March 5th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://popwatch.ew.com/

Last night, as I was waiting for the subway, I noticed a poster for the upcoming horror flick, The Haunting in Connecticut (in theaters March 27). It wasn’t the absurdly geographically specific title that caught my eye, but the nasty picture of a kid barfing up what looks like part of the faun in Pan’s Labyrinth. Then I saw the tagline: “Some things cannot be explained.” Um, yeah — some things like how a marketing person convinced studio execs that that disgusting picture should be the poster image! Anyway, I watched the trailer (below) today and discovered more horror-movie clichés in that one short clip than you could ever dream of trying to cram into an entire movie.

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Popularity: 29% [?]

March 5th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.examiner.com/

Listen: waverly-hills-earns-its-reputation-as-one-of-americas-most-haunted

Waverly Hills Sanatorium – The Holy Grail for ghost hunters. Any ghost hunter worth their salt must, sometime in their paranormal life, make the pilgrimage to Louisville, KY to investigate this shrine. The journey begins at the bottom of the hill. You can barely make out the building through the trees as you ascend the driveway. An old iron gate stands as a reminder that this is no ordinary place. Once through the gate you are greeted by a gargoyle standing guard at the corner of the building. As you pull over into the parking lot you begin to see the enormousness of the building. Its menacing presence reminding you of the staggering death toll tallied in this one place. Although the records are unclear, it is estimated the between 5,000 and 14,000 people lost their life in this building. At its peak, the death rate was one per hour. So much death that they began to use the tunnel that was built originally to bring supplies up the hill in the winter to transfer the bodies downhill. This was to help with the morale of the patients. Imagine being a patient with TB and seeing 20-24 hearses per day taking away bodies of your friends that just died of the same disease.

This building served as a TB hospital for more than half a century before a short stint as a geriatric hospital. It stood vacant for 25 years before being bought by Charlie and Tina Mattingly. They are the ones who have undertaken the monumental task of restoring this fine old building.
I am lucky enough to be friends with Charlie and Tina and been a volunteer at Waverly for 3 years. I have spent a lot of time alone in the building and have some incredible personal experiences. I have been scratched, heard voices, screams, footsteps, crying moaning, laughing and the unmistakable sounds of someone smothering. I’ve seen shadow people and full body apparitions. I have experienced about every type of paranormal phenomenon that you can imagine.
Perhaps the most profound experience occurred years ago while I was on my first overnight investigation. It was about four in the morning and I was walking with a coworker who had reluctantly joined me that night. We were on the first floor and had just passed the morgue when, without warning, my partner screamed and ran. I had no idea what had happened. I chased her down and asked what was wrong. “Something grabbed my leg” she said with a trembling voice. The reached down and felt of her pocket. “My cigarettes are gone. Oh my God, something just pulled my cigarettes from my front blue jean pocket”. I went back and found the pack laying just inside the morgue room. I then escorted her out and watched her drive off rather quickly. The thing you need to keep in mind is the significance of cigarettes being removed from someone in a TB hospital, TB being a disease that attacked the lungs. I went back inside to continue the investigation glad that I never took up smoking.

To sum up my experiences at Waverly Hills, the place does live up to its reputation. It is one of America’s top 10 most haunted buildings and should be on every ghost hunter’s wish list of places to visit. Waverly does offer 2 hour tours on weekends as well as 4 and 8 hour overnight investigations for the brave. For more information, they can be reached at 502-933-2142.

Popularity: 13% [?]

March 3rd, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/

Listen: delusions-of-grandview

“Ghost Whisperer” features new episode “Delusions of Grandview”
this Friday, March 6 @ 8pm ET/PT on CBS.

Just as Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) goes way out on a limb by agreeing to show Sam/Jim (David Conrad) what she actually does, a bizarre and dangerous case falls in her lap.

Seems a brand new elementary school is haunted by its former residents — the dead inmates of the insane asylum, which once occupied the same building decades ago.

Melinda and Sam’s delicate new bond is stretched to the breaking point when Melinda is finally forced to tell him the truth about where his strange memories have been coming from — and who he really is.

Popularity: 26% [?]

March 2nd, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.tribune-democrat.com/

Listen: paranormal-investigators-plan-portage-seminar

Rege Huschak wasn’t afraid of rousing the goblins when he told the ghost hunters they could investigate the Portage Station Museum.

