ANY OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY OUR WRITERS ARE NOT NECCESARILY THOSE OF LIVING PARANORMAL MAGAZINE

First of all, I’d like to thank LIVING PARANORMAL MAGAZINE for having me and inviting me to write a regular column reviewing the paranormal world in each issue.

For those that don’t know me, my name is Lee Roberts, I’ve been a Paranormal Investigator for over 26 years to date and have investigated most locations in the UK.

I was the first person in the world to broadcast a LIVE Ghost Hunt Broadcast via Facebook LIVE back in 2015 (yes, it is all my fault) and recently I have appeared on TV shows such as Katie Price My Crazy Life on Quest Red and Paranormal Captured on Pick as one of the main investigators.

I think the obvious starting point is the changing of the guard so to speak, the end of one show and the re birth of another. Really TV have announced that they will not be renewing any contracts with Most Haunted, music to the ears of many but the show still has a huge fan base. I think Most Haunted was the starting block for most paranormal investigators and also some TV Shows but as time has gone by I think the Paranormal Genre and also viewer has moved on, learned more about the subject and has a higher threshold as to what is real and what is not. Unfortunately, I personally don’t think the show in general moved with the time, choosing to stick with its “back to basics” format, Karl and Stuart the only ones ever to be affected, and Yvette scared to death even though she has over 18-years TV experience hunting down the spooks. Time for a change? Well the channel thought so.

Now onto the new, well when I say new I mean the rebirth of an old classic, Ghost Hunters, TAPS is one show I am very fond of, it was the show that opened my eyes into how other people investigate over the pond, not a psychic or odd looking demonologist in site, Ghost hunters in back, Grant Wilson returns to the helm but not alone, not with the original cast though, this time he has brought along a brand new modern, younger cast to bring the paranormal kicking and screaming into 2019. Our very own Daryl Marston Joins the team along with Kristen Luman, Brandon Alvis, Mustafa Gatollari, Brian Murray and Richel Strutton. The show joins the team investigating the paranormal at some amazing locations with some scary back stories. It looks fresh, bright and modern, I wish them and the show all the very best.

In other TV news, Ghost Nation is a brand new show set to air very soon featuring some of the older cast members of Ghost Hunters including Jason Hawes, Paranormal Captured featuring Jayne Harris, MJ Dickson, Dany Moss and myself as well as others is set to appear on TV screens internationally after its impressive response in the UK, also talks of a second series are ongoing. Help! My House is Haunted returns to UK TV screens in November for its second series, Barri Ghai, Chris Flemming return to the show but are join this time round by Jayne Harris.

Facebook LIVE is growing faster than ever now as more and more people, groups and teams are using it as a way to show how they investigate but also to try and grow their own popularity. I have seen crazy videos; with someone claiming to see Nun running through abandoned buildings, another team claimed to of unearthed human remains, not of which are in any way believable BUT they get views. Last month a team hit media headlines as they claimed to be investigating the ghost of Myra Hindley, the team (Ghosts of Britain) were all over the news and others were slagging them off for doing this publicity stunt. When the live investigation happened, most of those that were slagging it off tuned in. Growing the audience and giving the team more of a platform. Did I agree with what they were doing? In a way yes, I did, if someone was in trouble and needed help, yes if you think you can help them then do it, but why it needed to be on a Facebook; I don’t know.

As I sit here writing this, hundreds, thousands, possibly millions are gathering outside Area 51 for a raid, will it happen? With they get anywhere near it? If so what will they find? I won’t go on any more about it and will come back to this in the next issue as no matter what I write by the time you read this it will be over, who knows, maybe they can rescue ET!!

Halloween is around the corner and activity is supposed to heighten, which brings me onto activity. I wanted to bring you some stories that have been around recently of really good evidence, something that made me go WOW! But disappointingly I couldn’t find any, not any that I believed or questioned anyway, is this because activity is few and far between? Is it because I am a little too cynical in what I am looking for? or is it that I am looking in all the wrong areas?

If you have been on an investigation recently PLEASE let us see any cool pictures, videos or anything that you honestly think is paranormal, I’ll review on here and give it my honest opinion, so get sending them in.

Lastly, I’d like to talk locations in future articles also, what is making waves in the paranormal community in terms of a cool location, maybe myself and the LPM pop over and take a look, join you on a ghost hunt or share your stories from the location in question. There are hundreds of locations up and down the UK as well as more in the USA and beyond, each month we will focus on just one get to know why it’s so popular.

That’s it from me this time round, short and sweet to start with but with you help we will grow this article with more reviews and content.

Stay Safe, stay out of trouble and happy hunting.

T. @MrLeeRoberts F. @Officialleeroberts I. @MrLeeRoberts

A while ago was invited to the Haunted Antiques Paranormal Research Centre in Hinckley, for a private investigation, my first time at a location which focused on objects and energies.

The centre contains various items from different sources, and time periods, which have been collected for a number of reasons including individuals being drawn to them, and more recently items which have been donated for whatever reason, some with stories some not.

The main difference regarding this location, to others, is the fact that the items have never been called haunted by the proprietor Neil Packer, and if any knowledge is gained from the items, it is logged and compared to the information others have obtained. A medium who worked at the centre, Jane Rowley, also makes notes of what she picks up, and sometimes draws portraits of the spirits that she is shown from the items. After all, it is what it says on the can so to speak, a paranormal research centre.

The centre hadn’t been open too long when they received a red wax covered Dybbuk box, and less than a week after that it was my first investigation there.

I’m not one to watch numerous television shows, as I tended to try and find evidence of the afterlife with friends I have met in the field, and on small events, and I wasn’t quite aware of what a Dybbuk box was but straight away it intrigued me after watching a live feed on which it featured

For those of you who have not heard what a Dybbuk box is, it is said to be a box which contains a malicious spirit, which is sealed inside, and in this case has a red wax covering. If the spirit is released all hell could apparently break loose. Would you dare open one?

Like most things in the paranormal world, there are now loads of them around flooding the usual online shops with zero proof of anything. About this time though, they were less known, but made more famous by a US TV show.

On arriving at the centre, I was drawn to the item straight away, it was certainly something I had not encountered before, and ordinarily never would.

It had been placed in a small room on a table full of energy, surrounded by mirrors, named the Chamber of Fear.

It was a dimly lit room, lit only by a red bulb, with space for one person to sit in for a lone vigil or two very good friends, a great little room ideal for lone vigils, and where a scream would bounce around the mirrors and echo for eternity. The box could be held in one hand, and was a small hexagonal box, fully covered in a thick red patterned wax. It sat on the table emitting a strange clicking sound. There was no other source of the sound, which was confirmed on picking the item up and placing it against my ear. Certainly, a strange occurrence, something which I have not encountered, on any of my investigations since.

After the initial vigil in the small dimly lit room holding the item, more vigils were carried out throughout the night, in various places, and with different objects in the centre, and as the night came to a close, I was drawn once again to hold the Dybbuk box.

I held my hands out with the box resting over my two palms, when an experienced paranormal friend Phil Newton decided to take a photo of me with the box. On looking at the photo, it appeared that my face was different, and that maybe I had been overshadowed by something. Was it from the box? Straight away I noticed I had large black circular rings under my eyes, my nose was narrower, longer, and more pointed, and my chin seemed to appear more pointed and angular as well. An interesting photo.

Unbeknownst to me, the medium Jane had already drawn an image of what she had got when she had held the box. The image had been drawn in advance of me arriving at the centre.

The noticeable features on the drawing were the dark circle under the eyes, a pointy nose and a long pointed chin, which bore a massive similarity to the image of my face whilst holding the box. I left the Centre after this investigation and returned to normal life. In a day, or so later I had a weird clicking sound in my right ear, when I acknowledged it, it stopped, and I realised it was a very similar noise to the clicking sound which had been emitted from the box on the table.

I sent a message to the centre and asked if anyone else had had that issue, but the object had just arrived and nothing had been reported then or to this day, even though a few who have investigated the centre have said that they hear a clicking sound from the box. The clicking continued on and off for about a month, each time a single click which I acknowledged, and it stopped until the next time. No idea why it happened and an odd thing to mention to a doctor,

I then had another opportunity to visit the HAPRC, and about 4 weeks before the due date, I had a single clicking sound in my right ear, and once acknowledged it stopped. It started to get annoying as it would occur at any time, with a single clicking sound, acknowledgment, and it stopped.

On returning to the centre I went straight to the item, and used it in a number of experiments, including one where a cat ball was placed on it. In time the ball flashed, this can only occur when the object is pushed. There wasn’t a logical cause for this to happen, but it could not be debunked. It happened on more than one occasion, but whether it was something from the box causing the cat ball to move, or something else within the centre, we will never know, but it cannot be explained.

At the end of the evening, I decided I would hold the box in the same room, and ask my paranormal partner Lynda Brookes to take 3 photos of me resting the box on my hands to see if my face would change again.

Three photos were taken in quick succession, and on the third photo it looked as though a light source was coming from the box. Was this paranormal? I will leave you to decide.

As time continued when I was due to return to the centre, I would get the what by now was normal click in my right ear, with the process ending on my return to visit the box.

On one occasion, the clicking started in my ear, and I wasn’t expecting to return, a week later I was added to take part in a live discussion. The Dybbuk box has now been at the centre for over a year, and is available for everyone who visits to view.

There are still reports of it emitting a clicking sound to some people who visit but the wax has slowly started to become less pliable and crack, with thinning in places.

On a recent live feed, a pendulum was used to ask questions of the box.. I was able to ask questions on the live and I was getting answers before the pendulum gave a confirmation. The pendulum identified that three spirits were around, two people and a winged serpent? A strange thought which randomly came in my head, and the pendulum swung in the yes direction. It was also asked if it caused the clicking sound in my ear and the answer was yes. This session was filmed as a Facebook live and is available for review.

The box following the live feed is now going to be placed close to a large mirror, the location of which was determined by the answers on the pendulum.

As I finish writing this, I am due to return to see the box in a few days, is this going to be a to be continued story....

Update!

Returned to the centre 7 days later, ready to participate in a two hour live séance, where the box was going to be placed in the centre of the table. When it was time to reposition the box for the séance, it had changed in appearance.

A large piece of protective wax had broken off from the top of it, revealing a large section of the original box underneath. How had this happened, on my return, and 7 days previously it been placed in front of a large cracked mirror as requested by using a pendulum?

If this box did contain a Dybbuk, or spirit, has it now escaped? The paranormal seems to lead to more and more questions and at the moment the box has been placed under a glass dome still on display for visitors of the centre. To be continued?

Everyone knows and has heard about mediums these days, there are so many of them now, classed as fortune tellers, card readers and psychics, but in the early days of spiritualism, these people were simply called ‘The Medium’.

There are different types of mediumship; most commonly known are spirit channelling, séances, tarot cards and Ouija. Mediums use their psychic ability to connect with those in spirit and therefore offer psychic readings, for those that need answers of some kind or predictions of their future.

Spiritualism is a religious movement based on the belief of spirits and the use of spirit mediums to communicate with the spirit world.

So how does religion play a big part in spiritualism?

Spirits are of course people who have past, this includes ancients gods who once lived on the earth, these gods communicated with man and thus put forward the information that produced the religions and the bibles that is used still today worldwide, The Christian Bible came into being in the 6th century, translated from Hebrew and Greek scriptures with many changes over the years and was authorised and produced in 1611

Of course a lot depends on your faith in what you wish to believe or disbelieve here and as in everything today it’s each to their own, I don’t want to go down the religious path to much here, but I had to mention it, because this is where the origins are believed to have come from. Weather you believe in God, or a Higher Power or even AI (Alien Intelligence) is totally up to you.

The ancient Egyptians Bible is called ‘The Book of the Dead’. They before anyone else were totally dedicated to spiritual awareness, death was very important to them as they believed in a life after death and spirits. If you go to a spiritualist church today, you will prey before you contact any spirits or have any kind of spiritual healing.

Spiritualism became a big thing and caught on to a wide scale, Its popularity made it the in thing at the time, the spiritual boom was born and more and more mediums came to light with their claims of supernatural powers, however it was rocked when certain mediums who started to be fraudulent and eventually they were exposed.

But even so it overcame these problems and spiritual mediums are more popular now than ever.

Back in the day it was all about séances, which were conducted around the table and usually in darkness or with a red light, especially in the Victorian era, the medium would go into a trance like state and either uttered words delivered to them from spirit of someone around the table, or would use automatic writing which would be written with no effort and was NOT the mediums own thoughts. The spiritual movement was first denounced and then accepted, often and still is today considered as a contrary to the will of God by many religions, who find fault in everything and contradict those words written in the Bible’s.

Spiritualism was made Legal in an Act of Parliament in 1951, so how did it get passed?

Simply because the evidence over thousands of years were in favour that supernatural phenomena had increased and was deemed to be true and real, the realisation that there was evidence of a invisible universe as well as our own, with life, intelligence and movement.

Voices heard from many sources, records of abnormal happenings occurring in ancient literature to, i.e. for one instance, Plato recorded sayings and the doings of Socrates, this proving that he himself had medium powers.

Both Testament’s of the Bible, The Koran and other ancient literature contain with-in psychic stories.

During the first four hundred years of the Christian era, mediums were called the ‘Oracles of God’, once again the critics and non-believers coined the name ‘Servants of the Devil’ because the decree of Pope Damascus who was said to be influenced by his secretary Saint Jerome.

The belief in witchcraft brought about persecution and death to many who possibly had psychic gifts, but the ignorance of those times, anyone possessing those gifts were looked at in fear, believing they had sold their soles to the devil. Recorded in history stand two women who were victims of the Christian church, Joan of Arc (1431) and Bessie Dunlop (1576) were classed as mediums of the first order and were both burnt to death at the stake under the witchcraft era.

The church misunderstood psychic phenomena, through ignorance because of little knowledge and lack of education on the subject, back then no-one knew any better really, like sheep they followed the shepherd. The stigma still remains today sadly; devout Christians still refuse to believe in claims made by Spiritualist’s, but it’s not quite as bad these days, for we as a nation, country and worldwide are much more open, Spiritualist’s continue to strive forward and the subject is not taboo anymore, but has been researched, documented and is still today on-going.

My Very First Memory of been able to see a Spirit was at the young age of 7 years old. The house I was living in at the time had a story to tell and little did I know it, but the Spirit I had encountered had wanted to reach out and tell someone who could communicate with him the story of why he was haunting the house I was living in. Sadly at such a young age I didn’t understand what the Spirit or Ghosts were or if I was just imagining what I was seeing every night at the foot of my bed. The male spirit always presented himself as a dark shadowy figure although I could see the detail of his long cloak coat and his top hat.

The story I found some years later, was from my grandmother who could also see Spirits and also communicate with them. He was a gentleman who lived in the house years before we did and he had a young daughter. He took her one day to the local swimming baths which he had done many times before. On this occasion she had dived into the swimming pool on the shallow side and she had hit her head hard at the bottom of the pool. When the life guards pulled her out it was apparent she was already dead. The father of this young girl never got over the death of his daughter and suffered with severe depression. One day he decided he didn’t want to live anymore and sadly took his own life. He had hung himself on the back of my bedroom door totally unbeknown to me.

My grandmother, who lived next door at the time to the gentleman, had been looking after his wife who at the time was bedridden. She heard bangs on the wall coming from the next door neighbours and my grandmother went around to the next door neighbour’s house to see if everything was ok only to find her sobbing and asking out for her husband. My grandmother had searched everywhere looking for her husband. After searching around, there was only one room left to check and that was the front bedroom (which was the bedroom I was sleeping in at the time). She moved the door, noticing that it felt heavy and awkward to move but she managed to move it open and there on the back of the door was the husband hanging there. He had been dead for some time he as he had turned blue. My grandmother had the gruesome task of cutting him down from the door. The reason they all thought he took his life was because he couldn’t live with the guilt of knowing he could have saved his daughter by making sure she didn’t dive into the pool.

Once I moved into the house with my parents I was a similar age to his daughter and because of that, he had made a connection with me from that moment on because I reminded him of his own daughter (she even had dark black hair just like mine).

