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 EDITORIAL
Nine years ago, we were embarking
on a journey not knowing where it
would end or where it would take us,
over 35 issues of Haunted Magazine
have been published, in print & in
digital and just like the paranormal
17 PARANORMAL WE ARE STILL HERE entertaining,
LOCKDOWN UK confusing, mesmerising and dividing
the paranormal community more
You visit an old disused underground than ever before (we wouldn’t have it
station and look who you bump into! any other way)
Next year will see our 10th year, who’d
have thunk it eh? We are planning
some massive surprises, some
awesome paranormal stuff and plan
on having as much supernatural fun as
we possibly can, which we will reveal
when we can.
Please enjoy this issue, it’s a pleasure
to put it together for you. We have fun
doing it, in fact the more we have, the
better the magazine is.
Don’t Be Normal BE PARANORMAL

04 THE BAKEWELL OLD HOUSE MUSEUM Paul

Ghosts that might make your tart race
06 BEAST YORKSHIRE
To Kingston-upon-Hell with Mike Covell, actually!
11 ALL THAT JAZZ 37 THE ARCHIVE OF THE AFTERLIFE
Stats and facts about a demon with an Axe Stephen Hummel shares his Haunted Antiques from the USA
16 THE SÉANCE 38 NICKY ALAN’S HORROR ON HALLOWS EVE
Are you ready to take your place at the table, YES, NO,
GOODBYE!!
51 THE BENBECULA WITCHES
Leonard Low gives us the lowdown on this little known case
23 WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? 54 YOUNG VICK AT THE OLD NICK
Awww Shucks, you’d be barking mad not to read this
It was HMP (Haunted Magazine’s Pleasure) for Vicky to write this!
26 THE ROYCROFT SAGE
Parsley, SAGE, Rosemary and QUICHE. Spook eats putting 57 KATIE WALLER
the Ghoul into GHOULash again. Zookeeper by day, Booseeker by night.

30 MIKI YORK 60 A COUNTY IN RUIN

Miki York does his best Inspect-A-Gadget impression & talks Broken, demolished, collapsed but you can’t ruin a great James
about communicating with the dead. Pykett feature

41 33 47 63
HAUNTEDLIVE DR QUEER MEETS THE TOYAH WILLCOX’s STEP BY ESTEP GUIDE TO
Five big, muscly, guys talk about WICKED WITCHES OF HOUSE OF SHADOWS THE PARANORMAL
their new show HauntedLIVE, no WEST WICKHAM Jayne Harris catches up with the A tragic story, you might not like
not us, the Tennessee Wraith Says it all WEALLY! 80s pop icon what you find if you dig deep
Chasers enough
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 3
Picture Credit: Linda Bussey

w i t h H u b e r t H o b u x

4 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
S
omething sought our attention the other night as we nervously
grouped together in the vestibule of Bakewell Old House Muse-
um.... We had just had an informed talk from Fright Nites historian
who requested that if any names or scenarios popped into anyone’s head
to let him know when all of a sudden one of the spotlights arrayed above
us exploded with great force, plunging us into semi darkness with much
shrieking and incredulity from us who had been to the Tudor built edifice
before... and never seen the like!

At the same time, I could hear voices on the upper floors, (where for a
fact, no living souls were) and Vicky and Shell, founders of Fright Nites
Peak Paranormal Investigations witnessed a shadow wandering furtively
around the oldest part of the museum!

So, began a very strange night at the museum... the spirit boards were
active from the off and spirits were tentatively interacting with us by a
diffusion of aromas from floral to battery acid, glimpses of further shadow
figure movement and a few jump scares as a seated seance drew a cou-
ple of very loud unexplainable raps and the definite sensation of footsteps
walking around our circle!

The peculiar little cellar, main seat of much weird activity before, went
completely insane, with a table tipping session (that had spirits moving
furniture quicker than Pickford’s), ending scarily with the cellar door being
slammed shut and reopened twice in quick succession by an invisible
force, though the investigators were fast to fling the door open, no living
soul was in sight!

