Haunted Collector

Haunted Collector – House of Pain and Antique Spirits – S03E12

After a bit of a hiatus, Haunted Collector is back for the final episode of the season. For this one they spend time down in Florida at the Odom Residence and Palmer House Antiques.

Odom Residence

The owner has had experiences of apparitions moving around the house in multiple locations. This has taken the form of a figure heading toward the bathroom area and a woman in a flowing dress.

The team starts off the investigation with some Polaroids where one of them appears to be burned. The picture had been of the Spanish breastplate over the fireplace. Oddly, the fireplace poker falls when they try to take the second picture.

There is the capture of an EVP with the word "Win". It doesn’t seem to make much sense but they tie this to Earl Winfield Spencer Jr, who went by the name Win. They feel this is the voice of Wallis Simpson who married Spencer. It also comes to light that Win may been a bit of a bastard. It’s said he used to get drunk regularly and abuse his wife. There are reports that he would tie her up then leave the house for a bender. It’s also claimed he would burn family photos in the fireplace. The same fireplace with the breastplate and the burned Polaroid.

A final part of the investigation has Jesslyn dealing with all the meters going off while she’s the command center. There is a slew of noises and multiple bangs. Even the attic style door comes flying open during the ruckus. They can’t quite pin a source for that one.

In the end John binds the fireplace with salt to try and appease the spirit of Wallis. They don’t really have any tangible evidence, but feel the fireplace is the source of the problem since Win would get drunk and destroy the photos there. The activity seems to stop, but there are still footsteps in the attic. Due to the age of the house, I still keep saying that’s an animal roaming around.

Palmer House Antiques

For the second part, John goes out to visit and antique store that has shut down because of the activity. People see apparitions, things move around, people experience a tightness in the chest and they hear footsteps.

The team discovers that two doctor Palmer’s lived in the house. It was built by Thomas Palmer who died in the house when he shot himself in the head after the war. Dabney Palmer also died in the house when he fell down the stairs and hit his head on a spittoon. He died a couple of days later.

Second doctor Palmer is a bit of an odd bird it appears. He was also the mortician with his operating room upstairs in the house. He would drain the body of blood then poor that into the earth once the body had been buried. There are also claims he performed experiments in the cadavers he worked on. It’s not specifically said what he was up to with the bodies.

The team sets up bells on string in the doorways, on the doll that keeps moving and other objects. They hear the bells repeatedly, but can’t find why they keep going off. When asked if someone performed experiments, they get the answer of "yes".

As they search the house, a trepanning tool is shown as glowing hot orange in the thermal imager. This would have been used to bore into the skull. Why bore into the skull? It was a cure to mental illness, depression and even headaches. It would have also been used to study the brain.

While using the voice box, John and the team are startled when they hear breathing behind them. Coincidentally their meters have all lost power. Is someone there? Unfortunately, they’re not able to grab anything concrete during that moment.

There is another mysterious event. There is a body of 555 Marlarial medicine in a bottle. One moment that bottle is full, the next it’s empty. The bottle isn’t broken, nor is it wet. What happened to contents? Oddly, a bucket in another room holding medical equipment mysteriously has liquid in it. Turns out the liquid in the bucket was plain water, but an odd event none the less.

John concludes the trepanning tool is the cause of the problems and that Dabney Palmer needs to be removed from the home. His unusual experiments have no place in an antique shop. John takes the skull drill and things seem to calm down. There is no direct evidence that links Palmer to the tool, but it was showing some odd behavior with a temperature so much higher than everything else.

Again, lots of leap in logic and very little concrete evidence to support the conclusions they draw. I can only assume parts are left out for the sake of time. The ease at which the find the items and uncover this information always bugs me. Brian make two swings at the ground and poof, he finds exactly what he’s looking for. We’ll leave it as the magic of television.

But even still, the links they form still come across as weak. I don’t always buy how they put it together. Their story could make sense, but there are always a ton of assumptions.