Seeing me in the house he somehow thought I was his daughter and he was watching over me every night in a protective way. He had come to say sorry that he had taken his own live in such a horrible way and all he wanted was to be reunited with his daughter. He just wanted to tell someone how he felt and why he had done such a thing at the time. Many years later I went to visit my grandmother who at the time still lived in the same house after all this time. The Spirit gentleman paid me one last visit. This time he wanted to say sorry to me for scaring me all that time when I was a young child.

I accepted his apology and said I understood why he did what he did and that he now needs to find peace and move on. He asked if both myself and my grandmother would pray for his soul which we did and told him not to be frightened because he was going to be reunited with his daughter and his wife. I found his grave years later and paid my respects. Since this encounter with a Spirit, I have always been fascinated with the Paranormal and now I am a Paranormal Investigator with my own team. I have been using the gift I was born with to communicate and speak to Spirits as well as see them on a daily basis. In my journey and in my own research (whilst investigating at different locations) I find many things interesting, specifically how Spirits see our world through their own perspective. Even items we see every day are so much different to Spirits no matter the time period.

My Second Spiritual Connection is so much more different from my first and this time it didn’t take place in a house but at a location. I have been investigating this location on and off for just over 2 years now. My first time investigating this building was one I will never forget as it was fantastic. With all the energy in the building, it was almost electric and I had never experienced that before anywhere. I knew the Spirits would come forward and make themselves known. I knew they would interact with us during our time in the location.

There are many rooms in the building all with different energies (both Residual and Active). I then started investigating and after spending many hours in the building I had split the Residual Spirits from the Active ones who come in visitation to the building. During this particular night I had come across many Spirit’s, including several children and a young lady on the upper levels. On the second floor rooms, I came across a gentleman dressed in armour. He was a Knight and had association with another building not too far away from this location; however in his time period both locations were built on the same plot of land.

There was also another gentleman in Spirit who was in another room across a landing and again was from a completely different time period to the Knight I just come across. There was also another older female Spirit in the building. Once I established an initial connection with these Spirits (on this particular investigation) I was intrigued to return to investigate more.

The second time I investigated this location, the building still felt exactly the same as the first time and the energies I was picking up on within the building felt familiar to the ones I had connected with the first time I arrived at the location. As my investigation started on the upper floor of this building, I decided that’s where I would begin again. It didn’t take long before the three children Spirit’s (2 girls and a boy) to make their presence known to me.

Like the last time, they started to come forward and make themselves known to me once again and this time they spoke to me in a very playful and mischievous manner and told me their names. The oldest child told me she was protecting the younger siblings from a nasty male Spirit who was also in visitation to the building. I was interested to find out more about these three children. I found out, through talking with them, that they were brother and sisters. Once I gained their trust by talking to them and playing games with them for a few hours (the flashing cat balls came in very handy), I found out that the children had a nanny who was with them and also comes in visitation to the building. So far I didn’t sense the nanny but the children were adamant that she was going to come and make her presence known to me. I had decided to let the children have a rest as it seemed their energies were beginning to dwindle. I proceeded to go down another floor and went into one of the rooms of the stairway. This room had a very strong male energy that much was very evident. I took a seat and decided to stay in the room to see if this male presence would make a connection with me just like the children had on the top floor. Unfortunately it didn’t take long before this male Spirit was shouting at me to leave his room and began, very aggressively, banging on the wall. I left the room, after staying in there for only a short time, as he didn’t seem like he wanted to communicate at all. I went down to the first floor which is where I encountered the same female Spirit the last time I was in the building and again she didn’t speak to me. Instead she just looked at me in a very strange way. At this point it was getting very late and I decided to call it a night.

A couple of years have gone by since my very first visit to this location. The same Spirit’s still come in visitation continually to this day except for one. Since my time investigating this location, I have regularly established communication with the aggressive male Spirit who was in one of the rooms on the second floor. The children still communicate with me to this day as well. Having spoken to the aggressive man whom we now call John (the name he has given to me on several occasions). I have found out a lot of information from John over the last 2 years I have been talking to him. John told me about his occupation (he was a Judge in life). He worked in close proximity to the location in his time period. The children I was talking to on the upper floor were his children. I have since found out that the young female Spirit was his mistress and the other female lady Spirit was his wife. I was interested as to why John and his family seemed to visit this location and it was apparent that the current building was built on the foundations of what once was their family home. The date that, John had given me his time period which was 16th Century. John acknowledged that the young female Spirit who was his mistress did indeed live in the attic (or as he said it the “rafters”) and she was a hired as a maid at the time. She was less than 20 years of age. He brought her into the house so he could have her as his mistress. He also acknowledged the children were his and that the boy and girl were killed by him in a way as he had ordered someone to push them down the stairs. He explained he didn’t get his hands dirty. His wife’s name is Susannah and she was also taken care of and killed just like the children by his orders. She was in her late 30’s when she died.

I then moved on to ask John a little about his occupation and he said he had dispatched people which I have since researched and found out that this would have been something John would have done in his time period through his occupation as a Judge during that period of time.

This was corroborated by a historian local to the area. John had described to me what the room looked like through his eyes which had a window in it however, there is no window now in our time. He can only see this in his time period. When I asked him to look out of this window, he described what he saw, which in that time period, is exactly what the surrounding area would have looked like. John had said the room he is in visitation to is his own room. He spent a lot of time in there and in this room he wrote a lot in books with a quill. John went on to tell me he had 2 horses downstairs, which in our time, is now a shop front, but in his time period it was used as a stable.

I asked John if he knew of Oliver Cromwell who would be someone he would know of in his time period. He acknowledged he knew of him but didn’t like him. I asked John if he would tell me how old he was as the way I could see him he looked older. He surprised me when he said he was early 40’s as he looked a lot older than When I mentioned to John how old I was he was a little taken aback shall we say. I asked John a little bit of information about how he and his wife (which he now refers to her as the hag) first met. that.

The conversation with John continued and I asked him if he sustained a spinal injury to his back. He replied that he had after he had a fall from a horse. I asked John of he could tell me where he lived to which he replied “I live in the Shire’s”. I asked him if he was in Snottingham, which is what Nottingham would have been called in his time period. He instantly related to the name but went on to say how stupid the name was in his time period, but when I told him it was now called Nottingham he said he was pleased to hear the name had been changed. I have also seen John with my own eyes. He was wearing clothes dating to his time period. I asked him to describe them to me. He said he was wearing breeches as he called them which are knee length trousers, stockings, a blouse, which is more like a shirt with deep cuffs, and a waistcoat. John had a beard and moustache He had dark coloured hair.

After speaking to John, I have learned a lot about the Spirit realm and I have since spoken to other Spirit’s, constantly asking the questions we all seek to know the answers to.

Our Spiritual connections are important no matter where we have them. It could be in our own homes, in a location or even while we are out having a walk. They give us an insight into the people who once lived just like us but are now in the Spirit world. They come to connect with us, the living, because they have something they wish to say or they want an acknowledgement that someone can see them and hear them talking. Every now and then their dimension and ours are parallel. This maybe for a short time, but it allows them to make their Spiritual Connections.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Sam Baltrusis, author of Ghosts of Boston and Ghosts of Salem, has penned eleven historical- based ghost books. He has been featured on several national TV shows, including Destination America’s Haunted Towns and the Travel Channel episode on Salem, and has served as Boston’s paranormal expert on the Biography Channel’s Haunted Encounters. Baltrusis moonlights as a tour guide and launched the successful ghost tours, Boston Haunts and the Wicked Salem Tour. He has several books coming out in 2019 including Wicked Salem: Exploring Lingering Lore and Legends and Ghost Writers: The Hallowed Haunts of Unforgettable Literary Icons.

Baltrusis is also a sought-after lecturer who speaks at dozens of paranormal-related events scattered throughout New England, including an author discussion at the Massachusetts State House. In the past, he has worked for VH1, MTV.com, Newsweek and ABC Radio and as a regional stringer for the New York Times. Visit 13MostHaunted.com for more information.

“I dreamed of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. He was being chased by a firehose.” Stephen King, author of The Shining

Surrounded by props from the made-for-TV miniseries based on Stephen King’s The Shining, I’m sitting in a dark room located in the bowels of the haunted Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. There’s a Big Wheel bike that little Danny Torrance famously rides through the empty hallways of the fictional Overlook Hotel, an old-school typewriter with the “all work and no play” line typed over and over into reams of paper and a creepy movie still from Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic featuring the murdered Grady girls who begged the tormented boy to come play with them.

“Wendy, I’m home,” I said to myself as my ghost tour guide, Olivia, flicked the lights on and off to get the group’s attention.

“Are we excited for some spirit action tonight? I know it’s late but bring that energy for the full seventy-five minutes because that’s going to help you have your interactions tonight” Olivia announced to our small but enthusiastic group. “Our spirits can’t go to Starbucks to get that motivation, alright? Keep an eye on your electronic devices because you may see them do some bizarre things. Yes, your battery levels may go up and down and your phone may take photos that you didn’t necessarily intend to take. Most importantly, pay attention to your personal energy. If our spirits like you they may borrow a piece of your energy.”

Olivia’s approach to the Stanley Hotel’s ghost tour seemed oddly like a paranormal pep rally. I was waiting for the perky, twenty-something guide to start an impromptu, spirit-squad cheer. We got spirits, yes we do. We got spirits, how ‘bout you?

“If you notice your energy drop, the spirits may be trying to connect with you. However, if you feel completely drained it may not be what you’re thinking,” she explained. “No, you’re not being possessed. It’s most likely elevation sickness. But if you do feel a possession coming on, let me know. I don’t want anyone to pass out on my tour.”

Despite the dark subject matter, Olivia’s enthusiasm was infectious. An overnight stay at the Stanley Hotel has always been high on my bucket list. Finally, I was able to tour the hotel that inspired The Shining after a haunting late September visit back in 1974.

I was giddy with excitement. Or was it elevation sickness?

My first taste of horror master Stephen King was the movie version of Carrie. I remember identifying with the bullied protagonist who painfully dealt with a dirty little secret. While battling her religious zealot of a mother and the gum-smacking sadism of cruel teenagers, Carrie White unsuccessfully tried to control her burgeoning ability to move things with her mind. Like White, I didn’t quite fit into the status quo of the 1970s. Unlike King’s cursed anti-hero, I didn’t have latent telekinetic powers.

But I did have a secret. There was something about King’s The Shining that tapped into my darkest childhood fears. I remember riding the school bus when I was younger and waiting for my friend to recount the eerie stories that unfolded in his archetypal ghost story. I was so terrified that I wasn’t able to actually read the book until high school, which was long after I watched the movie.

Why was I scared? Like the young Danny in The Shining, I was dealing with the unnerving ability to detect spirits. I could also pick up on the lingering energy at haunted locations. At the time, I had no idea what was going on with me. What did the spirits from my childhood want from me? I didn’t view the ability as a gift. It was a curse.

When chef Dick Hallorann explained to the troubled boy why the disembodied souls from the Overlook continued to linger, it helped me understand what I was experiencing as a kid who also had empathic abilities. “I don’t know why, but it seems that all the bad things that ever happened here, there’s little pieces of those things still laying around like fingernail clippings,” Hallorann warned. Past traumatic events like murders and suicides can leave a psychic imprint on a building, according to the telepathic chef.

“Some places are like people: some shine, some don't,” Hallorann continued.

Much like its fictional counterpart in The Shining, the Stanley closed during the winters until 1983. When King and his wife Tabitha stayed at the hotel in late September 1974, the Estes Park hideaway was preparing for hibernation mode.

“We were the only guests as it turned out,” King recalled on his website. “The following day they were going to close the place down for the winter. Wandering through its corridors, I thought that it seemed the perfect setting for a ghost story.”

The horror writer was inspired by a dream he had while staying in the notoriously haunted Room 217. “That night I dreamed of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. He was being chased by a firehose,” King continued. “I woke up with a tremendous jerk, sweating all over, within an inch of falling out of bed. I got up, lit a cigarette, sat in the chair looking out the window at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of the book firmly set in my mind.”

Before flying out to the Rocky Mountain location that inspired King, I reached out to my fellow ghost writer and friend, Richard Estep. Originally from the United Kingdom, he’s armed with more than twenty years of investigating the paranormal on both sides of the pond. Estep, currently based in the Denver area, is the author of several historical-based ghost books including Haunted Longmont and In Search of the Paranormal. He’s also a part-time tour guide at the Stanley Hotel.

“When I applied for a tour guide job at the Stanley three years ago, I was somewhat skeptical of the hauntings,” Estep told me. “It didn’t take long for me to learn first-hand that the hotel is genuinely paranormally active, and is a truly fascinating place to work and visit.”

Why are locations like the Stanley more haunted than other structures? “Hotels see the entire spectrum of human life, good and bad, and that leaves an imprint of some kind that we cannot yet explain,” Estep said.

Opened on July 4, 1909, the hotel was the brainchild of the Yankee steam-powered car inventor, Freelan Oscar Stanley. Suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, F.O. Stanley spearheaded the forty- eight room grand hotel as a health retreat for New England’s upper crust seeking the curative air of the Rocky Mountains. Stanley’s wife, Flora, relocated with her husband and the duo spent their summers entertaining in Estes Park, Colorado. He sold the hotel in 1926 and purchased it again 1929. In 1940, Stanley died from a heart attack in Newton, Massachusetts one year after his wife passed. Estep said that King and the Stanley are now inextricably intertwined in the public consciousness. “His influence is still felt at the hotel to this day, from the annual ‘Shining

Ball’ to the throngs of visitors who visit the Stanley because of its connection to King and The Shining,” Estep explained. “Room 217 is the hotel’s most popular room—and its most infamous—and generates a regular stream of seemingly inexplicable experiences.”

Before my overnight stay at the Stanley, I had a spirit communication with a female ghost that appeared to be associated with the hotel. Based on an unnerving dream that I had at my brother’s house in nearby Highlands Ranch the night before my visit, she was waiting for me. When I woke up, my ankles mysteriously started to hurt.

When I asked Estep about the spirit-induced dream, he said that I possibly connected with the hotel’s former housekeeper, Elizabeth Wilson, who was injured in a freak accident in 1911. “Miss Wilson was a chambermaid caught in the gas explosion of Room 217,” Estep told me. “She didn’t die in the hotel, but was injured, and returned to the Stanley after Believe it or not, but Wilson broke both of her her convalescence, where she spent many ankles during the turn-of-the-century blast. happy years working there.”

Estep said that the acetylene gas explosion— accidentally caused by Wilson when she walked into the suite with a lit candle—may have psychically imprinted itself on the Stanley. “I believe that she is still connected to the hotel after her death because she was so attached to the place during her physical lifetime,” he said. “One disrespects her at their peril.”

According to legend, Wilson worked at the Stanley until she passed in the 1950s. Her lingering spirit supposedly unpacks and folds the clothing of unsuspecting guests. She also has an issue with unmarried couples sleeping in the same bed. Wilson’s ghost reportedly doesn’t like improper behaviour in the hotel. In fact, the former chambermaid has forcible tried to separate unwed couples by creeping in between them in the wee hours of the night.

When I checked into my room at the Stanley, I was somewhat relieved that I was assigned to Room 213. It’s not haunted, right?

When I mentioned to my tour guide Olivia that I was a few doors down from the infamous Room 217, she laughed. “All of the rooms in that wing were part of the presidential suite,” she said. “So, Room 217—as well as 213, 215 and 219—had all been one giant suite.”

It happened again. I was put into the haunted room. Why was I not surprised?

Our first stop on the ghost tour was the Concert Hall. I was warned by my author friend that the Stanley’s music venue, originally an entertainment complex called “The Casino” which also had a subterranean bowling alley, was teeming with ghostly activity. “Paranormally speaking, the Concert Hall is the most active part of the entire hotel,” Estep continued. “Both Paul and Lucy are said to reside there.”

During the tour of the Concert Hall, I saw what looked like a shadow figure dart by the stairwell next to the stage and I heard a female spirit say “open” when I headed down to the basement. According to Estep, I may have encountered the spirits of Paul, who passed while shoveling snow outside of the performance space in 2010 and Lucy, a young woman said to have been a squatter who died from hypothermia somewhere around the Stanley.

