Ghost Adventures – Yost Theater and Ritz Hotel – S08E05

The guys head out to Santa Ana, California to investigate the Yost Theater and the Ritz Hotel. Not the famed Ritz as you may think, rather a flop house where drug use and prostitution were the order of the day. Sadly, the Ritz fell on hard times after a drowning in the basement pool. The Yost Theater has also has also seen a tragedy, Ernest Ball the composer of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" died in the backstage dressing room. However, their investigation of the Ritz Hotel hits the brakes when they come to find out a construction crew is taking the place apart. Overcoming adversity they turn their attentions to the Willella Howe-Waffle House. Turns out this house has a checkered past with abortions. Obviously these were illegal back in the day, but it’s not clear as to whether this way back alley butchery or a husband and wife trying to help women of the day.

There are many claims about hearing voices as well as the owner hearing a growl in the downstairs area of the theater. Others claim to hear the voice of a little girl, although there is no really history about her. As Zak, Nick and Aaron investigate, they too hear plenty of noises and bumps in the dark. It turns out that most of those bumps, at least in the theater are merely rats. This does go to show that animals live in all sorts of place and plenty of noises can be attributed to the little devils.

They do the usual EVP work and oddly the word "haunting" comes up multiple times. They hear it in the Howe-Waffle House as well as in the Yost theater. They also get the words "in trouble" and "abortion" when trying to get answers about the doctor. Unfortunately, the quality is going down hill. The words are hard to make out and while they can fit into context, it’s not distinct like those earlier ones.

While trying to make contact with Willella, Zak says she should manifest into a ball of light so they can see her. In the lower portion of the screen, they feel they capture evidence of her manifesting as there is a little ball of light. Conclusive? Hard to say.

Also within the Yost they get the security guard to wander into some of the places he’s seen activity before. While there, they claim to see a shadow figure lurking in the corners. Hard to see that one, but possibly something there.

Overall, the three places yield plenty of noises, which is most likely due to animals in the woodwork, and some rather faint EVPs. It’s hard to say if they’re really capturing spirit voices and if those actually say what they interpret. They’re interesting place but I really can’t agree they hold all the dark energy that Zak feels they do. Sure, their past is a little checkered with some less than savory events, but it doesn’t appear to the dark portal of evil they want it to be.

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Ghost Mine – The Lost Chamber – S02E02

So we’re back into the mine for more thrilling adventures and maybe get some answers to all the questions that have been raised. But for the moment, the questions keep piling up.

The episode starts off with Jay saying he felt someone was still in the mine with him. Mike had left the mine 20 minutes ago, but Jay keeps saying he’s in there. When Patrick and Kristen check the cameras, there are odd glitches as Jay is walking.

Additionally, Mike and Bucket experience some sort of strange "paranormal time distortion" where they feel they’ve been working for an hour, but it’s actually been 6. Stan actually has to go into the mine and get them.

Patrick and Kristen head into the mine to check things out. In this new "chamber" they feel this is writing on the wall that appears to be "VI" when seen under black light. Additionally, they feel they’ve been chasing a "miner’s headlamp" right into a dead end. So Jay swears he saw someone that wasn’t there and now Kristen and Patrick are chasing someone that disappears into the rock. Kristen is also quite sure there is something written on the wall. That seems a bit of a stretch until Patrick and Kristen head to the library.

At first it seems they’re still working the Masonic angle to try and make it work for them, but they do come up with some very intriguing information. Kristen finds information about the "Chamber of Reflection" which is a room that should literally or figuratively contain a scythe, an hourglass and the VITRIOL. Doesn’t sound like much except the guys found what looks to be the handle off a scythe, the remnants of an hourglass and the letters "VI" on the wall. They could indeed have pieces from the "Chamber of Reflection". So did the Masons hold meetings in the mine because it was a secure and private location? Now, it doesn’t sound like any of this is sinister though. It just sounds like the mine may have been a meeting place. An odd choice, but considering the time period it would be easy to guard and very private.

So we might have an explanation about the chamber, but what about this time loss (if there was such a thing)? Strangely, Patrick takes a compass to where Mike and Bucket were working and the needle can’t find true North. It keeps moving in large arcs. It’s not spinning like you see in the movies, but it’s nowhere near steady. To be honest, I believe the readings off that old school compass more than EMF detectors. It does appear there is some sort of EMF that could be disorienting if you stayed in there long enough. So, not exactly time distortion, but it may have warped their perception of what was going on in the tunnel. I have no idea what that would feel like, but some sort of phenomena is in there. It’s natural, not paranormal.

And for the last piece, the miners have heard a lot of knocking lately. As Eddie says, that would just be rocks falling, debris or even the water. But when Patrick knocks on the wall with a rock, he gets a definitive knock in response. It doesn’t sound like an echo either. It doesn’t have a reverb quality to it. Very strange indeed.

The evidence is mounting up. It appears the mine was used as a meeting place for the Masons of the area, but it doesn’t seem sinister at all. The chamber may have been used as a meeting room and there seems to be some naturally occurring EMF in the mind that might be messing with the miners. Now, if we take the EMF into account, it could be why the previous miners left. They could have felt ill, disoriented, felt like someone was there when they weren’t, they may have felt like they were losing time and it may explain the noises they keep hearing. And considering the minders in the 1800 would know very little of EMF, it would explain why they took off as well. What they thought might be evil or spirits could have been their reaction to EMF. These are all very interesting things, but are we in the middle of paranormal activity?

There is still one big question left to answer, is there someone trespassing on the mine? We keep hearing about this elusive stranger, but as of yet, nothing has been found.

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Haunted History – Katrina Cannibal – S01E08

This is the bizarre tale of one couple that manages to ride out the perfect storm of the Katrina hurricane in New Orleans only to be victims of a murder suicide as soon as the water subsides.