Heck, he figures, taxes and the recession are a lot scarier.

“Of all the other things that are happening, I’m not worried about someone who passed through the station

70 years ago,’’ he said Friday.

Huschak is president of the Portage Area Historical Society, which operates the museum – an old train station.

Huschak told the Southwestern Pennsylvania League of Apparition Technologists it may address the public

March 15 at the museum, speaking of its findings and taking questions.

One of those who will speak will be Walter Hutsky, 26, of Windber, an IT worker for Zamias Inc. and hobbyist ghost tracker. He has gone on more than 25 spectral investigations and hasn’t come upon any firm evidence of paranormal events thus far.

Yes, the ghost guy is a skeptic.

“I’m still open to the possibility. I like being involved in the scientific aspect of it and local history,’’ Hutsky said.

SPLAT is booked solid on requests to do its free investigations.

Hutsky said all kinds of callers are dialing them up.

“Basically, there’s unexplained phenomena that happened at their house or to themselves,’’ he said. “They have to prove to others that they’re not crazy.’’

Even after subtracting out the large number of flakes who call, Hutsky said, plenty of promising situations remain.

That’s when SPLAT investigators march in with their audio and video recording equipment, temperature sensors and infrared gear.

Investigators sometimes find that’s what’s behind so-called paranormal events are such things as the wind, an electrical short or radio wave interference. Most often, the unexplained occurrences remain so.

“We haven’t been able to catch them using multiple electronic devices,’’ Hutsky said.

One of the spectral sightings that has gained some credence is the spirit of a young child wandering what is known as Dane Castle in Strongstown, Indiana County. That report, as the others, has not produced proof.

Huschak said the team came up empty at the museum despite old tales of footsteps and toilets flushing. Another person saw shadowy movement on the stairwell.

“You always hear stories,” he said. “It’s just like anything else. It’s a matter of people wanting to know.’’

Though spook tales don’t creep Huschak out, SPLAT itself gave him the heebie-jeebies.

“I once called them ghostbusters and I regretted it,” Huschak said.

“They don’t like that.’’

Popularity: 9% [?]

February 27th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/
Listen: bethlehems-sun-inn-is-haunted-lehigh-valley-paranormal-group-says

Sun Inn Preservation Association founder Hughetta Bender put her heart and soul into saving the Main Street historic site.

And some believe her soul still remains in the former 1758 hotel.

On a January visit to the inn, a Lehigh Valley-based paranormal investigation group snapped a photo of what appears to be a woman in a second floor window. The figure looks to have gray hair, glasses and be wearing a white apron.

“I said, ‘Oh, my God, that’s Hughetta,’” said Bucky Szulborski, a Sun Inn Preservation Association board member who joined the paranormal group on its investigation. “She wore a white apron.”

“For that to appear at the Sun Inn — it’s remarkable,” he said.

Bender’s likeness was far from the only paranormal observation Lehigh Valley Research and Investigation in Paranormal Activity made on two visits to the inn — Jan. 24 and Saturday.

The group caught on tape at least 15 unknown voices and what they say sounds like a half-hour long ghosts’ party in the dining room.

The group ranks the Sun Inn as among the most — if not the most — haunted place they’ve investigated.

“This place is as active as it gets,” said member Jim Fitzgerald, a Whitehall Township resident.

The group went room-by-room on both nights, asking if there were any spirits in the inn. They asked about Elizabeth Moore, a nurse who died in 1897 at the inn.

When they asked if Elizabeth was there, someone responded with the word, “Moore,” said member Steve Werner, of Bethlehem.

The response was only heard through audiotape, as were all the other unknown voices. Group members believe ghosts affect magnetic forces, so they can often only be heard on tape but not in person.

The group played many of the recordings for the media Thursday, including two instances of a strained voice saying “We’re watching you.”

On another recording, Werner and Fitzgerald are up in the attic, asking if any slaves were kept there during the inn’s early days. “See my back,” someone can be heard saying in response.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

February 27th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/

Listen: apopka-house-with-colorful-past-reopens-as-restaurant

The century-old McBride House has undergone another reincarnation and will officially open today with a new name, new managers and a new menu.