I can normally stand in that cellar for ages and have watched pleasant
ghostly faces transpose over the face of a lovely mannequin in there, that
night though, two minutes were enough... even the dummy had taken on
a dark, dark aura, seemingly being enshrouded by a very negative shad-
ow.... I bade it farewell!

Refreshments partaken of, a fabulous spread prepared by the team,

including a slice of the traditional Bakewell pudding... we proceeded to
walk the short distance to the ancient church grounds, with the oppor-
tunity of being able to stand in stone coffins, hollowed out in the silhou-
ette of the body it originally contained, maybe a thousand year hence...
this church yard is normally sedate and calm, our visit this night though
produced some incredible photographic images of misty faces appearing
to manifest out of thin air... one of the guests took a photo toward the
ground which captured the chilling sight of a spectral human skull, gazing
back up at her... there was nothing resembling a skull in that location.

This was such an intense investigation the night started to attract atten-
tion from various guests who had relatives in spirit... luckily the only per-
son to be adversely affected by a strong curious spirit was me... though
I was in safe hands with Vicky and her crew who brought me back from
the brink of becoming part of the plentiful spirit energy that swirled about
in Old House Museum that night.... a marvellously eerie place that I can’t

Hubert H
wait to return to!

To find more about Fright Nites Peak Paranormal Investigations, just

type Fright Nites Peak Paranormal Investigations into Facebook and Hey
Presto!!

To find more about Bakewell Old House Museum please visit

https://www.oldhousemuseum.org.uk/

5
 Mike Covell’s

BEAST YORKSHIRE
GHOSTS AND HAUNTINGS IN EAST YORKSHIRE
Pick up a book from the library or bookstore about ghosts and hauntings in Yorkshire,
and they will probably tell you about numerous ghost stories in North Yorkshire,
including the town of York, the North Yorkshire Moors, and the fishing port of Whitby,
but look beyond at places like East Yorkshire and you will rarely find the odd mention,
with the exception of Burton Agnes Hall and Skipsea Castle.
In 2012 I began a sort of census, visiting towns and villages around East Yorkshire,
speaking with hundreds of eyewitnesses, poring over historical texts, reading hundreds
of reports in historical newspapers, and gathering together numerous ghost stories that
included phantom cows, ghostly sheep, spectral pigs, several White Ladies, a number
of ghostly motorcycles, a phantom coach, a ghostly bomber from a now abandoned
RAF base, boggles, fairies, and even a couple of screaming skulls!
East Yorkshire, or to give it its proper name, The East Riding of Yorkshire, is a
ceremonial county of England located north of the Humber Estuary, south of North
Yorkshire, west of the North Sea, and east of West Yorkshire.
To me, it means more than that, it is home. For many years I have walked around
the towns and villages of East Yorkshire, working in places such as Welton, Beverley,
Driffield, Brough, and walking across the hills, and in the valleys. I have spent many
hours visiting Hedon, Preston, Lelley, Brough, Welton, Melton, Raywell, Brantingham,
and more, walking, hiking, and camping in most of these locations, visiting friends
and family, and partaking in the odd Sunday dinner and a pint in their local respective
public houses.
The surrounding area is a delightful landscape that includes the crescent of low chalk
hills, the Yorkshire Wolds, the Vale of York, and the low lying flat fertile plains of
Holderness. From several points around the area you are rewarded with clear views of
the Humber and North Sea, and on calm sunny days you can see for miles across the
low-lying fields.
These are just a few of the weird and wonderful stories from the region.
MAP OF ATWICK SHOWING THE CHURCH OF ST
LAWRENCE, WHICH IS SAID TO HAVE A POND
THAT IS HOME TO A GHOSTLY BOGGLE!

