over that one as well, but it does look like something streaking across the screen. Maybe they skipped it because it was a video glitch.

They want to claim the Mill is haunted and nothing says fun like a Haunted Mill, just ask Scooby-Doo and the gang. But I really can’t side with them on this one. They have a couple things, but I don’t think they should stamp this place as paranormal.

So what did you think of this new show, their evidence and their conclusion the place is haunted? Worth watching another episode or not?

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Haunted Collector – Emmitt House Ghosts and Shadow Intruder – S03E05

Emmitt House Ghosts

The James Emmitt House was built in the 1850’s, but burned down killing 3 people. The house was rebuilt, but this time out of brick. James Emmitt was the first millionaire in the area and ruled over the town because of his wealth. As with a lot of those towns in that time period he would have had a major say and influence over how things worked. Currently the house is under renovations and Ashley has experienced many things including apparitions, shadow figures, voices, the smell of smoke and even the feeling of being choked.

For the first part of the investigation Brian and Jason turn on a smoke machine to simulate a fire. Since this is when 3 people died they view it as a trigger object. Strangely while the machine is running it looks like there is a whirlpool where the smoke is draining away. It looks like water going down a drain. It’s very visible on the camera, but when Brian and Jason look for themselves nothing is there. Is this some weird camera glitch or matrixing?

Meanwhile, John, Aimee and Chris ask questions if someone was hurt. They get the response of "Emmitt".

To try and find the cause of the weird whirlpool effect, Brian gets a snake scope and looks under the boards. They find what look like articles of clothing and pull up the boards. Turns out to be a black lace veil and a patch box. These would have been used to hide the effects of the smallpox epidemic. It also becomes known that James Emmitt lost most of his family to smallpox. John removes the veil and the patch box as a reminder of the dark time and that seems to stop the activity.

Shadow Intruder

For the next part, John meets up with Pam who’s being attacked by spirits in her home. She has multiple deep scratches, but there is also pounding on the windows, shadow figures and someone playing the piano. Pam admits that there have been multiple deaths in the family recently. It seems there is a lot of energy surrounding Pam.

As they start the investigation they feel the scratches might be perfectly normal, that Pam may have simply hurt herself in the middle of the night. To that end they set up cameras to watch her sleep. Low and behold during the night a shadow figure is seen sweeping across the bed. Pam seems to react to it by rolling over right as it would have touched her. Certainly and odd thing to have happen while you’re sleeping.

When Aimee is investigating the living room she asks if Pam is in the spirit’s space, the piano in the next room starts to play. It only plays for a moment then stops. Oddly, when Chris gets it to play, it’s a different tune. It’s a player piano so starting up on it’s own wouldn’t be that big a deal, but a different tune?

While Jason is investigating with John, he asks if someone came in with the coin that Corey took from the cemetery. Moments later John says he feels something on is arm and there is a welt.

Suspecting there is something related to this coin, since Corey took it out of a cemetery which is a totally bad idea (didn’t he see the cursed idol episode of the Brady Bunch), John has the coin investigated. Turns out it’s related to the Wallace Brother’s Circus. In their day circuses were huge and elaborate attractions. Unfortunately, there was a major accident associated with this one. The Wallace Brother’s had two trains that slammed into each other killing 26 people. John feels the coin is related to someone who may have died on that train and when Corey brought it home, he brought that energy with him. Out goes the coin, bound with salt and placed in a glass jar and all the problems come to a happy end. not only did the paranormal activity stop, but the wounds on Pam’s arms healed.

As always, I feel there is a lack of evidence here. The swirling "pool" in the Emmitt House is very interesting and I’d really like to know what that was all about. It could have been an odd optical illusion, then again maybe it was a sign.

The shadow figure drifting over Pam was also very intriguing. Was that a real spirit moving or was it more an anomaly with the camera? Could it have been headlights outside making an odd shadow? I don’t think alone constitutes anything. Who knows where Pam got those scratches from, but it’s just as likely a natural event as anything else. But what about John? Did he experience something?

It’s sort of hard to say if all these events were truly paranormal or not.

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