The Victorian home on East Main Street sheds its past as a cowboy bar, haunted house and Civil War re-enactment site to become Highland Manor.

Entrepreneur Mick O’Sullivan, who speaks with a thick Dublin brogue, and his partner and chief Chef John Mooney of Chicago, will celebrate their grand opening at 5p.m. Local dignitaries will sample the Southern-flair American cuisine that includes skillet corn bread, fried quail or rib-eye cooked on the bone.

The pair have invested almost $1million in the restaurant, which has a full bar and banquet hall.

They seem undaunted by the staggered economy and recent failure of the now-defunct Captain and the Cowboy restaurant on the site. That restaurant closed in May. Its former owner, Don Green, a Silicon Valley investor and real-estate mogul, had spent $3million in 2005 on the house and grounds.

“Nervous? Us?” Mooney said. “There’s a calculated risk with any restaurant, but we feel that our food will speak for itself.”

O’Sullivan said they have done extensive research and have opened and run successful restaurants in New York City and elsewhere.

“We’re aware of the economy,” O’Sullivan said. “But once we saw this property, we fell in love with it. And we’ve set our prices with this economy in mind.”

The cowboy bar and the bright Key West-themed colors are gone after the pair restored the home to its original look, with muted colors and hardwood floors.

The pair knows the home’s sometimes checkered history, including talk of it being haunted by an early resident.

“We’ve redone everything, soup-to-nuts,” O’Sullivan said.

The tables were made by a woodworker in Zellwood, and a carpenter from Apopka made the wine racks. The new restaurant is at least the fifth incarnation for the tin-roofed home.

It was built in 1903, and for eight decades sat on North Highland Avenue in downtown Apopka. By the 1980s, it was known as the McBride House after Dr. T.E. “Tommy” McBride, one of Apopka’s first doctors and the home’s last resident. It was moved in 1985 under threat of demolition to the site at U.S. Highway 441 and State Road 436.

Clay and Neil Townsend, whose family also owned an Orlando restaurant at the time, bought the structure from the city for $10 and, after spending a couple of million dollars on renovations and additions, opened Townsend’s Plantation in 1987. The property also became the site of an annual Civil War re-enactment.

That restaurant closed in 1997, and the place was opened only occasionally for banquets and as a haunted house on Halloween until Green made his try at the restaurant business.

Popularity: 22% [?]

February 27th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/

Listen: chance-to-spend-night-at-haunted-five-bells-inn

DARING ghost hunters are being invited to spend the night in one of the South West’s most haunted locations.

A professional paranormal investigator will be on hand to help look for signs of things that go bump in the night at the Five Bells Inn in Whitchurch Canonicorum near Bridport.

The charity event, on March 14, will raise funds for the Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT).

Up to 20 hardy souls will brave the inn, which is rumoured to be haunted by pilgrims’ souls that sought healing from St Wite.

Travellers once stayed at the Five Bells Inn while on pilgrimage to the nearby church of St Candida.

The church has a 13th-century shrine containing the bones of St Wite, with three openings into which pilgrims could place afflicted limbs for healing.

Ghost-hunting equipment including night-vision cameras, temperature gauges, electro-magnetic field metres and dowsing rods will be used on the night.

Sponsored participants will pay £30 to take part, to include the use of investigative equipment, a disc of photos of their ordeal and a cooked breakfast.

Kizzy Brown, marketing and fundraising manager for DWT, said: “This is a brilliant chance for people to test their nerves. Join us for this one-off chance to try something so unusual.”

Popularity: 11% [?]

February 27th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.tvfodder.com/

Listen: supernatural-renewed-for-5th-season

Just a quick news note. Sites all over the internet are reporting that Supernatural was renewed this week.

However, I have been unable to find an official announcement, though there’s no reason to believe it’s untrue. The ratings have been stronger than ever, and the storyline and writing have made this the best season yet, in my opinion.

Now, I guess we get to fidget and wait until the summer conventions to hear if Kripke is sticking to his 5 years and out plan for the show. While I’m sure Jared and Jensen appreciate the (somewhat) steady paycheck, this show is brutal on the actors from all indications. Maybe everyone will be ready to move on at the end of season 5. Or maybe not?

Popularity: 22% [?]