While there’s no evidence to corroborate the existence of Lucy, Estep believes he has encountered Paul. “During one tour in the Concert Hall, I heard the sound of heavy footsteps stomping across the wooden floorboards below me,” Estep said, adding that he was up in the balcony at the time. “All twenty people on my tour heard the footsteps too. Thinking that I may have been punked, I took two visitors down to the basement with me, in case somebody was banging on the ceiling above. The basement was deserted.”

During the ghost tour, a woman from the Midwest said she saw a shadow figure dart behind me in the basement around the time that I heard the female spirit say "open." According to Olivia, the room is often frequented by the mysterious stowaway spirit. When I walked into Lucy’s hangout, a closet door slowly creaked opened.

Yes, I was legitimately creeped out by the cellar dweller.

However, that brief moment was probably the most spine-tingling paranormal activity that I experienced during the entire investigation. I’m still not sure if it was Paul or Lucy that I was communicating with in the Concert Hall’s basement. In hindsight, it could have been F.O. Stanley himself or his wife, Flora.

The ghostly husband-and-wife duo have been spotted roaming the halls and the lobby of the hotel, “making sure that everything is running properly,” reported Where The Ghosts Live blog. “One year prior to F.O.’s death, his wife, Flora had a stroke in the lobby of the hotel. Having been a very accomplished piano player, it is said that she will still have a seat and plays a piece on the piano for her guests.”

As our tour was coming to an end, I was waiting for the ghost of Flora to manifest as our group investigated the MacGregor Ballroom. Phantom piano music? Nope. However, I did have an uneasy feeling as I walked up the stairs and came face-to-face with the painting of the hotel’s matriarch leering at me as I quietly retired to my room. But that was it.

While I would say, without hesitation, that the Stanley lives up to its haunted reputation, I had to rethink my irrational fears of an ax-wielding Jack Torrance barging into my bathroom or a late- night visitation by those gruesome Grady girls.

I didn’t have a “redrum” moment.

“Contrary to the contents of King’s excellent novel, the Stanley has no dark or violent history,” Estep told me. “It has more than one hundred years of happiness and joy, for the most part, and I believe that some of that positive emotion has remained behind after all these years and is behind many of the paranormal phenomena that visitors report.”

I ended up having a peaceful night sleep. I especially enjoyed the little touches, like having my clothing neatly unpacked and folded when I returned to my supposedly haunted room. I even woke up tucked into my bed even though I fell asleep on top of the duvet. The hotel’s chambermaid, Elizabeth Wilson, sure knows how to make guests at the Stanley feel right at home.Next time, however, I’m going to sleep with the lights on.

MARY Starring: Gary Oldman, Emily Mortimer. Writer: Anthony Jaswinski Director: Michael Goi The premise for this film is basically a haunted house horror movie; but instead of a house it’s a boat. I mean come on this is a fantastic concept for a horror film. There is nowhere to go as they are basically trapped in the middle of the ocean in a cramped sailing boat. The director, Goi, has only directed two films previously but he has plenty of experience working on and directing horror TV shows such as American Horror Story, Scream Queens and the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The Film also stars the epic, Gary Oldman, arguably one of the greatest living actors. With roles in The Dark Knight trilogy, Air Force One, Hannibal, three of the Harry Potter movies and of course Darkest Hour which he won an academy award for. RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 11TH

THREE FROM HELL Starring: Sheri Moon Zombie, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley. Writer & Director: Rob Zombie. Three from Hell is a follow-up to Zombie’s 2003 film House of 1000 Corpses and its 2005 sequel The Devil's Rejects. Both of which happen to be two of my favourite horror movies. The original main cast return which of course includes the late, great Sid Haig, who sadly passed away on September 21st. After barely surviving a furious shootout with the police, Baby Firefly, Otis Driftwood and Captain Spaulding are behind bars. But pure evil cannot be contained. Teaming up with Otis’ half-brother Winslow "Foxy" Coltrane, the demented Firefly clan are back to unleash a whole new wave of death and depravity. The film was given a special three-night theatrical engagement from September 16th and will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 15, 2019. Three from Hell received generally negative reviews from critics but being a fan of Rob Zombie films I cannot wait for this! And if you have not seen the first two films then I suggest you find them, watch them and then watch this sequel. RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 15TH ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone.

Writers: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, David Callaham.

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Of course this is the follow up to the awesome 2009 film, Zombieland. This, for me, was one of the funniest comedy horror movies ever made (the greatest being Shaun of the Dead). After the events of the first film, Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita and Little Rock move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family.

RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 18TH

THE LIGHTHOUSE

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson.

Writers: Robert Eggers, Max Eggers.

Director: Robert Eggers

Filmed in Black & White, The Lighthouse, chronicles the story of two lighthouse keepers as they are faced with solitude, but start to lose their sanity and become threatened by their worst nightmares.

It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019 and received very positive reviews with an approval rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Owen Gleiberman of Variety called the film, "darkly exciting" and "made with extraordinary skill.”

RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 18TH

DOCTOR SLEEP

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson.

Based On: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Screenplay & Director: Mike Flanagan

Doctor Sleep is based on the 2013

novel of the same name by Stephen King, which is a sequel to King's 1977 novel The Shining. The film, set several decades after the events of The Shining, combines elements of the 1977 novel and its 1980 film adaptation. Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the 'shine.'

Ewan McGregor is playing a grown up Dan Torrance, the character that first appeared as a child in the film The Shining.

RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 30TH

BRAHMS: THE BOY II Starring: Katie Holmes, Ralph Ineson, Owain Yeoman. Writer: Stacey Menear Director: William Brent Bell A sequel to the 2016 film The Boy, Katie Holmes takes over as the new lead character, from Lauren Cohen who starred in the first film (also known for the Walking Dead). A young family, unaware of the dark history, moves into the Heelshire Mansion. The premise will follow the story of the youngest son finding the porcelain doll, and befriending Brahms. Holmes plays Liza, the mother of the young family. The first film was a good solid horror film but it did receive some negative reviews so hopefully this sequel will do better. The first film’s director and writer both return to make the sequel. RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 6TH

We all float down here. You’ll float too.

IT chapter 2, like chapter 1, also sticks closely to the book, particularly including the murder of Adrian, which the mini-series left out. Adrian and his boyfriend are the victims of a brutal homophobic attack that results in the film’s first glimpse of Pennywise and his terrifying teeth. Pennywise doesn’t usually kill adults, but he has just woken from a very long slumber, so maybe he was ravenous and just ate whatever floated his way. Not sure why the miniseries chose to leave this out. Maybe they thought a gay couple wouldn’t be well received. As readers of the book, we’re glad it was included, as it shows that the people of Derry haven’t really changed. There’s still bullying going on. And there’s still Pennywise.

Its 27 years later. The Losers Club have grown up and are no longer losers. Except for Mike Hanlon, who stayed behind in Derry. It is uncomfortable noting that the four white friends left and became unusually successful and rich: Bill is a top author (though his endings are terrible), he’s married to an actress and his books are being turned into films; Richie is a sell-out stand-up comedian; Eddie is in Risk Management and seems to have married his mother. Not his actual mother – even Stephen King wouldn’t go there. But a woman very much like his mother; Stan and his wife live in a massive house and are booking a holiday when Mike’s phone call shatters their idyllic life; Ben has lost all the weight and is now a good looking, highly sort-after architect; Beverly has her own fashion line and like Eddie, she married her father: an abusive man who claims to love her yet abuses her. Mike, the only black character, and the only one who isn’t a Derry native so has no ties to the area, lives in the library and listens to police scanners to follow leads on child murders. Mike is the only one who stays a Loser.

One phone call from Mike destroys their perfect lives. They’d escaped Derry. They’d forgotten. When Mike phones, they don’t even remember who he is. But two words from him have them all flying home.

IT’s back

So the Losers Club are back together. They meet in a Chinese restaurant where their memories resurface. Richie and Eddie’s love/hate relationship is brilliant and very well done by Bill Hader and James Ransone, which adds a poignant moment towards the end of the film. At the restaurant, as the group break open their fortune cookies, each one contains a word. They rearrange them to discover a message: Guess Stan Could Not Cut It. Now they know why Stan’s chair is empty. It’s a chilling way to find out what happened to their childhood friend. Then disturbing creatures break free from the fortune cookies, leading to them trashing the restaurant and fleeing. That is definitely not something you would expect with your dessert. But at least they paid for the meal.

Bev Marsh and Bill Denborough still have feelings for each other while Ben Hanscom looks jealously on. Being hot still isn’t enough for him to win Bev’s heart. He’s played by the gorgeous Jay Ryan (Beauty and the Beast, Mary Kills People) The adult actors were a great choice

for the grown-up Loser Club. Bill Hader (The Skeleton Twins, Trainwreck) as Richie Tozier is perfect and captures Richie’s smart mouth, barbed, sweary humour. Finn Wolfhard (young Richie) had apparently mentioned Bill Hader for the role of Richie. James Ransone (Sinister and Sinister 2) as adult Eddie Kasbrak is astonishing. He looks exactly like an adult version of Jack Dylan Grazer (young Eddie) and even manages to match Jack’s fast speech patterns. Personally, we think young Eddie in IT Chapter 1 is the best version of Eddie. Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game, Crimson Peak) was an obvious choice for grown up Bev, and she and Sofia Lillis (young Bev) look alike. . Jessica was the first adult actor approached for the film. Adult Bill is played by James McAvoy (Split, X- Men), adult Mike is played by Isaiah Mustafa (Shadowhunters, Horrible Bosses), adult Stan Uris is played by Andy Bean (Here and Now, Power). James McAvoy manages to capture the quiet leadership skills displayed by Jaeden Martell (young Bill). Andy Bean does bear a resemblance to Wyatt Oleff, who played young Stan but we don’t get to see much of him. Young Mike was played by Chosen Jacobs and the lovelorn young Ben by Jeremy Ray Taylor.

The Losers refuse to believe Mike’s claims that Pennywise has returned. After all, they barely remember that summer in 1984 that changed their lives. Mike remembers it all. He’s borne the burden of it for 27 years. More children are going missing. Pennywise is awake and feeding. And they are the only ones who can stop it. Richie tries to leave. He’s done with Pennywise, with Derry, with revisiting his old fears. The others follow him back to their hotel.

Bill is the only one who listens to Mike, which is understandable, as he was the only one who suffered loss due to Pennywise and made the group swear the oath that they would return. He may not remember Pennywise, but he remembers the pain of losing Georgie. Mike drugs him and teaches him about the ritual of Chud. Although if you are meeting up with old school friends, we advise against drugging them and showing them ancient rituals. It creates trust issues. Bill, however, doesn’t hold it against Mike. The end obviously justifies the means. The miniseries didn’t include Chud, which featured a lot in the book, and didn’t make much sense there either. The book also featured The Turtle, which thankfully, this film leaves out. We still don’t understand what Chud and The Turtle are about and frankly, they’re not needed. We’re guessing they were put in the book to add that otherworldly/sci fi element, but the story works better with just an evil, child-eating clown.

Pictured from left to right Bill Hadder, James McAvoy & Jessica Chastain

The Losers all need to find an object that was personal to them and sacrifice it in the ritual of Chud to trap Pennywise. This where the film differs from the book, but it does give an added personal touch that the items that gave them strength as kids are the items that can defeat Pennywise. Bill finds his old bike, Silver. The antique shop owner is played by a known face, but we won’t spoil it. Ben’s item has been in his wallet for 27 years – a page from his yearbook with the signature of the only person who signed it: Beverly Marsh. Considering he made friends with the others, you’d think they would’ve signed his yearbook. Eddie’s item is his beloved asthma pump. Richie’s is a coin from an arcade, Stan’s is a shower cap they find in Ben’s old hideout (to stop spiders falling in their hair) and Bev’s is the postcard with the haiku Ben wrote her when they were kids. She still believes Bill wrote it.

The scene where Bev returns to her old apartment is both scary and funny. Well, we laughed. But we’re twisted. The flashbacks are done very well, including scenes that were not in the first film, which adds more depth to the group’s dynamics and relationship with each other, as we glimpse snippets we haven’t seen before. It was good that they used new scenes for the flashbacks that helped explain the story, rather than just using scenes from the first film. And surprisingly, the kids don’t look like they’ve aged from two years ago, so presumably they shot those scenes around the same time as the first film. Those kids should definitely have been sporting acne, broken voices and creepy baby moustaches.

There are some added scenes which are done brilliantly. One highlight is Bill trying to rescue a kid from Pennywise, only for them to be trapped in a mirror maze. It’s claustrophobic, frustrating, and paralysing as Bill is impeded by the mirrors. It also plays on Bill’s guilt. He failed to save Georgie, so he’s desperate not to fail again. The book and the miniseries didn’t feature Pennywise taking children when the Losers’ Club return, so it’s good this one addresses that. It shows Pennywise is still as dangerous as he was before.

There are some added scenes which are done brilliantly. One highlight is Bill trying to rescue a kid from Pennywise, only for them to be trapped in a mirror maze. It’s claustrophobic, frustrating, and paralysing as Bill is impeded by the mirrors. It also plays on Bill’s guilt. He failed to save Georgie, so he’s desperate not to fail again. The book and the miniseries didn’t feature Pennywise taking children when the Losers’ Club return, so it’s good this one addresses that. It shows Pennywise is still as dangerous as he was before.

Another thing this film does that the miniseries missed out, was Henry Bowers’s fate. Like Pennywise, he returns to torment the Losers’ Club and becomes another monster from their past they must defeat. He is aided by a friend, which is both creepy and funny. The fears that Pennywise expose are different for them as adults. Now they have to confront their past as well as what scares them. They must relive old fears, open old scars. What should have bonded them as kids has forced them apart as adults and they struggle with being back together in a town they all forgot.

Overall, we feel IT: Chapter 1 and 2 are the best versions of the story. The book is exceptionally long, which dilutes the fear with long chapters where nothing happens, and the child characters are particularly annoying. The miniseries was pure cheese, poorly acted and low on scares, as that Pennywise is funny rather than scary, although we won’t say a bad word about Tim Curry. The child and adult actors in the Muschiettis’ version are perfect. All the characters are likeable and make you care about them. Pennywise is creepy as hell, and it reminds you just how evil Pennywise is. Although all versions could do without revealing what Pennywise actually is. It doesn’t seem to fit. We’ve waited a long time for Chapter 2 and it was worth the wait. It’s not quite as good as Chapter 1 but it delivers what it promises.

Pennywise brought Bill, Richie, Eddie, Bev, Ben, Mike and Stan together as kids and later drove them apart. Now, 27 years later, IT has reunited them and taught them that alone, they are weak and scared, but together, they can confront those fears and defeat evil.

They are the Losers Club, and they always will be.

The anthology horror series is back and more bloodier than ever; but is it back with a season worthy of the AHS series? Well we are only three episodes in (at release of LPM14) so maybe it’s too late to judge BUT These are three episodes which I am about to critique though so hopefully this review will give you an idea as to whether or not AHS:1984 is heading in the right direction.

The last season of AHS (Apocalypse) was very good. It got a bit bogged down towards the end, but the season finale did just enough to rescue it. And of course I can’t deny seeing the Coven witches again and the murder house was simply amazing to see. It also resulted in probably some of the best AHS episodes to date. But now with season 9 we step back thirty-five years to 1984. And what the 80’s were known for? Slasher movies of course. This new season pays homage to some of the best slasher horror movies ever to be released.

Returning cast members from previous seasons include Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Cody Fern, Leslie Grossman, John Carroll Lynch, and Sarah Paulson, along with new cast members Matthew Morrison, Gus Kenworthy, Angelica Ross, and Zach Villa. 1984 marks the first season to not feature series mainstay Evan Peters. Peters, will be missed of course, as he has played some of the best characters in previous seasons.

Oh, how I miss Jessica Lange.

So let’s get to it.

EPISODE ONE

In 1984, Brooke Thompson is attacked by the

Night Stalker and decides to leave town for the summer to work as a counselor at Camp Redwood with her new friends from a dance aerobics class. On the way there, they strike a hiker on the road. The group takes him to the camp where he is tended to by the camp nurse, Rita. Margaret Booth, the owner of the camp, introduces herself to the counselors and gives them a tour of the grounds. Later, around the campfire, the counselors learn from Rita that Camp Redwood was the site of a massacre in 1970 committed by the groundskeeper, Benjamin Richter, referred to as Mr. Jingles. Margaret reveals that she was the sole survivor of that night. Brooke finds the hiker slain by Mr. Jingles, but the body and Richter are nowhere to be found when the others investigate. So what did I think? Well I thought it was a decent opening to a new season. Personally I think it is difficult to judge the first episode of a series because usually they just set you up for the rest of the season; however, it was a decent first episode and it did enough for me to actually want to continue watching the season.