THE ATWICK BOGGLE

Atwick, pronounced “Attick” is along the East Yorkshire coast a
few miles away from Hornsea.
At the foot of a hill on which the church rests is a spring said
to be haunted by a hobgoblin known as the “Haliwell Boggle.”
Other variations state that there is a pool with overhanging
willows which is haunted by the creature.
On Monday February 4th 1924, The Leeds Mercury featured a
report by Andrew Glen that stated that the Boggle at Atwick is that of a woman, who
has one eye, wears a hood, and is dressed in a long cloak. It is claimed that the poor
lady was murdered by her husband but goes on to state that the story has its origins
in Scandinavian mythology.
Paranormal Investigators reported hearing a growl while stood in the churchyard
of Atwick Church near the tree. This was heard by multiple members of the group,
and at separate areas around the church. They finally saw “something translucent”
walking towards them, low down, almost stalking them,” before they said a prayer
causing the unknown entity to vanish.
The well was known as the Hali-Well, but some later changed the name to the Holy
Well, stating that St. Lawrence had blessed it. It is a spring fed pool that is located
200m to the south of Atwick Church, and it was claimed, by a Rev Smith, that the
pool was haunted by a boggle of a one-eyed woman, who wore a hooded cloak,
appearing at the well on dark nights. It is claimed that this woman was murdered by
her husband and buried near the well. Another theory presented by Rev Smith was
that she was perhaps a nun from the priory at Nunkeeling. Another theory, which is
one of the strangest, is that the hooded apparition is that of Odin, who would appear
wearing a hood, was cloaked and had one eye.

6 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
PHANTOM CYCLIST
Brandesburton is a parish in the northern division of the wapentake of Holderness, in the East
Riding of the county of York. It stands 9 miles / 14 km north east of Beverley, 7 miles / 11km
west of Hornsea and is a post town. The latest census, carried out in 2011, showed that the
parish had a population of 1,522 people. The village has a lovely church, named St Mary’s,
with much of it dating back to the 13th and 15th centuries, although it was restored in 1892.
The church has some lovely brasses, including those belonging to John St. Quintin, member of
the Harpham St Quintin family, who was a former Lord of the Manor here. The church is a Grade
I listed building. On the village green is a Grade II listed cross. Today the village is popular among
water-sport enthusiasts attending the Billabong jet ski centre, and golf enthusiasts at the Hainsworth
Park Golf Club.
A car load of people driving through Brandesburton during the
1950’s witnessed a phantom cyclist riding in front of them. The
cyclist was described as a male, wearing a flat cap, a long overcoat,
and riding an old push bike. The bike vanished in front of them,
along with its rider, and the car screeched to a halt, all the occupants
exiting the vehicle to look for the rider, but no one could be seen
and there was no damage to the car.