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Haunted Collector – Haunted Seminary and Ghost Games – S03E11

Madison Seminary

For the first part of this episode John heads out to Madison, Ohio to investigate the Madison Seminary. The location has gone through many hands and played many roles. It started as a school, then turned into a home for elderly widows, then a home for the mentally ill. It closed under dubious circumstances and of course the first thing we think of when a mental hospital closes down during the 1950-60 timeframe is abuse and mistreatment of patients. However, this particular facility closed due to lack of funds. They went bankrupt and were forced to shut down. No abuse.

Karyn claims she has been hit in the hand, that people see an apparition carrying a tray and that doors open and close. People have been poked and had their hair pulled. Generally speaking these are the same experiences that a lot of people have.

For the first night of the investigation Brian, Chris and Jason hear a squeaking sound and perhaps the sound of a chair moving across the floor. Brain goes to check it out and discovers the chair that looks like a holdover from the institution days isn’t up against the wall like it normally is.

They also discover a piece of wadded up cloth attached to a line in what looks like a dumb waiter.

Aimee and Jason discuss the area with local historians and get the story of Elizabeth Stiles, a spy for the Union Army. Her husband was killed by the Confederate soldiers so she sought to help the Union. She would gather information by dressing as a nurse and working in hospitals. With this is mind the team is now looking for items to make a connection.

For the second night they catch a shadow moving across the area where the mental chair is still sitting. But the big catch of the night is a piece of fabric that actually pulls itself back up into the slits of the ceiling boards as Brian and John are walking by. Brian spies this piece of fabric, a piece John has singled out, goes to touch it and it pulls itself away from them. It quite literally moves on it’s own. The very piece John wanted Brian to get. And only that piece. And there are other poking down.

Brian pulls back some boards to reveal a bundle of clothes that turn out to be a bonnet with a very large pocket that could be used for hiding items and a blouse that appears to have bullet holes in it.

Job done and John immediately links these items to Elizabeth Stiles. Keep in mind there is not a single shred of evidence that says these belong to Elizabeth, but that doesn’t matter. And of course we should ignore John pointing to the exact piece of fabric that happens to jump away and move right as Brian goes to touch it. What are the odds of that happening???

John finds the relatives of Elizabeth Stiles and turns over the items that may or may not be hers to them and the activity suddenly stops.

Bouvier Residence

For the second part, John investigate the Bouvier residence where Elizabeth and her family are experiencing odd behavior such as banging on the walls and doors and the sound of a children running up and down the hallway.

For the first night the TV turns on without warning while John and Jess find one of the medallions on the wall. Again, their ability to find things is uncanny!

Aimee and Jason find the death record of a small boy who drowned near the Bouvier house so this is who they believe is haunting the place. He had nothing to do with the actual property and he certainly didn’t die there, but it’s close enough for this kind of work so they go with it.

They also discover that the "medallions" are something a child more than likely would have made. You take cloth or burlap, press it into clay and make a little disc. You then hide them and then all the kids go searching. This is the sort of thing kids did long before the Xbox and Internet took over our lives. Did the drowned boy make the disc? It’s possible, but more likely it would have been made by one of the kids that actually lived there…

For the second night, Brian actually has a pretty cool piece of technology, "thermal paper". If something giving off a heat signature walks across the paper you see the image. It’s a good thing they have it because later that night it appears there is something walking, perhaps dragging itself across that very paper. They look like small little circles with the heat sliding to make the next spot.

They also set up a feedback loop with the television. We’ve seen Zak from Ghost Adventures do this same sort of thing. I’m not sure why they have this theory, but it’s believed the spirit world can manipulate the pixels to show themselves. I don’t know why they can’t do when the TV is on normally, but this is how things are done.

As Brian goes through the frames he believes he sees the face of boy. Indeed, there is something there which looks like the mouth, nose and cheeks of a face. As you might expect, the link is made and this is the little boy who drowned hundreds of yards away from the house showing himself for reasons unknown. I assume they feel he made of the discs and played in this area and that his energy is tied to the place even though he never lived there and would have played in a much larger area that covered dozens of homes.

John takes the little discs away and the problems all disappear. The little boy who can’t stop playing his game and searching for discs is finally able to rest.