One thing I took from the first episode is that if you are not a fan of the 80s then you probably will hate it. The 1980s, understandable, is shoved right in your face. And I didn’t mind. Particularly in the new AHS opening credits with the new soundtrack, which I felt was terrific. They have given the music an 80s overhaul and I really did love it. Not to mention all the hair, make up, costumes, cultural references, in fact even the way the characters talk – it is all so, so, so 1980s.

As for the story it delivers a typical slasher movie vibe. With, who are supposed to be smart people with common sense, on the run from serial killers, actively making dumb choices like going for a solo night time stroll in the woods or a dip in the lake. I mean some people would see this as a bad thing, but it’s kind of the point. And of course, one of the things that make an AHS season interesting is that each one tends to contain some kind of major, game-changing twist and already there are a few of them appearing and a lot of questions; so yeah episode one leaves you wanting more.

EPISODE TWO

Margaret learns of Richter's escape from the mental institution but insists the camp will open as planned. Brooke is shaken after a phone call with Mr. Jingles and opens up to Montana about her disastrous wedding one year prior. Montana attempts to seduce Brooke, leaving her shocked. Xavier is pursued and is pulled into a car by a man named Blake who forced him to act in gay pornography, however Xavier offers Trevor as his replacement. Instead, Blake is killed by Richter. Brooke is chased by the Night Stalker after seeing a body in the lake but overpowers him. The Night Stalker attempts to murder the hiker, who keeps being constantly killed and resurrected. The counselors find Blake's body with his ear severed and assume that Mr. Jingles has found his way to camp and is hunting them down.

Episode two really turned up the dial on the gore element of American Horror Story and it also left me with more questions but not necessarily obvious ones. The main thing I am questioning is – what the hell is the twist going to be? Because I do not think this story is as simple as it seems. If episode one opened the door to this new season then, episode two kicked you through it. I was so relieved after this episode ended because I so badly wanted to like it and I did. The best scene? It’s awesome in my opinion; a wedding turns into a bloodbath, the bride's perfectly puffy sleeved wedding dress splattered in red to Billy Idol's White Wedding. And this was only a flash back scene.

The biggest question, in regards to the characters so far, is over Margaret Booth. To me she doesn’t seem like who she supposed to be. I do not think her intentions are good. But hey I write this as I watch the episodes so maybe the answer to this question will be answered in episode three. Maybe she is a red herring.

EPISODE THREE

Rita's group is accosted by Ramirez, and they decide to split up to increase their odds of survival. Ramirez eventually breaks in and attacks Ray repeatedly, but Chet saves him and they flee. The pair eventually fall into a trap filled with wooden spikes, and Chet is impaled through the shoulder. Ray, after confessing to Chet about an incident in college where he was responsible for the death of a fraternity pledge, leaves Chet to die. The pursuers of Trevor's group turn out to be a group of pranksters impersonating Mr. Jingles as part of a tradition, but Richter kills the pranksters while Trevor, Montana and Xavier flee. Brooke is left alone with Rita…

The first twist arrives in this episode. I like to think I saw it coming and I was suspicious of the character involved but I was focusing on another; as I have already stated. More serial killer references appear in this episode also, because you have to remember that there were a lot of famous killers about in the 70s and 80s; hence the appearance of Ramirez from episode one. More back stories of the characters are also revealed. Something that also occurred to me, this is still the first night of the “gang” being at the camp. The kids haven’t even arrived yet!

Although only episode three, this is the best so far. This is also shown by the fact that it has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The episode ends on yet another twist. One I definitely didn’t see coming. Man you have to love American Horror Story!

So this is shaping up to probably be one of the best seasons so far. I want more but will have to wait another week. If you were worried about this season then please don’t, if you are a hard-core AHS fan then you will love it.

Serial killers are household names. We know them. We recognize their faces, remember their stories. They have captured our unrelenting attention for as long as they’ve been named. But, why?

Madness inspires curiosity. That which eludes understanding demands not only study, but also begs enthusiast culture. Wicked acts of grotesque desire, in deemed normality, capture the heart with an illogical mixture of disdain and admiration. They mystify and identify, disgust and charm; a shared opposite reaction as enigmatic as the reason they do what they do.

Minds, desires, deeds we don’t understand. The most vile are infamous; increased violence captures ever more intrigue. Their actions are abhorred in moral perspective, but we’re somehow charmed nonetheless. The evil of their ways is blanketed by idolization and attraction. They appeal to hearts and imaginations by committing the most heinous of crimes. A puppet audience we are, hoping to get a glance at the master of the show.

The arts express our strange love for our most vile brethren, both in fact and fiction. In many, the killer is the protagonist. Tours and museums honor them, thrill us— entertainment in place of deep suffering.

This phenomenon has gone as far as bringing the dead back to light, serial killers who lived and died long before the term existed. Many have become infamous. Our desire for knowledge extends through time, reaching to the past, looking to the future.

Just as researchers fail to understand the motives and methodical reasoning of these bizarre dark stars, so do we our own unyielding interest in them. Both escape reason. There must exist a connection with the most wicked acts humanity is capable of, and the rest of us. Serial killers are one of few real monsters that exist. But rather than possess a beastly, creature-like form, they are us. Merely the organ within their skulls is somehow different. Something inside them makes indescribable violence more pleasurable than anything we can imagine. They experience what most never will, what most would never want to—great delight in what would defile our eyes. Their hands feel death, the commitment of it, the rush of watching struggling eyes fall blank. They thrive on what would turn our guts inside out just to witness.

Fascination of insanity brings us to stare unblinking into depths we cannot fathom. That cruel hand, driven by a mind wired to kill in brutal and ritualistic ways, draws our attention in dramatic fashion. The grotesque has always held interest, as chaos leaves us unable to look away. An accident, monumental tragedy, war, mass-death, terrible things on which we can’t turn our backs.

But these are things which don’t compare to the horrid methods of a single individual, one person with the ability to achieve evils far more dreadful than reality should allow. Complete control lends them the creativity and originality to go with their given names. Each possesses their own style, tailored to indescribable desires only they can know. There is no chaos in these tragedies. They’re methodical and intended. Each has their own way, a set which satisfies their needs and abilities. A pattern which becomes routine, compulsory, ever-satiating but always wanting. The emotional bond between predator and prey may be something more powerful and fulfilling than we will ever know. Perhaps we possess a longing for that kind of connection, that level of reality, the ultimate high of all highs. Maybe we can’t help but gawk at the worst things we can’t imagine, the gory aftermath of some compelling force within human nature we don’t understand. It may just be their charm is the darkest of reasons, their siren song of blood to which we can’t help but listen, the voice of their humanity speaking through the monstrous being which hides within.

Or maybe we simply can’t help but love the villain…

As a true crime podcaster, I have spent countless hours researching the world’s most dark and depraved crimes. During the Halloween season, as most turn to stories of ghosts and goblins to keep them from their slumber, I turn in the opposite direction- to the real, documented killer cases. Most often I am reminded that the real monsters do not just exist in nightmares- they walk among us in human form. For this Halloween’s top ten list, I have researched and documented ten of the world’s most gruesome serial killers. Some have made the list due to his or her sheer number of victims, while others made the cut due to the disturbing nature of the crimes committed. Reader discretion, as always, is advised.

Juana Barazza aka “Lady Luchadora” and “The Old Lady Killer” was a female professional wrestler and serial killer who was sentenced to 759 years in prison for the murders of over 40 elderly women in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Mexico. Barazza was born in 1957 in Mexico to an alcoholic mother who reportedly traded Barazza for alcohol to a man who repeatedly raped her during her childhood, eventually impregnating her.

She developed a love of professional wrestling as an adult, and entered the ring under the stage name “The Lady of Silence.” However, her wrestling career was short lived, and Barazza soon took to murder to silence her rage. All of her victims were females over the age of 60. She would enter the homes of the women by pretending to be a nurse or a government worker who was there to help with finances, even managing to gain access to lists of elderly women who lived alone and were recipients of government assitance. Once Barazza gained access to the homes, she would strangle her victims with items found within the homes. Mexican authorities originally theorized their killer was male, until witnesses claimed to see a masculine woman leaving the areas in which some of the murders were committed. Police even believed the killer might have been dressing in women’s clothing, just to confuse them.

Barazza stole from multiple victims, also taking small trinkets from the scenes, simply as reminders of her murders. Barazza’s run ended in 2006 when she was spotted leaving the scene of the murder of landlady Ana Maria de los Reyes Alfaro and was picked up by police in the same neighborhood. In 2008, Barazza was tried for the murders of 30 victims. She was found guilty of 16 of those murders, along with 12 robberies. Barazza attributed her crimes to her hatred for her mother, stating she believed she was helping society by killing them. Although Barazza was sentenced to 759 years in prison, she will be paroled regardless of her sentence in 2058, when she turns 100 years old.

Pedro Lopez aka the “Monster of the Andes” claimed to have murdered more than 300 young girls across several South American countries beginning in the 1980s. While Lopez was arrested and charged for many of his crimes, he was found mentally insane and sent to a psychiatric institution. However, in 1998, Lopez was released back into society on good behavior and disappeared. As of today, no one knows the whereabouts of Pedro Lopez. Lopez was born in 1947 in Columbia to a prostitute mother, the seventh of thirteen children. Lopez’s mother sent him away when she said she discovered him fondling one of his younger sisters. Lopez was homeless, taken in by a man off the streets who he claimed sexually abused him for years. He was later adopted by an elderly American couple, but ran away and took to the streets again.

By the time he was 18, Lopez made a living by selling stolen cars, and was sent to prison. Here, he claimed he was gang raped, and his murderous ways began. Lopez stated that before he was released, he chased down and murdered each of the men who had raped and sodomized him while incarcerated. After his release from prison, Lopez turned his attention to young girls. He claimed that by the late 1970s he had murdered at least 100 children. In 1978, Lopez was caught abusing young girls by a local South American tribe and was ordered to be executed. However, an American missionary living amongst the tribe convinced the locals not to kill him, but to turn him over to authorities. Lopez was arrested, but once the missionary was gone, police released him.

He moved from Columbia to Ecuador, where his murders continued. Lopez later stated that he preferred young girls in Ecuador because they were “more gentle, trusting, and innocent.” In 1980, Lopez was arrested once again after a failed abduction. During his questioning, he confessed to murdering more than 300 children. The police hesitated to believe the staggering claims, until a flash flood washed out a mass grave containing many of Lopez’s victims, all young girls. He later led police to an additional 53 graves. Lopez went to trial for the murders of 110 children and was found guilty, but legally insane, and sent to a psychiatric facility. In 1998, Lopez was released from the psychiatric facility back into society, and vanished. Is Pedro Lopez, “The Monster of the Andes,” still committing murders today? Perhaps only time will tell.

Aileen Wuornos was born in 1956 in Michigan into a disturbingly dysfunctional family. Her father, a convicted child molester, committed suicide while in prison. Her mother, an alcoholic, abandoned Wuornos and her brother, leaving them to be raised by their grandparents. Wuornos stated that she was sexually abused by her grandfather and had a sexual relationship with her brother. She became pregnant as a teenager, later giving the child up for adoption. Wuornos was kicked out of the home and began living in the woods. She made her living through prostitution, hitchhiking her way around the country. She briefly married a wealthy yachtsman, who abruptly ended the marriage after an altercation.

While living in Florida, Wuornos met a young woman named Tyria Moore, and the two began a relationship. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wuornos picked up and murdered six men along Florida highways. Wuornos and Moore, who were living under aliases, were connected to the murders by fingerprint evidence. Moore agreed to help elicit a confession from Wuornos in order to receive a plea bargain. Wuornos accepted full responsibility for the murders. During trial, Wuornos claimed that she had killed all the men in self defense. In January 1992, Wuornos was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

While on death row, her mental status was re-evaluated after she fired her appeals lawyer, who suggested she had become severely disconnected from reality. Florida governor Jeb Bush lifted a stay of execution after three psychiatrists deemed her stable, and Wuornos was executed by lethal injection in October 2002. After her death, multiple movies and television shows featured Wuornos and retold the story of her depraved life and death.

David Berkowitz aka “Son of Sam” was an American serial killer who confessed to the shooting deaths of six people in New York City in 1976. Berkowitz was born in 1953 to Betty Broder and Joseph Klineman. Klineman, however, was married to another woman with a separate family, and forced Betty to give Berkowitz up for adoption. His adoptive parents changed his name from Richard David Falco to David Richard Berkowitz. Berkowitz was a troubled but intelligent child, who lost interest in school, was described as a bully, and became obsessed with arson and petty theft. In 1971, Berkowitz joined the Army and served in South Korea, eventually receiving an honorable discharge. After leaving the Army, he located his birth mother, discovering the secrets of his childhood. Berkowitz alleged that he began his crime spree on Christmas Eve 1975, when he claimed he stabbed two women. In July 1976, shootings began throughout the city, many of the victims dark haired women accompanied by their boyfriends. After the sixth shooting, the killer began sending taunting letters to the police, calling himself the “Son of Sam.” The letters were riddled with misspellings, questioning the aptitude of the killer.

I am deeply hurt by your calling me a wemon hater. I am not. But I am a monster. I am the "Son of Sam." I am a little "brat". When father Sam gets drunk he gets mean. He beats his family. Sometimes he ties me up to the back of the house. Other times he locks me in the garage. Sam loves to drink blood. "Go out and kill" commands father Sam. Behind our house some rest. Mostly young—raped and slaughtered—their blood drained—just bones now. Papa Sam keeps me locked in the attic, too. I can't get out but I look out the attic window and watch the world go by. I feel like an outsider. I am on a different wave length then everybody else— programmed too kill. However, to stop me you must kill me. Attention all police: Shoot me first—shoot to kill or else. Keep out of my way or you will die! Papa Sam is old now. He needs some blood to preserve his youth. He has had too many heart attacks. Too many heart attacks. "Ugh, me hoot it urts sonny boy." I miss my pretty princess most of all. She's resting in our ladies house but I'll see her soon. I am the "Monster"—"Beelzebub"—the "Chubby Behemouth." I love to hunt. Prowling the streets looking for fair game—tasty meat. The wemon of Queens are z prettyist of all. I must be the water they drink. I live for the hunt—my life. Blood for papa. Mr. Borrelli, sir, I dont want to kill anymore no sir, no more but I must, "honour thy father." I want to make love to the world. I love people. I don't belong on Earth. Return me to yahoos. To the people of Queens, I love you. And I want to wish all of you a happy Easter. May God bless you in this life and in the next and for now I say goodbye and goodnight. Police—Let me haunt you with these words; I'll be back! I'll be back! To be interrpreted as—bang, bang, bang, bank, bang—ugh!! Yours in murder Mr. Monster Shootings and letters continued until the summer of 1977. In August of that year, a woman reported to police that she had been followed by a man while walking her dog, and as she began to run to her home, she heard shots fired behind her. Berkowitz’s yellow Ford Galaxie was spotted in the area, and police began to investigate. Upon searching his vehicle, police located a rifle, a bag of ammunition, maps of multiple crime scenes, and a threatening letter addressed to the head of a local task force. On August 10, Berkowitz was taken into custody. When questioned by authorities, he confessed to them all, but stated that a demon-possessed dog named Harvey spoke to him and told him to commit the crimes. He also stated that he had been part of a satanic cult, and the killings were part of a ritual. Berkowitz later recanted the demon dog story, but stood by his claims of cult involvement. Berkowitz received 25 years to life for each murder, but was eligible for parole after serving 25. He is currently incarcerated in Shawangunk Correctional Facility in New York, where he has written numerous books on his conversion to Christianity and contributes to academic projects relating to the study of the criminal mind.

John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer who raped, tortured, and murdered 33 boys in Illinois between 1972 and 1978. He earned the name “The Killer Clown” as he attended parties, parades and fund raising events dressed in a clown costume, calling himself Pogo the Clown.