THE HAUNTED TRAWLER

As you can imagine Bridlington is an historical port, steeped
in the English Civil War, and with stories of smuggling, and
a bombardment in WWI, it has all the ripe ingredients for a
plethora of ghosts and ghost stories.
Bridlington was once home to an allegedly haunted trawler
named Pickering, which started out life in Ireland as the BRANDESBURTON LOOKING BEY
OND DACRE ARMS ON THE LEFT
HAND SIDE
Family Crest, and was built in 1977, launched on December
1st 1977, but was involved in a tragedy when a crew member
died onboard in strange circumstances. After the tragedy the trawler changed its name and headed for
Bridlington. No sooner had the new crew boarded but weird things
began to happen, with electrical components malfunctioning and
controls turning on and off seemingly of their own accord. Worse The following was circulated by Reuters News Agency on December
was to come, however, when a large male figure, dressed head to toe 15th 1987;
in black, and wearing a black hat, was seen walking around the deck.
The skipper of the trawler, Mick Laws, went on record saying that the BRIDLINGTON, England — British officials, investigating why the
trawler was jinxed, and this claim was later backed up by Chris Clark. crew members of a fishing trawler were regularly out of work, called
Chris was a sonar radar engineer, who was called out to the trawler in a priest to exorcise what the sailors said was a ghost on board.
time and time again. He went on record saying that he had been on Skipper Derek Gates said he and his four-man crew stopped sailing
board to change some wiring, after the trawler would turn to port and started claiming state unemployment benefits because they were
instead of starboard. Later that day he was called back, and when he convinced that the trawler Pickering was haunted. The radar would
returned he noticed that the wiring, which he himself had changed go wrong at the same time each night when the boat was at sea, the
earlier in the day, had been switched back! steering regularly went haywire, sending the vessel into circles, lights
would go on and off and cabins stayed freezing even with the heating
Cold spots were reported around the ship, and one-night Mick Laws full on, the crew said. After hearing the crew's complaints, officials
was laid in bed when the mattress went down as if someone was called in Tom Willis, a local Anglican priest who is also a recognized
stepping on it to climb onto the top bunk. No one else was in the room exorcist. Willis traced the history of the boat to Ireland, where he was
with him, and everyone was accounted for. told a man had been lost overboard and his body never recovered.
Barry Mason, a crew member, witnessed a figure, which he described Since the exorcism, in which Willis scattered holy water through the
as looking like a fisherman, stood in front of him on the deck. Barry trawler and called on the restless spirit to depart, Skipper Gates has
asked the crew where they were at the time of the incident, but reported a totally different atmosphere. "It is a warm and friendly
everyone was accounted for. The other crew stated that Barry was boat, and we are having very successful catches," he said.
white as a sheet after his encounter.
The trawler was plagued by poor catches, and eventually the Diocese of York were called. They sent their
top man, the Rev. Tom Willis, erroneously named Tom Wallis in some accounts, and he arrived to perform a
ceremony. He had researched the trawler and knew of its history, and he carried out his service on board. It is
claimed that after that all was peaceful.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 7
 THE BAY HORSE PUB

Cherry Burton is a small village in East Riding approximately 3 miles /

5 km north-west of Beverley and stands to the west of the B1248 road.
It is a civil parish formed by the inclusion of Cherry Burton, Gardham,
and High Gardham, and has a population of 1,392 according to the
latest census undertaken in 2011.

The village has a public house, the Bay Horse Pub, St Michael and All
Angels Church, and a local shop which acts as the post office. There is
also a village hall.

The Bay Horse public house in Cherry Burton is said to be haunted by

an elderly lady dressed in black. It is claimed that the lady is looking
for her husband, who, when living, spent all his time and money at the
public house. She now walks the afterlife in search of him.

THE GHOST OF JENNY GALLOWS

Flamborough is situated approximately 4 miles / 6 km north-east of

Bridlington and is a well-known coastal feature on the East Coast,
attracting sightseers, holiday makers, and nature lovers. The headland
extends 6 miles / 10 km into the North Sea and is made up of white
chalk cliffs which attract thousands of sea birds, who nest on the cliff
faces. The cliffs stand 400 feet / 120 m high.
Flamborough is dominated by two lighthouses, one of them,
Flamborough Head Lighthouse stands close to the cliffs and is the more
recent of the two, being built in 1806. The other older lighthouse stands
further inland, and dates back to 1669 and today it is a Grade II listed
building.
The area is known for the Franco-American squadron who fought off
the coast in the “Battle of Flamborough Head,” in 1779. They battled
against the Royal Navy, and today divers from across the world regularly
visit to try and find the wreckage of the ships.
Flamborough has a long history of smuggling and various tragedies
through the ages associated with the sea, it therefore makes sense that
it should be haunted, and next we have a collection of stories associated
with the district.
I love a good mystery, and this mystery presents an interesting
conundrum. For years it has been suggested that Flamborough is
haunted by none other than the sinister sounding Jenny Gallows. It is
claimed that Jenny committed suicide by throwing herself into a local
chalk pit. It is claimed that if you run, or walk for the less enthusiastic,
eight times, it increases the energy which makes Jenny Gallows appear.
Interestingly, other local folklore suggests that faeries can be heard in
the pit.
It is also claimed that in 1912 a local, obviously unnamed farmer, went
to the chalk pit on horseback and on his horse, also unnamed, rode
around the pit eight times, thus invoking her spirit. She then proceeded
to run after him all the way back to the village of Flamborough, almost
catching up with him. She succeeded in touching the horse, which, it is
claimed, had a white patch on its haunch until the day it died.