Once again, I absolutely question the leaps in logic that John and his team make. I can only assume there is more solid evidence that’s omitted due to time.

While the face in the static of the TV is interesting I sort of toss that aside due to matrixing. Is there really some technical difference with this loopback idea versus just the regular TV itself?

The only thing really intriguing are those hot spots on the thermal paper. That was pretty interesting. Unfortunately none of this is solid evidence and it’s pretty damn clear they are working the evidence to make it fit an interesting story.

And that piece of fabric moving into the roof slats just stinks to high heaven of trickery!

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Haunted Collector – Hollywood Haunted and Gold Rush Ghost – S03E10

Joe Liebke Home – Hollywood California

For the first part of the episode John heads to Hollywood California to investigate the home of Joe Liebke which was previously owned by Orson Wells and John Williams. Joe claims that he sees shadow figures, hears footsteps and has the power go out while trying to watch Citizen Kane, the movie Orson Wells was making while in the house. Citizen Kane is based on Randolph Hearst who didn’t take too kindly to the movie and did everything he could to try and stop it from being made.

John Williams also claims to have had a few odd experiences in the house. The Call button would go off even though it’s not connected to anything. This was verified by an electrician when he came to repair it. John also feels the basement is a "sanctuary" and that it should be left alone. While he wasn’t touched nor did he see shadow figures, he gives the impression he feels something is there.

The investigation starts off with a shadow detector falling over by itself and pool cues crashing to the floor when John asks if Orson Wells is there. They listen to their EVP and hear footsteps right before the crash. Is that Orson Wells walking over and knocking the cues over? Or is that simply gravity and good timing?

Down in the basement where Joe has found multiple movie related artifacts, Jesslyn is having a pretty bad moment. She hears growling and becomes visually unnerved. Even John says he can see her shaking. Brian heads down to offer help and they immediately locate the exact spot to dig to uncover a cigar box full of sheet music from the 1920’s.

After speaking with an antiques expert and authority on Hollywood history John makes the connection that this cigar box belonged to Orson Wells, that it was sheet music his mother played and that Orson himself is responsible for the activity even though he died somewhere else and no actual incidents have been associated with the house. While Orson is known to have smoked cigars there is nothing that says this is his box nor is there anything that indicates this music is associated with his mother. And the coincidence of digging in the exact spot to find the box on the first try is extraordinary.

John suggests putting the cigar box and the sheet music by the picture of Orson and his mother and the activity seems to come to and end and Joe can watch Citizen Kane in peace.

Fallon Hotel – Columbia California

Olivia works at the Fallon Hotel and seems to be the target of paranormal events. She claims to have been pushed down the stairs as well as thrown into a wall by spirit energy. She also claims a broken clock still chimes and indentations of a person show up in the beds. The hotel is part of the Columbia Gold Rush and they have re-enactments and wear period costumes. Olivia claims the activity picks up when she is wearing the period clothes.

The investigation starts with Chris debunking the clock. It may be old, but the pendulum still works and they easily get it to chime while walking around the room. Finally, some debunking!

They head to Room 1 where someone is supposed to sleep in the bed. Aimee is pulled away to Room 5 because the water in the sink is running. Did someone turn those on or are the pipes loose? A faucet turning on by itself isn’t that uncommon. However, while Aimee is away the camera captures what appears to be someone slipping into bed. The covers appear to raise and then actually fall.Jason runs in, but finds no indentation or anything in the room. Admittedly that is some pretty wild footage.

John goes with Olivia to Room 1 and asks questions. Olivia feels a presence and that someone is continually touching her hair. It also appears the dress they left on the bed moves.

Oddly, Jesslyn has a similar experience where she feels her hair is being touched and Jason says he can see it moving. Is someone messing with the women?

It turns out there is a story that might fit these events. There was a miner named John Smith who came into town in a rather intoxicated state. He stopped at a Saloon run by Martha to keep the drinking binge going. She told him to get out, ugly words were spoken and John grabbed Martha by the hair and roughed her up. Martha’s husband stepped in and shot John Smith in the face. It also comes to light that Martha and Olivia look somewhat similar.