Gacy was born in 1942 in Illinois into a Polish/Danish family. His father was an alcoholic who regularly abused Gacy’s mother. Gacy attempted to earn his father’s approval, but was told often that he was “never good enough.” During his childhood, Gacy claimed he was molested by a family friend, and Gacy himself was caught fondling a young girl. Gacy developed numerous health problems, including seizures, that routinely kept him out of school and in the hospital. As a young adult, Gacy became involved briefly in politics, then became an EMT, and eventually worked as a mortuary attendant. Gacy confessed that, during his time as a mortuary attendant, he would regularly sleep in the embalming room. One night, while alone in the funeral home, he climbed into the coffin of a deceased teenage male and caressed his corpse until he went into shock.

After leaving the funeral home business, Gacy attended business college, got married, and invested in fast food restaurants. He became well known throughout the town as a business man and community contributor. However, his persona as a family man hid his real intentions, and Gacy’s crimes soon began. In 1967, he committed his first sexual assault on a teenage boy. Over the next few months, his crimes continued, as he would bribe the boys with alcohol and then force them to perform oral sex. Gacy even claimed that these acts were part of a “scientific research experiment,” for which the boys would receive $50 for their participation. In 1968, one of his young victims contacted police after Gacy assaulted him, and he was arrested. Gacy was convicted of rape and sodomy and was sentenced to ten years in prison. During his incarceration Gacy became known as a model prisoner, even contributing to building a miniature golf course for the prison. He was paroled in 1970 after serving only 18 months of his ten year sentence.

Gacy, whose wife had filed for divorce while his imprisonment, moved to Chicago after his release. Gacy married his high school sweetheart, Carole Hoff, and began to re-establish himself in his new community. He began his own construction company, PDM Construction. However, the claims of rape continued into the early 1970s, and Gacy stated this is when his murder spree began. He claimed his first victim was a 16 year old boy he picked up at a bus station who was traveling from Michigan to Nebraska named Timothy McCoy.

Gacy claimed he stabbed the teen to death, then buried him in the crawlspace beneath his house, later covering the grave with concrete. By 1975, Gacy had expanded his crimes, which he called “cruising.” Young men disappeared, including Gacy’s own employees. In 1975, his second wife filed for divorce, and his “cruising years” became his most murderous time. During this time, he would lure in the young men, typically killing them by strangulation or suffocation after raping and torturing them, then continued to bury their bodies in the crawlspace. By March 1978, Gacy’s signature killing style began to change. He lured a 26 year old man named Jeffrey Rignall into his car, chloroformed him, then took him to his house. There, Gacy repeatedly raped and tortured the young man until he decided he had had enough. He then dumped Rignall in a nearby park, drugged but alive. Rignall recounted the details that he could remember to police, including his abductor’s car.

By December 1978, Gacy’s crimes became sloppy and began to fall apart. He was questioned after the disappearances of two boys whom Gacy had offered jobs. Police became convinced that Gacy knew more than he had told, as they had also begun to link several of Gacy’s past assault charges to his present actions. Gacy appeared to be unravelling. His appearance was dishevelled and he was drinking heavily. Police began a surveillance on his house. On December 19, Gacy invited two patrolmen into the house. While in the bathroom, one officer noticed the smell that he suspected to be rotting flesh emanating from the heating duct. The following day, Gacy appeared for a scheduled meeting at his attorney’s office. After asking for a drink, he picked up the day’s newspaper, whose front page article detailed the story of one of the missing boys and stated, “This boy is dead. He’s in the river.” Over the next few hours, Gacy gave a rambling confession of the crimes, stating that the “male prostitutes, hustlers, and liars” that he had picked up were buried in the crawlspace below his house and dumped into the river.

On December 21, police entered Gacy’s home and began their search. They discovered that the sump pump had been unplugged and the basement had filled with water. After draining the basement, evidence technicians began digging in the crawlspace. After only a few moments, they uncovered rotting flesh and human bone. After completing the dig of the property and search of the river, 33 bodies were discovered. All but six were identified.

In February 1980, Gacy was charged with 33 counts of murder. In March, the jury found Gacy guilty of all 33 murders and he was sentenced to death. He was transferred to Menard Correctional Facility in Illinois where he remained on death row for 14 years. On May 9, 1994, Gacy was executed by lethal injection. A crowd of over 1,000 people had gathered outside the prison, many wearing shirts that said “No tears for the clown.” In Gacy’s last address to his attorneys prior to his execution, he stated that killing him could not compensate for the loss of others, and that the state was murdering him. His final known spoken words were, “Kiss my ass.”

From April 1888 until February 1891, a string of murders occurred in a crime ridden London, originally called the Whitechapel murders. Eleven women, mostly prostitutes from local brothels, were found with their throats cut and bodies mutilated. A serial killer who became known as Jack the Ripper was accused of the brutal slayings. Although numerous theories remain as to who Jack the Ripper was, the murderer’s identity remains a mystery.

Mid 19th century London was a city overrun by an influx of Irish immigrants, Jewish refugees, and migrants from other areas of Eastern Europe. Work and housing conditions were deplorable, and crime was common place. In order to survive, many women fell into prostitution. Many of these women began to report physical attacks and robberies to local authorities, but most were ignored due to the lifestyle the women lived. The first victim, Emma Elizabeth Smith, was attacked on April 3, 1888. She was robbed and sexually assaulted. Although she initially survived the assault, she developed an infection from her wounds and died shortly thereafter. The Ripper’s second victim, Martha Tabram, was found in August 1888, dead from 39 stab wounds. The brutality of her murder caught the attention of police, and they began to take notice of the claims of the sex workers. A grouping of brutal murders, known as “The Canonical Five,” were the Ripper’s next victims. All five women, murdered during the latter half of 1888, were found mutilated. Their throats had been cut, bodies disembowelled, and internal organs, such as uterus and kidneys, were missing.

Although the Canonical Five were the most highly profiled of the Rippers’ murders, an additional four murders were chronicled in the Whitechapel murders case file. Then the Ripper’s string of murders halted. It was assumed the murderer was either dead or imprisoned. However, the investigation continued. Police went door to door, questioning locals. Townsfolk patrolled the streets in an effort to provide vigilante justice. Authorities examined local surgeons, physicians and butchers due to the brutality of the crimes and the surgically absent internal organs. River workers were investigated, thinking possibly the murderer had moved through the area for just a short period of time. In addition, hundreds of letters were written to the local newspaper in regards to the crimes, many that claimed they were written by the murderer himself. It was from these letters that the name “Jack the Ripper” was derived.

As fear struck the town, physical and political reform of the area began. Attention was drawn to the poor living conditions in the area. Within two decades of the Ripper’s murders, slums and asylums were demolished, forcing people out of the area. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Ripper was depicted as a child’s boogeyman. By the 1960s, the Ripper was depicted as a gentlemanly figure, well dressed in a top hat, to represent governmental and upper class exploitation. Museums were erected in remembrance of the victims, and of the brutal, unsolved crimes that haunted the town.

In the coming centuries, the horrors of Jack the Ripper’s crimes have been memorialized thousands of times in literary works, television series, and films. In the 1970s, an investigator coined the term “Ripperology” as the study of Ripper’s crimes. Who was Jack the Ripper? Perhaps one day newly found DNA will crack the case. Or, perhaps, the world will never know.

Tsutomu Miyazaki aka “The Little Girl Murderer” was a Japanese rapist, cannibal, necrophiliac and serial killer who murdered four young girls between 1988 and 1989. His crimes and physical appearance also earned him the monikers “Rat Man” and the “Dracula of Japan.” Miyazaki was born prematurely in Japan in 1962. At birth, his hands were fused together, which prevented him from bending his wrists and caused him to be ostracized in his community. Miyazaki’s family was well-known throughout the area, his father the owner of a local newspaper.

He was an outstanding student until his teen years, when he began failing classes. Upon graduation, he was not accepted to a university, instead attending community college and training as a photo technician. In the 1980s, he moved back in with his parents and shared a room with his sister. Miyazaki would later say that he felt he received no support from his family, who were more concerned about material objects than sentiment. He also said he considered suicide frequently during this period of his life. The only close relative he confided in was his grandfather. In 1988, Miyazaki’s grandfather died, burying him in an even deeper depression. In an attempt to feel close with his grandfather after his death, he ate part of his grandfather’s ashes. Soon after, Miyazaki’s sister caught him watching her while she showered. When she confronted her brother, he attacked her, and then attacked their mother.

During the day, Miyazaki had a seemingly normal and quiet life. But, his demons had continued to surface. In August 1988, at age 26, Miyazaki committed his first murder. Four year old Mari Konno disappeared while playing at a friend’s house. Miyazaki had lured her into his car, and drove westward towards Tokyo. He sat in his car with the young girl for half an hour, then murdered her and performed sexual acts on her body. He then undressed her, left her body in the woods near his home, and took her clothes with him. Later, after the child’s body began to decompose, he went back to the woods to retrieve her hands and feet. Miyazaki took them home and hid them in his closet. He burned her bones in his furnace, ground them into ashes, and sent them to the child’s family along with pictures of her clothes and several of her teeth. Attached was a note that stated simply, “Mari. Cremated. Bones. Investigate. Prove.” In October and December, Miyazaki abducted and murdered two more young girls, treating their bodies in the same fashion, also mailing a postcard to his third victim’s family. Four year old Erika Namba’s family received the card that stated, “Erika. Cold. Cough. Throat. Rest. Death.”

Miyazaki’s murderous run ended in July 1989 when he attempted to abduct two young sisters playing in a local park. He managed to separate the girls, luring the younger of the two away. The older sister ran home to tell her father what had happened. When the girls’ father arrived at the park, he found Miyazaki taking photos of his now nude young daughter. The father attacked Miyazaki, but he was able to escape. Police arrested Miyazaki later when he came back to the park to retrieve his car. Upon searching his apartment, authorities found thousands of videos that Miyazaki had collected, which included violent anime, slasher horror films, and videos that he had taken of his young victims.

Pictured to the left are Miyazaki’s hands. In October and December, Miyazaki abducted and murdered two more young girls, treating their bodies in the same fashion, also mailing a postcard to his third victim’s family. Four year old Erika Namba’s family received the card that stated, “Erika. Cold. Cough. Throat. Rest. Death.”

Miyazaki’s murderous run ended in July 1989 when he attempted to abduct two young sisters playing in a local park. He managed to separate the girls, luring the younger of the two away. The older sister ran home to tell her father what had happened. When the girls’ father arrived at the park, he found Miyazaki taking photos of his now nude young daughter. The father attacked Miyazaki, but he was able to escape. Police arrested Miyazaki later when he came back to the park to retrieve his car. Upon searching his apartment, authorities found thousands of videos that Miyazaki had collected, which included violent anime, slasher horror films, and videos that he had taken of his young victims.

Miyazaki’s trial began in March 1990, and lasted a total of seven years. During this time, his mental competency was tested, as Miyazaki had claimed that an alter ego named “Rat Man” had committed the atrocities. His demeanour throughout the trial remained calm and distant, even taking the time to draw illustrations of “Rat Man” during questionings. In April 1997, the trial came to an end and Miyazaki was sentenced to death for his crimes. He was executed by hanging on June 17, 2008.

Andrei Chikatilo aka “The Rostov Ripper” was a serial killer from the USSR who murdered and mutilated at least 50 women and children between 1978 and 1990. Chikatilo was born in 1936 to a poverty stricken family in a one room hut. The family survived by cultivating their own food, but starvation was never far away. Chikatilo claimed that as a child, his mother told him he had an older brother who was taken and cannibalized by starving neighbors. Chikatilo, an intelligent child, did well in school, but was bullied because of his small stature that was a result of his malnourishment. As a teen, Chikatilo also discovered that he was sexually impotent. He claimed that he was only able to obtain an erection during violent acts. He discovered this when he attacked the 11 year old sister of a friend, tackling her to the ground.

As a young adult, Chikatilo was drafted into the Soviet Army. He was unable to maintain a romantic relationship due to his sexual impotence. In 1963, in what he described as an arranged marriage by his sister, he married Feodosia Odnacheva. Feodosia was able to become pregnant, even though Chikatilo maintained their sex life was nearly non- existent, and the couple had two children.

In 1970, Chikatilo obtained a teaching degree and began teaching Russian literature in a local school. In 1973, he committed his first crimes against his students, assaulting two young females in his class, receiving sexual arousal when the girls struggled against him. His assaults against his students continued for years, even after complaints surfaced of the attacks. In 1981, he was fired from his teaching position, but his crimes had already escalated.

Chikatilo stated his first murder occurred in 1973 when he lured nine year old Yelena Zakotnova into an abandoned house and attempted to rape her. When he was unable to obtain an erection, he stabbed the young girl to death. It was then that he received sexual arousal. He then dumped her body in a nearby river. Chikatilo claimed he did not murder again until 1981, when he abducted 17 year old Larisa Tkachenko. He took the young student into the woods, where he attempted to rape her. When this failed, he beat and stabbed her to death, then mutilated the body by biting her. His murders continued over a number of years, Chikatilo focusing on young vagrants that he would pick up at bus or train stations, take them into the woods, then murder and mutilate their corpses. Chikatilo then began a disturbing trend- he would stab the eyes of the corpses, gouging them out with his knife. The remains were then dumped into the river or left in the woods, often covered in mud, leaves or debris.

By 1983, police began linking the murders together based on the mutilation of the corpses. DNA samples believed to be from the killer were taken from the crime scenes. A profiler was brought in to assist in lthe case, theorizing the murders were the work of a mentally ill person, a Satanic cult, or a group who was harvesting human organs for sale on the black market. In September 1984, Chikatilo was arrested after police witnessed him following and attempting to pick up several young women at a bus station. He was questioned and police collected a blood sample, but his blood type did not match the DNA samples collected at numerous crimes scenes. Chikatilo was released, and his crimes became more frequent and brutal. More bodies were found, including those of young males. Some had been stabbed repeatedly, eyes removed, tongues cut out, genitalia mutilated, and even dismembered.

In 1990, Chikatilo’s crimes came to an end after he was discovered near a train station, dirty, blood smeared on his face, and a bite mark on his finger. Chikatilo’s name had been placed on a suspect list after his first arrest, and he was placed on surveillance. On November 14, he was observed patrolling an area, drinking beer, trying to make contact with children. He was held for days, interrogated, and maintained his innocence. However, on November 29, Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky was asked to join the interrogation.

Pictured above Chikatilo demonstrates how he killed one of his victims.

A psychological profiler, Dr. Bukhanovsky read excerpts from a 65 page profile compiled as a result of the crimes, and Chikatilo broke down. He confessed to 34 of the 36 murders of which he was questioned. He described details of the murders and mutilations, even detailing why he gouged out many victims’ eyes. He stated it was based on a Russian superstition that the image of a murderer would remain in the eye of the victim, therefore he felt he had to destroy them to keep his identity a secret.

At the start of his trial, Chikatilo was portrayed in the media as a maniac. He was wheeled into the courtroom in a cage to protect him from the mobs of the distraught family members of his victims. Chikatilo took the stand in his own defense, but then refused to answer questions when asked. On October 15, he was found guilty of 52 of the 53 murders and sentenced to death plus 86 years in prison. In January 1994, president Boris Yeltsin rejected Chikatilo’s final appeal. He was executed on February 14 with a single gunshot behind his right ear.

Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer who confessed to the rape, murder, mutilation and cannibalism of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1960, Dahmer was born into a seemingly normal family. However, behind closed doors, the family dynamic held dark secrets. His mother, addicted to narcotics, pined for the sole attention of Dahmer’s father. The marriage was unstable, the couple’s violent arguments and outbursts affecting young Dahmer. His teachers described him as a quiet, reserved child. At an early age, Dahmer developed a fascination with dead animals, acquiring animals killed on the road and dismembering them. On one occasion, he claimed to have decapitated a dead dog, later nailing the carcass to a tree. During high school, Dahmer became more reserved. He drank liquor during class, claiming it was “medicine.” It was during this time of his life that Dahmer realized his homosexuality. He told no one, but began fantasizing of dominating and torturing other men for sexual pleasure. Only three weeks after his high school graduation, Dahmer committed his first murder. He picked up a hitchhiker named Steven Mark Hicks, invited him to his house to drink, and bludgeoned him with a dumbbell. He then strangled him, dismembered his body, and buried him in his backyard. Weeks later, he dug up Marks’ body, crushed his bones, and scattered them throughout the woods.