8 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
PENNEL’S GHOST
The town of Hornsea dates back to the
early medieval period, and the town
expanded greatly during the Victorian
period, mainly on account of the Hull
to Hornsea Railway attracting visitors
when it opened in 1864. Sadly, the Hull
to Hornsea railway closed in 1964, but by
then regular bus services between the two
helped visitors to get there.
Hornsea is approximately 16 miles / 25
km northeast of Hull, and is home to
Hornsea Mere, which was once known as
“The largest lake in Humberside,” and is
home to a number of wild birds and vast
fish stocks.
The next story has all the makings of
being an incredible ghost story, however,
all is not as it seems, and it appears as
though time, along with the story being
told and retold, has made the story
somewhat muddled.
Depending upon which book you
read there was a notorious criminal,
fisherman, and smuggler named Edward,
or Abraham Pennel, who lived in Filey.
It is claimed that he was captain of a well
armed cutter, and had a fierce reputation
as a smuggler, robber and pirate, as well as
a fisherman. In some stories he murdered
his own captain, robbed everything worth
taking on board his ship, then sank it off
the coast of Hornsea. In other stories he
was known for robbing other smugglers,
and in others it is claimed that he had a
network of spies along the east coast.
It is claimed that in Hornsea, the
fisherman, and townsfolk, had developed
a reputation for being gossips, and
they had become afraid of Pennel and
his activities, so a group of Hornsea
fisherman conspired to murder Pennel.
They sailed from Hornsea, up to
Bridlington, then on to Filey, but by the
time they arrived in Filey someone had
been gossiping, and Pennel was waiting
for them, he had his gun drawn, but while
they were armed, the guns they carried
were holstered, so Pennel escaped. By
the time they chased after him he had
vanished. Returning to Hornsea the
men plotted Pennel’s downfall and let it
be known that they had smuggled goods
in Hornsea, and the news soon reached
Pennel, who was waiting for them, he
took their goods and fled into the night,
but ran into the Customs officers, who
were waiting for them. The Hornsea men
had pre-warned them!
Pennel was arrested and it is claimed
that he was either removed to York, or
London, depending upon which book
you read.
His location of execution was also
changed from account to account, with
some stories claiming he was executed in
York, some stories claimed that he was
executed in London, and some stories
claiming that he was executed by the coast
near Hornsea.
It is claimed that he was executed in 1770
and hanged in chains on the North Cliff
of Hornsea, in a field known as “The
Common,” as a warning to other pirates,
but the story does not end there.
In 1780 the gibbet was 56 feet from the
sea, in 1783 the gibbet on which Pennel
46 feet away from the cliff, but by 1786
the gibbet fell into the sea. The gibbet
stood near the old road to Beck. In later
years the site became a signal station,
known as Pennel’s Close.
Supernaturally speaking Pennel is said to
haunt the East Coast, and it is here, off the
coast of Hornsea, where his gibbet and
body was said to have fallen into the sea,
that he has apparently cursed!
There is, however, some truth to the story,
and Victoria County History confirms
that the site was named after Edward
Pennel, whose body was left on the gibbet
as a warning to other pirates, however,
a search of the contemporary press
reports shows no account of Pennel and
his crimes, capture, trial and subsequent
execution.