Is there a violent spirit acting out against Olivia because she looks like Martha? And who the devil is sleeping in the bed? While the other claims don’t have any documented evidence associated with them, the covers raising and the coat moving are pretty damn interesting. Those were very unusual.

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Haunted Collector – Lakeside Terror and Pythian Secrets – S03E09

Lake Norfork Inn

John and the team head out to the Lake Norfork Inn in Henderson Arkansas to investigate claims of people getting touched, shadow figures and the usual story of a “woman in white”. It’s amazing just how many women in white are out there. Only rivaled by the number of women in black.

As they begin the investigation, the activity seems to be centered on Room 212. In fact, as Jason and Jesslyn go to investigate they hear a slew of very loud giggles. It’s so loud that it comes across as a prank. To me it sounds like a Halloween giggle box. Jason and Jesslyn investigate and find themselves staring at someone’s missing prosthetic leg. How do you get out of the house and leave one of those behind? They also discover EMF spikes up to 36. They don’t find the source of the laughter or the high spikes which is very strange unto itself.

For the next part of the investigation, John and Jason find a ring at the bottom of the pool. It appears to be costume jewelry of some sort. Another item they discover is a hip flask. What that flask was doing in the freezer is a mystery to me, but that’s where it was stored. Oddly, when Brian brings out his Mel Meter to take some readings, the meter begins to smoke and ultimately shocks Brian leaving a burn mark on his palm. Is this the work of the paranormal or is this a piece of electronic equipment gone haywire? Even still, the Mel Meter only takes standard batteries, it shouldn’t have enough power to actually hurt someone should it?

As far as the history of the area, they learn that hundreds of farms and 26 cemeteries were flooded to make the manmade lake of the area. One of the cemeteries would have been the Maynard family plot and it would have been located in the same proximity as the Lake Norfork Inn. Incidentally, the initials on the flask that singed Brian are BM. Jason and Aimee link this to Bud Maynard who died in 1929. There aren’t any real details of his death and the team really doesn’t go looking any further.

Ultimately the team decides to remove the ring, which really doesn’t have a link to anything, but they correlate it could be the mysterious little girl that some have claimed to see. They also remove the flask. After this, the activity seems to have stopped and low and behold business is booming.

Oddly, they never go back and find the source of that giggling… I guess we’re to assume it’s from the phantom girl?

Pythian Castle – Springfield Missouri

For the next investigation they head to the Pythian Castle which was created by the Knights of Pythian. People report being touched, shadow figures and one person who was asked to castle sit was jerked out of bed by some unforeseen force.

During the investigation the activity seems to be centered in the basement and a cell door that keeps swinging open. It may even have swung itself closed. While down there, Brian and Chris have a series of Rem Pods go off as though something is coming towards them. They chase after it and end up at a hole in the wall where some previous artifacts were found. Brian climbs in and within mere seconds pulls out a medallion with German writing on it. This seems to coincide with an EVP they got which they believe was in German. Previously, the owners claimed they place was a POW camp for German, possibly SS soldiers, but a historian on the area refutes that claim completely. No POWs would have ever been there.

They do discover a William of German ancestry who was a member of the Pythian Order who committed suicide in the castle. He may or may not have served in the Franco – Prussian War where the medallion was handed out, but the team attributes it to William and feel it needs to be displayed so he can find rest. The owner does just that and the activity seems to die down.

I’m still confused on John’s methodology on when an item needs to be removed and when an item needs to be displayed. It seems a little random to me, but I’m sure there’s some sort of method to it, right?

As with most of these episodes their leaps of logic leave a lot of room for error. There are a lot of assumptions going on here. I don’t know that they really found a lot of activity at either location, certainly nothing like the owners claim. No one was pushed, no shadow figures, no one was touched or grabbed. No one was ripped out of bed that I could tell. We have an odd series of laughs which never got explained and we have a swinging cell door. And we all know a rusty cell door would never swing on it’s own.

Other Articles of Interest:

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