After a short stint in the Army, Dahmer returned to Wisconsin. Dahmer’s heavy drinking continued, and he was arrested for indecent exposure after exposing himself to 25 women and children at a local park. By the mid 1980s, he had begun frequenting bathhouses to pick up men. In order to be the dominating partner, he would drug the drinks, then rape them while unconscious.

Dahmer’s murders continued in 1987, when he claimed he murdered a man at a hotel during a blackout. He dismembered the victim, pulverized his bones, but saved his skull and boiled it in cleaner to remove the skin. Dahmer then kept the skull for sexual pleasure until it became too brittle to keep. Dahmer continued his murders, picking up hitchhikers and frequenters of gay bars. He would drug the men, strangle them, perform sexual acts on their corpses, then keep body parts as souvenirs.

In 1991, Dahmer performed his first experiment on a live captor. He lured 19 year old Errol Lindsey to his apartment and drugged him. In an attempt to keep a permanent submissive, while incapacitated, he drilled a hole in Lindsey’s skull and poured hydrochloric acid in the hole. When Lindsey awoke, he complained of a headache and began asking Dahmer what had happened. Dahmer then strangled him, keeping his skull. He would perform this experiment on a second victim in May 1991 on a 14 year old victim named Konerak Sinthasomphone. He lured the teenager to his apartment, drugged him, then drilled a hole into the frontal lobe of the boy’s skull and poured acid into it. Dahmer continued to drink while the teen lay unconscious, leaving his apartment during the early hours of the morning to get alcohol. When he returned to the apartment, he found Sinthasomphone sitting on the street corner surrounded by a crowd. Dahmer told the concerned crowd that the teen was his boyfriend, but police had been called to the scene. Police went into his apartment, where they later noted a strong smell of human excrement. However, they left Sinthasomphone in Dahmer’s care. The next day, he injected Sinthasomphone with more acid, this dose proving fatal. Dahmer’s crimes came to an end in July 1991. Dahmer had captured 32 year old Tracy Edwards in an attempt to further his murderous experiments. Edwards was able to break free from Dahmer and flagged down police. Edwards led police back to Dahmer’s apartment, where a search turned up some of the most disturbing evidence imaginable- weapons, empty bottles of hydrochloric acid, hundreds of photos of nude victims, and dismembered body parts. In Dahmer’s refrigerator, on the bottom shelf, was the head of one of his latest victims. As police had Dahmer pinned to the ground he muttered the words, “For what I did I should be dead.”

Pictured to the left is the apartment complex being torn down in 1992. Over the course of the coming days, Dahmer confessed to murdering 17 men, the details of the crimes unimaginable. He told of abducting the men, raping them, murdering them, performing sexual acts on the corpses, disposing of the bodies by dismemberment, crushing their bones, and the unthinkable - Dahmer confessed to consuming the hearts, livers, and portions of biceps and thighs of his victims.

On July 25, 1991, Dahmer was charged with four counts of first degree murder. He pled insanity. Independent psychologists determined that Dahmer was a sexual sadist with antisocial personality disorder, but was fit to stand trial. In February the following year, Dahmer was found guilty and sentenced to two life sentences plus ten years in prison. During his first year of imprisonment, Dahmer was kept in solitary confinement as protection from other inmates.

He was later transferred to a medium security cell block, where he was assigned the detail of cleaning the toilet block. In 1994, on November 28, while free from his cell to perform his duties, Dahmer was cornered in the showers by two other inmates and bludgeoned to death with a metal bar.

Ed Kemper “The Coed Killer”was an American serial killer and necrophiliac who murdered ten people, including his grandparents and his own mother, in the 1970s. Kemper was born in 1948 in California to an alcoholic mother and emotionally absent father. Weighing in at 13 pounds at birth, Kemper’s mother began to blame him for the problems in their marriage. His father left the family while Kemper was young, leaving him alone with his mother and two sisters. As a child, Kemper was found to be of above average intelligence, and began showing signs of abusive behaviour.

He killed and mutilated multiple family pets, including burying a cat alive, then digging it up and decapitating it. Kemper would force his sisters to play a game he called “gas chamber,” in which he would be tied to a chair and pretend to die a writhing, painful death. Kemper claimed that his mother would lock him in the basement, as she was afraid he would hurt his sisters. At age 15, Kemper ran away from home to live with his father. However, upon his arrival, he discovered that his father wanted nothing to do with him, and sent him to live with his grandparents. Here, the situation did not improve. Kemper stated that his grandmother was also an abusive alcoholic who “constantly emasculated” Kemper and his grandfather. In August 1964, after an argument with his grandmother, Kemper found a rifle that his grandfather had given him, and shot his grandmother in the back as she sat at her kitchen table. Kemper then waited for his grandfather to return home from the store and shot him in the driveway of their home. He later stated he did this because “he just wanted to know what it felt like to kill grandma,” and he did not want his grandfather to come home and find his wife dead. Upon his arrest, Kemper was sent to Atascadero State Hospital in California, where he was deemed a paranoid schizophrenic, but quickly became a model patient. Kemper began working with the psychiatrists there, assisting them with their research of other patients. He was even allowed to administer psychiatric exams to other patients.

In December 1969, on his 21st birthday, Kemper was released and began living with his mother again. In just a few years, his juvenile record had been expunged. He began classes at a community college, but had ambitions of becoming a police officer. However, he was turned down because of his size- he measured in at an incredible six feet nine inches tall, earning him the nickname Big Ed. Since he was unable to fulfill his dreams of being a police officer, he began frequenting a local bar where the officers would drink after shifts. He started working for the local highway department, and his dark identity began to return.

Kemper’s next murder occurred in May 1972 when he picked up two hitchhikers, 18 year olds Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchessa. Offering them a ride to a local university, he abducted them with the intentions of raping both. After the women were bound, he discovered he was unable to maintain an erection, became enraged, and stabbed and strangled the women. Kemper then took the corpses back to his apartment, where he had sex with them, dismembered them, and scattered their remains on Loma Prieta Mountain.

Kemper continued this pattern with four more young, female students over the course of a year. Some of the victims’ heads were kept in his closet for sexual purposes until they were too decayed to use. However, Kemper had come to the realization that his murderous instincts revolved around his still volatile relationship with his mother, and his course of action was about to change.

In April 1973, Kemper came home from a party to find his mother drunk, in bed, reading a book. When he told her goodnight, she snapped at him stating, “I suppose you’ll want to stay up and talk all night.” Kemper left the room, waited until his mother was sleeping, then returned with a claw hammer and bludgeoned her to death while she slept. He then decapitated his mother and performed sexual acts with her severed head. Once finished, he cut out her vocal cords and destroyed them in the kitchen’s garbage disposal. Kemper then went to the local bar to drink. Upon his return, he called his mother’s best friend, Sally Hallett, and invited her to their home for dinner. When Hallett arrived, Kemper strangled her, decapitated her, and spent the night with her body. The next morning, Kemper stuffed her body in a closet, left a confession letter for the police, and fled.

Kemper drove to Colorado, listening to local and national news to see if his crimes had been discovered. When he failed to hear news in regards to his murders, he stopped and called local police to confess to his crimes. In May 1973, Kemper was indicted on eight counts of murder. Psychiatrists found him fit to stand trial, even taking in to account Kemper’s psychiatric history and the fact that he twice attempted suicide while in prison. On November 8, 1973, Kemper was found guilty on all counts. When asked what he thought his punishment should be, his answer was “death by torture.” Instead, he received seven years to life for each of his crimes. Kemper currently resides at the California Medical Facility where he continues to be a model prisoner. His willingness to speak with authorities about his crimes made him the subject of the recent Netflix show “MindHunter,” as he continues to lend insight to the FBI of the workings of the serial killer’s mind.

We all have scary stories that are so woven into the fabric of our cultures that it seems seamless. As investigators, we should open ourselves up to other cultural experiences in order to provide context to the human experience. Growing up, usually on stormy nights, my family always talked about a goblin-type creature that would tug on the exposed feet of unlucky souls during the night. That story has been weaved into my life so trulym that it is something that I have passed on to my daughter and her friends. The following stories are important cautionary folklore from Latin America.

The Legend of La Llorona

Native to Mexico and even some portions of the Southwestern United States, La Llorona is one of the most well-known spooky Latin American folk tales. Like most oral traditions, La Llorona has many variations but all of them revolve around a forlorn woman and drowned children. Spooky enough for you, dear reader?

The picture to the right is taken from the movie The Curse of La Llorona.

In one version, a beautiful young woman falls in love with a ranchero. The pair marry and begin having children, but before long the ranchero is pulled away from his stable lifestyle to pursue women, riches, or the open road. In a fit of rage and seeking to hurt her wayward husband the only way she could, La Llorona seized her children and threw them into the river, drowning them.

After regaining her composure, La Llorona was devastated at what she had done and condemned herself to the same fate. When La Llorona arrived in heaven without her children she was turned away and told that she may not enter heaven without them. La Llorona is said to haunt bodies of water, wailing and weeping in search of her long-departed children and her elusive final rest.

Some legends hold that any person- man, woman, or child, will be killed by La Llorona if they are unfortunate enough to cross her path. Other people believe that only children are in danger of being pulled down into a watery grave in La Llorona’s attempts to get into heaven.

My personal favorite version of the story involves a beautiful young woman (aren’t they always?) who had a rift with her husband of one sort or another. The woman was a single parent of two young boys. Being young, beautiful, and longing for some male attention, the woman who would become La Llorona often left her boys alone during the evening hours.

One night, after a raucous evening of drinking and dancing, La Llorona returned home and set her eyes upon the children’s empty beds. She looked everywhere and finally found the lifeless bodies of her children floating in the near-by river. Some say that La Llorona herself was the culprit and that she drowned her own children in order to have more freedom.

In this version, La Llorona lives out her days as a cantina girl, but eventually- as her life comes to a close, the woman finds that she has been cursed to roam the Earth’s riverbanks with no rest. As resentment of her fate, La Llorona angrily attacks anyone she happens upon. El Cucuy

El Cucuy, also known as Coco, Cuco, Cucui, is another Latin American legend similar to the Boogeyman. Similar to La Llorona, El Cucuy has many origin stories. The best origin story being that El Cucuy was at one point a father of two rambunctious sons. Needing a break, the father locked his sons in a closet and headed out into town for what I am sure was a completely valid, logical reason.

When the father returned, he found that his property had caught fire. In his absence, the house had been razed to the ground and of course, the boys perished in the blaze. Much like La Llorona, the father was overwhelmed with his sorrow and attempted to end himself. The man didn’t die though.

Instead, the father turned into something just a little bit darker and a little bit hungry. The father had a newfound idea- perhaps his sons would be waiting for him in another closet. The man roamed the Earth, looking for his children in any closet he came upon. Eventually, his face and body contorted in the most gruesome of ways, growing leaner, hairier and hungrier, until the man began to feed on unruly children he would find in his quest. Many say he really developed a taste for it. El Duende

For residents of Honduras and the Dominican Republic, El Duende is not a legend but a real elven-being who wanders around the communities in search of children. Picture a leprechaun who, instead of guarding a pot of gold, scours the countryside looking for children to take back to his lair. Typically, female children are the most likely to attract an attachment with El Duende as the legend goes that every 100 years, Duende must take a wife. He tends to like them young, often with long beautiful hair.

For Duende, the greatest danger presents itself near streams, caves, springs, and rivers. If Duende catches a female on his stomping grounds, he is said to offer beautiful gifts before kidnapping the girl and taking her to his lair. If the Duende is unable to capture the object of his fascination he will follow them home.

Once followed, Duende perpetrates a fierce attack on the home and its occupants every night. Duende is said to rain sand or rocks down onto the roof of the house, break objects inside the house, turn the lights on and off, and generally create chaos in order to get to the person they are after.

This legend is so pervasive that recently there have even been court cases based on harassment and destruction caused by a Duende. Maybe rethink that stroll beside the mountain stream? ee

Unfortunately I have had the pleasure of working with Daryl now for nearly four years and I say “unfortunately” because readers; you don’t know him like I do. I remember having to remind him how to do basic things on a computer and not to brag I like to think that I am the reason why he has managed to get so far…

OK I am just joking. Daryl has done an amazing job and it has nothing to do with me. He is one of the few paranormal investigators I trust and not just as an investigator. He is one of the only persons I trust, he is like family to me and I could not be happier for him. He has done so much to try and help other people in this industry and now he is helping himself, and he deserves it. It is great to see him on what is one of the jewels in the crown of paranormal television; Ghost Hunters. He is a proper investigator. Not only does he keep an open mind but he also stays grounded and always remembers to try and prove if something is spiritual or not. He doesn’t just jump to it being paranormal. Now I am not just saying this to kiss his ass because I want you, the reader, to understand that He is genuinely a nice guy and I have quotes from others that know him and work with him, including some of his new cast members, to back it up.

Melanie, his wife, said: Daryl is extremely level headed, responsible, and respectful. He takes his work and responsibilities very seriously no matter what he is doing. When you are around him you feel safe because he looks at everything logically before emotionally which also makes him a great paranormal investigator. Daryl may seem a bit intimidating at first but his leadership and problem solving skills stand out so people naturally gravitate to him for help and guidance. At the same time he is very funny and a lot of fun. Once the job is done he's a great person to kick back and chill with because he's so much fun to be around.

Mustafa, Ghost Hunters: A good friend and mentor of mine points out one of humanity's biggest flaws: and it's that we judge people in two seconds. A lot of times, our initial impressions of people are spot on: they reveal themselves to be exactly who we thought they are. Now when you see Daryl the first thing you notice are the muscles and the beard and you assume he's from some bygone era of Hell's Angels badasses. And he IS a badass, but not the kind that'll run you off the side of the road and murder you for a gang initiation. He's extremely kind-hearted, level-headed, and, what I admire most, is that he's consistently genuine in any and every situation. He approaches each investigation with a sharp presence of mind while simultaneously being compassionate to both the clients and possible entities that may be in a location. I learn so much from not only watching his investigations but how he conducts himself as a man on a daily basis. I'm proud to not only be on the same team as him, but to call him my friend. I love the guy, and can only hope to have a heart, and facial mane, as big as his someday.

Richel, Ghost Hunters: Daryl is a great guy. Looks tough and scary but is kinda quiet and very caring. He’s funny. Wonderful to have on the team and a great investigator. I think of him as family and I love his wife.

Brian, Ghost Hunters: Daryl is not only an amazing investigator, he is also an amazing man, father, and husband, I’d go to battle with this man without any hesitations. I know he’d have my 6, just like I’d have his. See I told you he is awesome, but for me personally – he is still useless in a lot of ways, honestly… Anyway here is my interview with him.

Enjoy! Alex King First of all Daryl, thank you for taking some time out of your schedule to speak to Living Paranormal Magazine.

Daryl: F*** you (we both laugh)

I am going to put that in the magazine bro. (we continue to laugh as we both know I was only acting all official to annoy him)

Right, serious now. In the first episode of Ghost Hunters, where we got to know you, you spoke about your experiences with the passing of your son but I know that one of the other things that pushed you towards the paranormal was also the death of your father.

Daryl: The death of my father in 2006, was when I really started getting into it. I mean I use to watch the shows and stuff but I didn’t really know what a ghost hunter was until those shows came out. Then I actually got invited to an investigation in the fall of the same year and so I went along. I was only like there for two hours but I was hooked. I said to myself “this is what I want to do” I didn’t care how I was going to do it I was just going to figure it out. You know I never thought about being on TV or anything like that I just wanted to go ahead and investigate the paranormal. So I started locally like going to Fort Delaware and other places. This is around the time I met Melanie and we started investigating together. We would go on vacations but our vacations would be paranormal related. We didn’t go to the Bahamas or anything like that.

Speaking of Melanie, how supportive has she been throughout the whole Ghost Hunters process?

Daryl: Melanie is amazing, she has been very supportive, you know the whole family has been supportive. I am probably home one week a month at the moment. She takes care of the kids, the house and everything while I’m gone. I couldn’t ask for a better support.