The case focuses on Zach Bowen, a rather mild mannered young man who meets Addie Hall and the two ride out the hurricane together. They hunker down in the French Quarter, which has a slightly higher elevation than the rest of the city and through luck no harm comes to them. For a short time they have the run of the city. Everyone else, including the police have evacuated out of the city. So quite literally they are a young couple with complete run of the city. From the pictures they’ve found and the testimonials, it would have been a pretty spectacular atmosphere.

But then things take a turn for the worst and Zach is found dead from a suicide jump. In his pocket he’s left his military ID tags and a note. The explains that he couldn’t live with what he’d done. Turns out, he murdered Annie at least a week earlier. But it’s not just that he murdered her, he took things to a very dark level. It’s possible he was still sleeping in the same bed with the corpse of Annie and may have even had sexual relations with her after she was dead. It was also clear that he cut up her body where some of the pieces were found in the fridge, some cooked in the oven and her head in a pot on the stove. This comes from the detective that investigated the house. This isn’t rumor. This is from the man who was on the scene first. It looks like Zach may have actually been eating her. At the very least he’d gone off the deep end with trying to get rid of her body.

While this is an extremely unfortunate set of events, it can easily be explained as far too much indulgence while no one was looking. They had the city to themselves. They were obviously partying, so it wouldn’t be a stretch at all to throw in some drugs to explain his behavior. They had the run of the city, who knows what they broke in to while no one was looking. But after a fight, Zach strangled Annie and then took his own life several days later.

But it’s not a wild and overindulgent mix of drugs and alcohol that caused Zach to act out, many people he was in a state of demonic possession.

New Orleans is a very spiritual city with deep ties to both Christianity and Voodoo. Many people there have a very personal and intimate relationship with the sprit world. Several people, such as Alyne Pustanio, believe that since there was no one to watch over and tend to the spirits, that they began to attach with and feed off of those who were left in the city. She feels a demonic force got inside of Zach and caused him to commit this terrible crime without even realizing it. Then, he may have been forced to take his own life. She firmly believes he was under the control of demonic forces.

Now that is certainly a different take on events. It wouldn’t be the unsanitary conditions of the water or food, nor would it be the intake of alcohol and quite possibly drugs, nor would it be the feeling of complete freedom and lawless because only a handful of people were in town, that caused Zach to act out. It was his close proximity to the spirit world that made him a victim of dark forces.

There is no doubt Zach turned wickedly evil and acted in a way completely outside his character. From the writings he left on the wall and the vicious way he treated Annie’s body he was dealing with some sort of "demons". He was out of control, but does that mean he was under the control of something else? Did his time in the military and memories of the war, for which he purposefully worked to get him thrown out, finally catch up with him and he became entrenched in some sort of survivors guilt? If he was so on the brink in his personal life, why would he work so hard to survive his hurricane only to kill himself once he knew they would all be safe?

It is indeed a puzzle and clearly something set Zach off. Was it really the spirit world of New Orleans? Did something dark seek him out since there was no Voodoo priest to keep the spirits under control? Or did he simply drink to excess? Did he experiment with drugs that never should have been combined?

It’s a grim story of a young couple that stared down the barrel of devastation and for a short time, came out on the other ride unscathed.

Haunted History Katrina Cannibal on Amazon Instant Video

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Ghost Adventures – Missouri State Prison – S08E04

Ok seriously, the theatrics have got to stop they’re annoying the shit out of me!!!

For this investigation the guys visit the Missouri State Prison which was dubbed the Bloodiest 47 Acres in History. Prison shouldn’t be a cake walk, but that seems pretty desperate. The prison was extremely violent with plenty of inmate violence as well as sending 40 prisoners to the gas chamber. It’s also reported that an epidemic of some sort broke out at the prison and the hundreds who died where simply buried in a mass grave. That gravesite now has a parking lot over it. The prison was also known for it’s "Dungeon" level where prisoners where actually tortured. They were beaten, whipped, "water cured", chained up and left in total darkness. This does sound like a pretty damn brutal place.

While they capture the usual evidence of bumps, bangs and crappy EVPs, it’s the conversation they have with the Ovilus. Billy and Jay get a slew of very usual words like talking to the prisoners. For example, they get, Reverend, Information and Jesus. Then comes Change and Bible. This is followed by Demon. When Zak and Nick come back after their investigation it continues with Will, Twist, Men, Apart and See, Nick. I’m not really a fan of that box, but wow, that is a ton of words and some really usual ones too. The See, Nick is really odd since that happens right after Nick actually walks into the room.

Zak claims to feel all sorts of pains and sadness while down in the lower part of the prison and there is the sound of footsteps and banging all through the place. Hard to say what’s going on with those, but it is a prison, it’s creepy, it’s dark, so who knows.

The EVPs were quite weak and faint. Unlike the first episode where they seemed really clear, I couldn’t make out a single word from any of them. I don’t really agree with the "I ain’t breathin" that Zak hears as his chest is hurting, nor do I agree with the "Sorry" in the gas chamber. They just come across too garbled for me.

The final piece of evidence is something flying across the screen. It looks like some sort of spinning or twisting orb. It is odd, but I don’t know if it’s really "orb" evidence.

For this episode, the Ovilus is the most interesting. That is just a ton of words. Perhaps they’re completely random, but if not, it comes across as a very odd message. It could be taken as someone looking for redemption. They might be in trapped in Purgatory with the demons. It certainly paints a grim picture.

This prison sounds like a pretty heinous place and perhaps things went a little overboard during it’s day. I don’t know if there are trapped souls or not, but if there are, that is a pretty awful place to end up.

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