February 26th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.mpnnow.com/

Listen: ghost-hunters-claim-chilling-finds-at-palmyra-museum

Phantom footsteps, whispers, a swaying chandelier and a piano that played on its own exposed the presence of ghostly spirits residing in two local museums on Market Street. Or so say members of a few ghost-hunting teams that recently camped out with some high-tech equipment.

The spook sleuths from Scientific Paranormal Investigations and Finger Lakes Area Spirit Hunters on Thursday, Feb. 19, shared their findings with a crowd of about 55.

They played recordings they said captured whispered ghostly responses to questions and faint piano playing. They shared bone-chilling stories of apparitions and chills and breezes that seemed to come from nowhere.

“A feeling of dread engulfed me,” said Rob Henning, co-founder and case manager for Scientific Paranormal Investigations of Palmyra, as he described an encounter he said he had with a young girl in the piano room in the general store. “Immediately, we were blasted with cold, dry air.”

The general store and attached living quarters, at 140 Market St., is preserved store that thrived on Erie Canal commerce and a bustling downtown back from the early 1800s to the 1940s. Some believe its visitors are not just docents and tourists but also some long-dead members of the Phelps family, including spiritualist and musician Sibyl Phelps, who lived above the store and became something of a shut-in in the years before her death in 1976.

The Historical Museum just up Market Street, meanwhile, is on the site of a 1964 blaze that claimed seven people, six of whom were children. The museum itself is an old hotel that was moved from William Street in the 1970s during urban renewal work.

Bonnie Hays, director of Historic Palmyra Inc., was contacted about a year ago by members of the Victor-based Finger Lakes Area Spirit Hunters. “They said, ‘we’ve always wanted to come to your buildings, would you mind if we came?’” she said. “Of course, I said, ‘We’d love it.’”

And so, for the past several months, the Spirit Hunters and Scientific Paranormal Investigations have surveyed the museums with video, camera, audio, high-tech night vision and thermal-vision equipment.

The investigators aren’t the only ones who’ve experienced strange happenings in the museums.

“I swear a black cat came in the front door of the Phelps Store, walked down through the store and up the stairs,” said Ralph Kommer. “Bonnie (Hays) and I looked for it, but never found anything. She left food. It was never touched.”

Popularity: 6% [?]

February 26th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.capecodtoday.com/

Listen: jail-house-rocks-and-rambles

Old jails are full of intrigue, especially when they’re reputed to be haunted. A few weekends ago, we stopped in to see Barnstable’s “old gaol,” a small, 17th century building now located behind the Trayser Museum on Route 6A. The jail, which was moved in 1972 from a previous spot on, you guessed it: Old Jail Lane, is considered the oldest wooden jail in America. Used during the 20th century as a barn, its historic importance wasn’t realized until 1968, when the owner found a plank engraved with the message, “W. Bartlett 13d October 1698 and 27d he was let out.”

We were met at the jail by Derek Bartlett, founder of Cape and Islands Paranormal Research Society, which oversees the property. He showed us around the rustic building, noting other interesting wall carvings possibly doodled by bored prisoners. The jail was a holding cell for the usual 18th-and-19th-century ne’er-do-wells, but its most notorious prisoners were buccaneers from the pirate ship, Whydah, which sank in 1717.

Bartlett said there have been reports of apparitions and voices, the usual ghostly stuff. He’s a professional ghost hunter, who with his team from CAIPRS, investigates paranormal sightings throughout the region. They also lead various Haunted Cape Cod walking tours, and Barnstable Village seems to be Ground Zero for many haunted sites.

The old gaol is also Ground Zero for a new geocache, “Ye Olde Jaol House.” It’s a tiny micro-cache hidden in plain sight. Most geocachers find it right away, but for some reason I seemed to look right over it until I phoned a friend. Maybe it was paranormal interference.

After finding “Ye Olde Jaol House,” I went in search of a traditional geocache located a mile or so away in the Jail Lane Preserve, called “Old Jail House.” There obviously was a connection between the two sites. This second cache is off of a quiet trail in a town conservation area, where the old jail previously stood. There have been reports of apparitions here, too, but it looked like typical Cape Cod woods on a Saturday afternoon.

Who knows what you’ll find geocaching: A hidden trail? A secret beach? A little-known nugget of history? Or maybe, ghosts?

Popularity: 9% [?]