So I mentioned earlier, in regards to your son passing. How did that affect you not only as an investigator but as a person?

Daryl: I think before he passed I think I was a bit more loose on an investigation, it was more about going out and just trying to find ghosts; once he passed I settled down and it took me in a completely different direction. I wanted to find out more about the afterlife. I started to read up and learn more about it. I started to surround myself with people who were probably smarter than me so I could learn from them. So that’s where I am at today.

Because it was November 2016 right? That he passed away.

Daryl: November14th.

So it wasn’t that long after that you started The American Ghost Hunter

Show?

Daryl: yeah it was actually September that year that I was in the process of putting everything together but obviously that all got put on hold. It was actually December that I did my first show. Before myself and Helena was part of it.

Daryl: Yeah you guys came along about five months later bro.

OK so in the Ghost Hunters episode you talk about what happened with your son, the day that he passed. Could you tell us more about that, what was left out of the episode?

Daryl: I was actually at home; I didn’t know anything had happened at this point and a police car pulled up in my drive way but I thought they were just lost of something. Then he sat there, so I watched them. Then he got out his car and walked up to my front door. I answered and he gave me my son’s name and explained what had happened. I couldn’t drive at that point because I was devastated so I phoned Mel up and she came and got me. So we’re at the hospital and I was taken down this long corridor and there are all these doors. There was this one door to the right of me which said “no admittance” and as I was walking pass this door I felt someone grab my shoulder but when I looked no one was there. The grab was so hard I thought it was a Doctor or someone. But I wasn’t even thinking straight at that point so I didn’t really focus on it. So we spoke to the doctor, he offered to take me to see my son’s body. We walked back down the same corridor and we got to that door again. And that is where my son was being kept. I’ll never forget it. To this day I think it was him because grabbing my shoulder was something he used to do and I think it was him telling me that he was ok.

I am glad you got that paranormal experience man. It’s awful that he did pass away but its good you got that. So going back to AGHS, what made you decide to start it?

Daryl: Honestly I needed a break from investigating because I was always traveling so far to these locations. And obviously at that point you’re using your own cash so everything was really expensive. So I wanted to do something that I could do from home and use it as a way of branching out and communicating with more people in the paranormal. And I have and you have managed to meet so many cool people along the way. I loved it. OK so I know the American Ghost Hunter Show isn’t anywhere as big as Ghost Hunters but did you ever imagine it getting as far as it has? Considering how many paranormal podcasts/chat shows/radio shows etc that there are.

Daryl: I had no idea man. The first year was pretty slow; you know when we started building our fan base, but the last two years it seemed to blow up. It was amazing to watch, it really was. To see people embrace it that much and love it. The show has its own fanbase now; you have people that watch that show religiously. No matter how good or bad it is, they watch it.

Yeah well there are bad ones (we laugh).

Daryl: Its live, and the problem with being live you never know which way it’s going to go. There is no editing involved, you can really plan it. You could do a great interview one week and the following week it could be awful (he laughs) it’s the roll of the dice.

What did you want AGHS to be?

Daryl: I wanted it to be free spirited. I wanted people to be able to say what they wanted (within reason) and not care what people thought and that’s the direction we went with. If a Troll jumped on the chat you could tell him to F*** off and now I can’t do that (we laugh). That’s what I think people love about the show. It’s funny and we didn’t take any crap from anybody.

We’ve interviewed hundreds of different people, of all the people we have interviewed who stood out the most?

Daryl: I think the most iconic interview we did was when we had Nick Groff and Elizabeth Saint on but the one that sticks out the most for me, personally, was when we had Barrie John (the medium) on the show. He was spot on for what he said to me, everything has come true accept for one thing but the journey isn’t over yet.

What would be some of the funniest moments from the shows we have done?

Daryl: There are so many. Brendan Shay was always funny; we always had a good time with the Girls Vs Ghost girls on. The one where you kept being kicked off skype and coming back on wearing different hats, that was when we had Josh Bender on.

Right then, let’s start to talk more about Ghost Hunters! You are at least half way through filming now, is it still surreal? Or has it sunk it now?

Daryl: Oh it’s really sunk in now. I think we’re all well rounded now. I mean we’re filming 20 episodes; it’s like filming two seasons. So we already feel like veterans. We know what we need to and when we need to do it. It was when Ghost Hunters went live that it really hit home, you know? We have haters, we refer to them as the dirty dozen, but they don’t get to us. It was inevitably going to happen. But we have so many great people watching and the ratings are doing really well. You see the people responding positively and that helps majorly.

Does that make you feel vindicated – Ok so you are going out and helping the clients – but the fact that ratings are doing well and you’re getting good feedback?

Daryl: Oh yeah, yeah. It does. Both A&E and Pilgrim have put a lot into this project so seeing them happy and the fans happy makes us happy. You always wonder, especially the first few months out of the road, nothing was out yet so we didn’t know what would happen, until the first episode comes out. So yeah you feel vindicated. The ratings are getting better too.

People see all the stuff that you and your team upload onto Instagram and Facebook, but what has been your best moment behind the scenes?

Daryl: Usually it’s anything to do with Mustafa. If you’re feeling a little down, all you need to do is spend like five minutes with him and he cheers you up with all the crazy stuff he comes out with. He’s like an energizer bunny. I don’t think he sleeps. I think he sits in his room practicing “bits” he can do. One of the best moments thought was when we were in Louisiana. Brian is a funny dude too but not on purpose. He has trouble getting the right word out sometimes so it’s him mixing up his words. (While chuckling) he says things that don’t make sense but you know what he means.

Like Ricky, from the Trailer Park Boys.

Daryl: Oh yeah, exactly. We call them “Brianizms”. There was this one moment on set that a set of stairs broke and he fell through. It was really funny man. I hope it makes the episode.

So far what’s been your favourite moment of the series?

Daryl: I think the thing that stuck out the most for me, even though it didn’t make the episode, was when I stayed in a cabin for three days. It was a very sleepless time for me. It will probably be in a special. That was at the castle (episode 4). That place looks like Disneyland but some of the stuff that happened there was crazy. You didn’t see it all in the episode, but you will hopefully in a special.

What do people have to look forward to?

Daryl: We got a huge location that we are filming at soon, I can’t say where but it’s probably going to be our Halloween episode. People are going to love it. It’s going to be iconic. That will be October 30th.

Borley Rectory is one of the best known hauntings in the south of England it once was a Victorian house that gained its famous reputation as being the most haunted house in England after being described that way by Harry Price, who many people like to believe is the grandfather of the paranormal.

It was built in 1862 to house the rector of the parish of Borley and his family; 77 years later it was badly damaged by fire and eventually demolished in 1944. The large Gothic rectory was said to be haunted ever since it was built. These reports multiplied suddenly in 1929, because of a publication by the Daily Mirror. They wrote an account of a visit by Harry Price, who then went on to write two books supporting his claims of activity.

The uncritical acceptance of Price's reports soon prompted a formal study by the Society for Psychical Research, they soon rejected most of the sightings he had reported as either imagined or fabricated and this began to cast doubt on Price's credibility. His claims are now somewhat discredited by ghost historians and ghost hunters alike but is there any evidence to support reports were lies?

The first reports of activity were reported around 1863, a few of the locals in the area claimed they remembered having heard unexplained footsteps within the house at about that time. But things took a sharp turn years later, when the four daughters of the rector, Henry Bull, claimed they saw the ghost of a nun at twilight; this spirit was not far from the house. They also claimed they had tried to talk to it, but it disappeared as they got closer to the ghostly figure. The organist from the church, Ernest Ambrose, later spoke about the family at the rectory. She said that "they were very convinced that they had seen an apparition on several occasions".

Various people around the small sleepy village claimed to have witnessed a variety of paranormal incidents, such as a phantom coach driven by two headless horsemen pulling up to the hall. Including voices and footsteps. This was over the course of the next four decades. Bull died in 1892 and his son, the Reverend Henry ("Harry") Bull, took over the living in the rectory.

Harry Bull passed away on the 9th June 1927 and soon the rectory became empty again, on October the second, 1928, the Reverend Guy Eric Smith and his wife moved into the house. Soon after they had moved in, Smith's wife came across a brown paper package in a cupboard while cleaning she opened the package and found it held the skull of a young woman. Shortly after this find, the family reported many more paranormal incidents including the sounds of servant bells ringing despite the fact they had been disconnected, as well as lights that kept appearing in windows and unexplained footsteps. In addition, Smith's wife believed she saw a horse-drawn carriage; she claimed to have seen this on several nights. It was the Smiths contacted the Daily Mirror asking to be put in touch with the Society for Psychical Research and on the 10 June 1929 the newspaper sent a reporter, who wrote the first in a series of articles detailing the hauntings of Borley.

The paper also arranged for Harry Price, a paranormal researcher, to make his first visit to the house. He soon arrived on 12 June and almost immediately new phenomena appeared, such as the throwing of stones and other objects. He claimed "Spirit messages" were tapped out from the frame of a mirror. It just so happened that as soon as price left the rectory the so called activity stopped, Smith's wife later maintained that she already suspected Price a fraud or and expert conjurer, of falsifying the phenomena. She did not take what he was claiming as truth because none of what he was reporting had happened to the family without him being around.

The Smiths eventually left Borley in July (1929) and the parish had some difficulty in finding a replacement due to the hauntings. The following year a new Reverend named Lionel Algernon Foyster moved into the rectory. He was actually a first cousin of the Bulls. He and his wife Marianne moved into the home with their adopted daughter Adelaide, on 16 October 1930. He wrote an account of various strange incidents that occurred between the time they moved in and October 1935, which were sent to Harry Price.

The new activity included bell-ringing, windows shattering, throwing of stones and bottles, wall- writing; as well as a door locking itself with their daughter in a room with no key. Marianne also reported to her husband wide range of poltergeist activity that included her being thrown from her bed. On one occasion their daughter Adelaide was attacked by "something horrible". The Foyster family tried twice to conduct an exorcism, but their efforts were fruitless; in the middle of the first exorcism, Lionel was struck in the shoulder by a fist-size stone. Because of the publicity in the Daily Mirror, these incidents attracted more attention from the public and several psychic researchers.

Many of the researchers who had investigated the claims were unanimous in suspecting that they were caused, consciously or unconsciously, by Marianne. She later said that she felt that some of the incidents were caused by her husband, in private with one of the psychic researchers, but other events that happened to her to be genuinely paranormal. But soon she admitted that she was having a sexual relationship with the lodger, Frank Pearless, and she had used paranormal explanations to cover up her liaisons. The Foyster family left Borley in October 1935 as a result of Lionel’s ill health.

Borley remained empty for some time after the Foysters' departure. In May 1937, Price took out a year-long rental agreement. He was to conduct a full investigation; he did this through an advertisement in The Times on 25 May 1937 and subsequent personal interviews to get access to building. Price recruited 48 "official observers", mostly students, who spent periods of time in the rectory, they mainly stayed during weekends. They were given instructions to report any activity that occurred. In March 1938 Helen Glanville who was the daughter of S. J. Glanville, one of Price's helpers conducted a planchette séance in Streatham in south London. Price reported that during the séance she made contact with two spirits. The first of which was that of a young nun who identified herself as Marie Lairre. According to the planchette story Marie was a French nun who left her religious order and travelled to England to marry a member of the Waldegrave family, the owners of Borley's 17th-century manor house, Borley Hall. She was said to have been murdered in an older building on the site of the rectory, and her body either buried in the cellar or thrown into a disused well on the grounds. She claimed that the wall writings were her pleas for help; one of them read "Marianne, please help me get out".

The second spirit to be contacted identified himself as Sunex Amures, this spirit claimed that he would set fire to the rectory at nine o'clock that night, 27 March 1938. He also said that, at that time, the bones of a murdered person would be revealed.

The rectory was set ablaze on the 27 February 1939 because the new owner of the rectory, Captain W. H. Gregson, he was unpacking boxes and accidentally knocked over an oil lamp in the hallway. The fire quickly spread and the house was severely damaged. After an investigating into the cause of the fire the insurance company concluded that the fire had been started deliberately.

In August 1943, Price conducted a brief dig in the cellars of the ruins of house and discovered two bones thought to be of a young woman. The bones were then given a Christian burial in Liston churchyard, after the parish of Borley refused to allow the ceremony to take place on account of the local opinion that the bones found were that of a pig.

After Price's death in 1948, A Daily Mail reporter Charles Sutton accused him of faking the activity. He claimed that whilst visiting the rectory with Price in 1929 he was hit on the head by a large pebble. Sutton stated that he questioned Price and found his coat pockets filled with different sized stones. In 1948, Eric Dingwall, K. M. Goldney and Trevor H. Hall, three members of the Society for Psychical Research , two of whom had surprisingly been Price's most loyal associates, investigated his claims about Borley. Their findings were published in a 1956 book, The Haunting of Borley Rectory, which concluded that Price had fraudulently produced some of the activity like many people believed.

The "Borley Report", as the SPR study has become known as, stated that many of the stories and activities were either faked or due to natural causes such as rats and the strange acoustics because of the odd shape of the house.

In their conclusion, Dingwall, Goldney and Hall wrote "when analysed, the evidence for haunting and poltergeist activity for each and every period appears to diminish in force and finally to vanish away.” Terence Hines wrote that "Mrs. Foyster, the wife of the Rev. Foyster who lived at the rectory from 1930 to 1935, was actively engaged in fraudulently creating the hauntings, and Price himself 'salted the mine' and faked several things while he was at the rectory.

Marianne Foyster, admitted she had seen no apparitions and that the alleged ghostly noises were caused by the wind, she said this later in her life, also that some of the activity was caused by friends she invited to the house and in other cases by herself playing practical jokes on her husband. Many of the legends about the rectory had been invented. The children of the Rev. Harry Bull who lived in the house before Lionel Foyster claimed to have seen nothing and were surprised they had been living in what was described as England's most haunted house. Not many people stood behind prices findings but Robert Hastings was one of the few SPR researchers to defend Price. Price's literary executor Paul Tabori and Peter Underwood have defended Price against accusations of fraud. A similar approach was made by Ivan Banks in 1996. Michael Coleman in an SPR report in 1997 wrote Price's defenders are unable to convince of the criticisms convincingly. So that is the history of Borley and the hauntings but what other proof is there that the stories of activity are actually false?

Let’s start with the spirit of the nun that was reported; to do this we need to take a trip not too far to the village of Great Yeldham. A place where I actually used to live. This was when I first discovered the similarity between two hauntings. Great Yeldham as a 'Nun's Walk' it is a small road that is near the church and is the driveway to the old rectory. It is known that the Bull family used to preach at the church from time to time, and that they took their children with them.

The children at this point were probably at an impressionable age. The rectory in Great Yeldham is also said to be possibly haunted. The building has ancient cellars as well and bells that ring without anyone there to ring them. Servants also complained that the lights would turn on and off without a human being the reason why. It was also said that one of the rector's dogs would refused to enter a particular room, later human remains were found under the floors of that room. A bachelor clergyman also refused to live in the rectory because of the noises he heard at night.

The Bull family where known through the village of Yeldham and they were friends with many people in the village, they would have been told of stories about the rectory before they moved in to Borley but this is not the only story that sound similar to the hauntings of Borley.

Now let’s look at the Phantom coach that rushed toward the hall; for this we need to take another short trip to the small village of Acton. This village has a much older legend attached to it not that many years ago and that was that on certain occasions the park gates would fly open at midnight without human hands being involved. Then apparently a carriage drawn by four horses accompanied by a headless horseman would enter the gates and move towards a place known as "nursery corner", this is the spot where a bloody engagement took place when the Romans were Governors of England. Near the corner there is a haunted pool called Wimbrell Pond, where legend tells of an iron chest with money still within it lays, it is said that anyone who throws a stone into the water will hear it ring and a person in white will call out in anger "that's mine". So this legend being 100 years older than Borley rectory could very well be the inspiration for the legend that is told about Borley. Not to mention that are other villages and/or towns with similar stories of headless horsemen and phantom carriages.

The story of a monastery being on site of Borley is another story that raises some questions. Again there is a tale that almost matches. This takes place in the parish of Glemsford which is just two miles away. Two skeletons, one male and the other female, were discovered near Glemsford bridge on the borders between Foxearth and Glemsford, the skeletons were arranged side by side, the male was on the right while the female was on the left both had no signs of coffins. Many people thought that there must have been foul play at work due to the site they were found, but their position east to west implied they were a Christian burial which was confirmed by the two sticks laid across them. It may have been a "strangers corner" on a former burial ground .Tradition says there was an ancient site of a monastery in the field they were on the edge of so it would not be out of place to find two bodies buried at such a location.

Farmers over the past centuries have stated that they have hit the foundations with their ploughs over many years. But it is almost certain that the foundations were that of the former Glemsford watermill rather than a monastery. It also seems fairly likely that the story of a monk and the nun were woven round speculation about how these two skeletons came to be there. The parish of Glemsford has many stories of the legends of tunnels and ghostly goings on that became so popular they were taught in the school as part of their local history lessons.

Some people have felt or still feel that the stories of the rectory were made up or highly exaggerated. People who spent time with in walls of the building and of the church reported nothing at all happening after the death of Price. When people were beginning to ask questions about his integrity some people came forward and claimed that they had at times witnessed him faking and producing activity. That he would throw stones from his pockets, as well ask throw glasses or set things up to make the building seem active without anyone other than him knowing. Many witnesses feared coming forward before his death as they knew that Price would take legal action against them. This was the man who was responsible for all the publicity about Borley Rectory, and who gave it its reputation as the most haunted house in England.

To this day the people of Borley still have to deal with “ghost hunters” heading to the location to see if they can get anything. The villagers do not tend to like the fact that the place has become a location for paranormal enthusiasts to visit. Many people living there have been living there for generations. And many to this day still report nothing happening. The church is almost always locked and if it is open someone is usually in the building. Having spoken to some of the villagers most do not believe the stories of Borley Rectory and say they have never seen, felt or experienced anything on or around the site. The building itself is no longer there, so maybe we will never truly know if the hauntings were real or not. But what we do know is there has been a lot of evidence contradicting Price’s claims.

Now I am not saying the location does not hold any spirits as a location as old as Borley is bound to have them; as most places do; what I am questioning is the type of haunting and the stories that do not seem to fit within village history. I will let you make your own minds up.

The Fall of 1987 was much like any other in Virginia- unseasonably warm, the leaves changing- but something

different was about to take shape over the slow slide into winter and the investigation into the terrible murders that followed would change the way crimes were solved forever. A serial killer dubbed the ‘Southside Strangler’ was stalking women in Virginia and no one was safe.

The first murder occurred the night of September 18, 1987 in an apartment in the Westover Hills neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. Debbie Dudley Davis, 35, an account executive for a local paper, was found, lying naked on her bed- she had been raped and then strangled to death with a sock tied around her neck and twisted with a piece of pipe.

Just weeks later, on October 3rd, Dr. Susan Hellams, a neurosurgery resident at the nearby Medical College of Virginia, was found by her husband when he returned to their home on West 31st Street- just blocks from Debbie Dudley Davis’ apartment. He discovered her body, partially clothed, on the floor of their bedroom closet and called police. Her murderer was able to enter the house by cutting out the window screen from a second floor bedroom. Her cause of death was determined by the medical examiner to be ligature strangulation- caused by the 2 belts found wrapped around her neck.

Then, on November 22, a 15-year-old high school student named Diane Cho was found just outside of Richmond in her family’s Chesterfield County apartment. She had been raped and strangled to death in her bedroom while her family slept nearby. She was killed in a manner that was strikingly similar to the murders of Debbie Davis and Dr. Susan Hellams.

Just days later, on November 27, Susan Tucker was raped and murdered in her apartment in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC. Her body was not found until December 1, but the manner in which she was murdered was unfortunately becoming familiar to detectives. On January 20, 1988 an arrest was made by the

Arlington County police. 25-year-old Timothy

Wilson Spencer, of Richmond, was arrested for the rape and murder of Susan Tucker. Spencer had traveled to Arlington to spend Thanksgiving with his mother, who lived a mile away from Tucker’s apartment. He was charged shortly thereafter with the murders of Debbie Davis, Susan Hellams and Diane Cho. Spencer had been living in a halfway house for parolee’s located in South Richmond, within walking distance of Davis’ and Hellam’s homes.

Forensic testing was done on samples found at each of the crime scenes as the case moved towards trial for each of the murders. No fingerprints had been found at any of the scenes, but there was biological evidence. Ultimately, DNA testing of semen from the crime scenes were found to be a match to Timothy Wilson Spencer’s blood.

Spencer was put to death at the Greensville Correctional Center, located 60 miles south of Richmond on April 27, 1994. Spencer was the first person in the United States convicted of murder using DNA- matching technology, and the last inmate to be executed by electrocution in Virginia.

Beneath netted lanterns and hanging tropical plants—right across from a carved image of a Polynesian god that’s stretching its own tongue to unnatural lengths—sits table 42 in the Tipsy Tiki Bar. The whole place overlooks the Saratoga Passage and I’ve examined the website and countless reviews of the bar. While the food and drinks don’t seem to be anything but average, the kitschy atmosphere is quite the attraction for diners. Also, it appears to be haunted, based on one or two posts from travel site forums. “Starlight 542” says her table began to tremble one night, but I don’t think that’s such a big deal. The Pacific Northwest is known for its tremors. The ground is constantly shifting, so it’s a place ripe for seismic activity.

Another diner, “CarlsbadJG5093,” just thinks he felt a “creepy” presence in the restaurant and one of the servers confirmed that “strange things” had happened there on his shift, but he wouldn’t elaborate. Both reviewers mention table 42 and now I’m just tingling all over with the thought of not only visiting a tiki bar, but also a haunted tiki bar. It doesn’t take long for me to book a table for two and I can’t want to tell Dale where we’ll eat tonight.

“The Tipsy Tiki Bar,” he says, while pulling up the website on his phone. “That sounds like it could be interesting. . . but . . . the food doesn’t get very good reviews.”

“Oh, we’re not going for the food.”

“Please no, Judy—please tell me you’re not taking me to a place that has ghosts or something. I really don’t think we should be doing that. You’re just asking for something horrible to follow you home when you do that.”

“It’s not that bad. No one knows for sure if it’s haunted. It’s not been investigated or anything. Just two people out of 750 reviews think it might be haunted. Most people think it’s fun. Come on—it’ll be an adventure.”

Dale reluctantly gets dressed for dinner and I decide that I won’t tell him I’ve arranged for us to sit at the most haunted table in the place—and that it shakes—and is surrounded by “uneasiness” and “shadows.”

“Can you tell me again why we’re here at 9 p.m.?” Dale asks when we arrive at the bar. It’s all lit up with tiki torches. When we enter, there’s a light breeze and a sprinkle of chlorinated water from the waterfall at the entrance lightly touches my nose.

“Because I couldn’t get reservations any earlier,” I tell him.

But I don’t tell him that perhaps, the later we eat, the more active a ghost might be, especially if there are fewer people in the bar at night.

Dale shrugs his shoulders and shuffles over to the table in the far corner of the room.

“Well, it sure is festive,” Dale says as he opens a menu and orders a Blue Hawaiian.

I get the rum punch—and I wait. I wait for the tremors—and I think I feel them, ever so slightly. So, I ask Dale if he thinks the table shaking.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Judy! Are we sitting at a haunted table?”

“Maybe.”

“Is the table supposed to move?” Already I’m disappointed. I guess the table hasn’t moved. However, I sit as tall as I can to see if I can suddenly feel a cold spot.

“Do you notice any shifts in temperature?” I ask.

“No—it’s hot as hell in here. We’re stuffed in the corner like suitcases. It’s not even a good table, Judy. I’d tolerate a brush with a ghost if we were near the waterfall or something, but we’re eating tater tots and greasy burgers in a very unexciting, dark corner—and the drinks have been watered down. And they’re expensive.”

Now, I’m not sure I’ll get Dale back here again—and I want to come back because I know—I truly believe that this place is haunted.

Dale pays the bill and, when I stand up to leave, the heel of my shoe catches on something underneath the table and I can’t get up. I kick and struggle as I try to pull my foot out from under the table, but I end up taking a nasty spill onto the floor.

“I didn’t think you had that much to drink,” Dale says.

“Does she need help to the car?” our server asks.

“No—I’m fine. There’s just some gum or something under the table. I’m okay—really.”

The server moves the table out of the way and inspects the floor for gum or anything else that might catch on a shoe, but he doesn’t find anything.

A tiny drop of blood forms on the sole of my left foot and I can see it while I’m sleeping. It’s there, under the sheets, growing wider. The blood starts as a trickle, but then it flows steadily, gaining momentum. The hole in my foot opens up even more and I can see the tendons and bones inside—and I realize that I’m bleeding out. I’m bleeding onto the bed. In my sleep, I tear at the bed sheets. Then, I hear Dale off in the distance,

“Judy! Judy!”

It was my left foot, I think—the one that caught under the table—the one that felt like it was bleeding out, but now it’s fine. Dale turns on the light to show me that I was only dreaming. But something inside tells me that at least part of my dream was real—that part of its realness stemmed from the floor of the tiki restaurant. Something tells me I was right. Something or someone haunts table 42 and I need to go back.

“We’re going out,” I announce when Dale gets home from work.

“Okay—where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise and I’ll drive.”

“So I can have more than just a couple of cocktails?”

“Sure.”

And now I know he won’t care if I take him back to the tiki bar and insist that we sit at the same table as the week before.

When we arrive, the place looks the same, but the servers are all wearing new uniforms and the menu has changed. An “Under New Management” sign has been hung over the door.

“This looks promising,” Dale says.

But the food and drinks are pretty much the same: greasy and watered down. Still, the atmosphere is refreshing.

After Dale’s third drink, the table starts to tremble, ever so slightly. I know Dale felt the movement because he looks around, the same as I do—to see if others are experiencing the same thing. However, it appears that no one else’s table has moved. When the table settles down, Dale says nothing. He doesn’t want to say anything. Saying something makes possibilities real— makes shadows solid. Instead, Dale orders another drink. While we wait, I excuse myself to use the restroom.

On the way to the restroom, I bump into a server who is wearing a tropical skirt and a flower in her hair. I can’t resist asking her what she knows about this place.

“I’m seated at table 42,” I say.

“Yes?”

“And . . . it seemed to have moved.”

“Table 42?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve heard that happens sometimes.”

“Of course—it’s probably nothing.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” she says as she nods her head in the direction of a back room where servers go between shifts.

In the back room, she tells me that the “Under New Management” sign is not new. They put it up once a week. There’s something here—something that spooks the management and staff, so there’s a large turnover on a regular basis. She herself was once a customer here when she visited as a part of a bachelorette party. There were so many people in the party that some of the women in the group had to sit at separate tables, including the bride-to-be and another friend. They ended up at table 42, and when they noticed that it moved, they laughed and took a sip from a drink every time the surface of the table jiggled.

A server told them to be careful. He even offered to move them to another table because he sensed danger, but they refused to leave because they were having so much fun. The table never stopped moving the entire night and the server quit right on the spot. He said he was just too freaked out to stay.

When the bride-to-be left, however, she never made it to the altar the next day. On the way home, she crashed her car. Apparently, her foot somehow got jammed onto the gas pedal, so she was only able to accelerate. She couldn’t apply the brakes and the only way to stop the car at that point was to hit the retaining wall on the freeway. She died instantly. “It’s Dean,” the server tells me. “He comes as a warning, which is not to be taken lightly.”

“But who is he?” I ask.

She jerks her head to the right at the sound of her name.

“I have to go. He was the original owner of this place. He’s still here, it seems.”

While Dale sleeps, I run a search on the Internet by entering Dean’s name and the name of the bar to see what I can find. Deep within a string of searches, I find someone’s blog that hasn’t been updated since 2007. It’s called “The Spaces Where I Write” and I can’t find an “About” section or an author’s name, but there’s a picture of table 42 and a young man is standing next to it. He’s dressed in a black server’s uniform, wearing a lei of purple flowers around his neck. The caption reads: Dean, before he blew his brains out.

The story that follows is only about 500 words and it’s dedicated to Dean on the day after he was supposed to get married. His bride left him at the altar. He turned a gun on himself when he returned to the bar he owned.

When I’m finished reading, I decide that I’m satisfied with what I’ve read. It’s all I need to confirm that the bar is haunted. I’d eaten there and I’d felt a presence. I never need to go back.

The spot of blood on the sole of my left foot reappears and now it’s travelling to the middle of my leg, but the pain is in my heart. This time, though, I know it’s a dream and when I awaken, Dale is still there, sleeping beside me. So, I go downstairs to the kitchen, but I think I see shadows that follow me, just below my sight—out of the corner of my eye. Shaking my head, I blink them away and face the window in front of the kitchen sink. With the lights out, I can see clear into the woods in the back yard. It’s warm inside, so I open the window and hear a rush of water I was not expecting to hear. It grows louder; I slip past the back door and follow the sound down through rocky paths, over exposed roots, and past the stumps of trees—all the way down to a waterfall I’ve never seen before in this part of the property. Torches are lit and I can hear the beat of drums. They match the rhythm of my heart, pounding out a warning, but I won’t turn back.

In the light of the torches, a dark figure appears. I can only see his back and it seems that he has something in his arms. Slowly, he turns around, and I recognize the face, except the right side is exposed and rotting—eaten away by death. I can see clear inside to his teeth and skull. In his arms, he carries the corpse of a woman that’s wearing a crown with the words Bride-To-Be spelled out in glitter. She lies limply in his arms, shriveled and dried out. A piece of her toe falls to the ground and dissolves into dust.

I link the face of the man back to Dean and to how stories like his have a way of following people home. But I’d refused to believe it. I’d refused to believe that a spirit could cause harm here, in this life.

“Get out! You don’t belong here!” I say. But he stretches his jaw open wide and laughs—a hideous, resounding laugh to let me know that I have no power here.

He throws the corpse into the water and lunges at me, traveling at an impossible speed. Already, his decaying arms are wrapped around my neck and I struggle to breathe. I reach with my hands, grasping at the clumps of scraggly pieces of hair that cling to his skull, but he tightens his grip. I feel the air leaving my lungs. His hold on me is strong and now he’s lifting me into the air so that my legs twitch and jerk back and forth. In a vain attempt to free myself, I scratch my nails against his wrists, but I’m losing strength. The hands around my neck suddenly release and I drop to the ground below.

Without wasting any time, I struggle to my feet to try to run, but he has me by my left foot and is dangling me above the water. Jagged rocks lie below and I know I’ll be shredded or crushed.

“If you drop me, I’ll come back! I’ll put you to rest!” I scream.

A rush of air flows past me, whipping my head and neck back. I hear the bones snap and I can feel the breath inside my lungs sucked away. A rock, like the blade of a knife, pierces my side.

I slept later into the morning than I had planned on sleeping. Dale already left for work. About a half an hour later, I got a call.

“He just slumped over at his desk. There was no warning. We tried to bring him back—tried to revive him, but we couldn’t. He was already gone.”

The autopsy revealed a clot, somewhere in his left leg—a clot that stopped his beating heart. The blood on the sole of my left foot—the one that spread to the middle of my leg—and my death at the hands of the dead owner of the bar were not my warnings to heed. They were for Dale. These warnings, while I slept, were for him. I just didn’t figure that out until now.

I slept later into the morning than I had planned on sleeping. Dale already left for work. About a half an hour later, I got a call.

“He just slumped over at his desk. There was no warning. We tried to bring him back—tried to revive him, but we couldn’t. He was already gone.”

The autopsy revealed a clot, somewhere in his left leg—a clot that stopped his beating heart. The blood on the sole of my left foot—the one that spread to the middle of my leg—and my death at the hands of the dead owner of the bar were not my warnings to heed. They were for Dale. These warnings, while I slept, were for him. I just didn’t figure that out until now.

“Hi, Judy,” the server says as she greets me when I walk into the Tipsy Tiki Bar. “The usual?”

“Yes, please,” I say.

She takes me back to table 42, where I sip on a rum punch and hold the table still. I hold the table still for as long as I possibly can. The seat across from me appears empty to everyone else, but it’s not. The decaying face of the original owner glares back at me. He’s there, kicking the table and holding my dead husband hostage.

The End

WWW.AMERICANGHOSTHUNTERSHOW.COM