THE BISHOP’S MANOR

Howden lies north of the M62 on the A614 road, approximate- pect in the “Jack the Ripper” case. Annie was said to have been
ly 16 miles / 26 km south-east of York, and approximately 3 murdered in 1887, it was claimed by some authors that she had
miles / 4.8 km north of her head chopped off and dumped in Regents Canal, in actual
Goole. The town was fact she outlived her estranged husband and died in Knedlington
a gift to the Bishops of Workhouse, being buried in Knedlington Cemetery.
Durham from William
The Bishop’s Manor is situated a short distance away from the
the Conqueror, but
Minster and said to be haunted. The Grade II listed building was
the earliest mention of
erected as a private residence and housed the powerful Prince
Howden came in 959
Bishops of Durham, who used to stay on the site when travelling
AD, when King Edgar
between London and Durham. The building dates back to 1388
gave Howden Manor to
and 1405, and was created by Bishop Walter de Skirlaugh, and
his first wife, Ethelfle-
was altered during the Tudor, Georgian and Victorian periods.
da. Construction on
Original features, however, can still be found on the site, includ-
the Minster began in
ing the original vaulted entrance porch created by Walter de
1228, and it was finished
Skirlaugh. The interior boasts Georgian and Victorian fireplaces,
in the 15th century.
and a beautiful grand staircase. It is said that at least three kings
During this period, in
have stayed at the property including King John, who visited
the 14th and 15th centuries, Howden became really popular with
over Christmas 1211. King Edward II and Henry V also stayed
pilgrims due to the alleged miracles of John of Howden. One
on the site.
such miracle involved John raising his hands to lift the coffin lid
on his own coffin at his own funeral! The site also boasts a number of fascinating ghost stories and
hosts regular paranormal investigations and other spooky events.
Howden was also the home of Dr Frederick Richard Chapman, a
Among the activity reported is that of series of phantom foot-
former “Jack the Ripper” suspect, and in later years to Annie Ste-
steps, the feeling of being watched, sudden temperature drops,
phenson, the wife of Robert D’Onston Stephenson, another sus-
and the sighting of a tall male seen walking through the property.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 9
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h
e strolls down the street, his
shadow slender and contorted
in front of him. The click
clack of his shiny, black Oxfords
smack the cobblestone like the
mule hooves and carriages of
the French Quarter. Smiling and
content, he glances around at
the neighbourhood filled with the
sound of live jazz music from every
direction. Singing a song that’s
both lively and tragic, t heir notes
carry through that Mississippi
River breeze out onto the bayou
and through the veins of this dark
Crescent City. The windows of
the Creole cottages and stately
homes, adorned with their painted
columns, colourful wood shutters,
and petite gardens are peeled
open… exposing themselves
lustfully to the mysterious demon
parading by.
He closes his eyes and takes a
long, deep breath of fresh air…
sigh…” I love me some jazz”, he
says to himself in his deep, rich
voice. Tipping his slouch hat at
the passers-by and giving them a
confident nod, he says to himself
“they listened, there will be no dark
and damnable deeds tonight.” With
images of his borrowed bloody axe
flashing through his consciousness,
he sets down his trumpet case,
pulls out a fresh cigarette and
matchstick from his breast pocket,
cusps his hands, and lights it.
He leans with one shoulder into a
brick wall, puffing smoke rings into
the damp air, and watches New
Orleans pass by in all her ghastly
glory. Looking back on the week
before, he recalls chipping away
at the back door of the corner
shotgun house in that silent Gretna
neighbourhood and kicking in
the corner panel to reach in and
unlock the doorknob, letting himself
in. He walks slowly through the
connecting dark rooms, pausing
for a moment in front of the living
room doorway listening for the
faint sounds of sleep, careful not
to drag the heavy, wooden axe
along the floor and overthrow his
momentum. The grasshoppers and
frogs are chirping loudly outside,
their soft but powerful hums like
jazz notes he can sway his axe to.
He approaches the bedroom door
cracked open just enough to peer
in and puts his ear to the painted
wood panel, holding his breath.
“Sleep” he whispers. He opens the
door so silently and slowly as to
not wake his innocent victims, that
he smirks in complete satisfaction
with himself. He taps his shiny,
black Oxfords against the corner of
the bedframe and raises his arms
to strike. He flashes to a vision of
the axe, dripping with fresh blood
quickly coagulating as the drips
become slower and thicker. He
pauses for a moment and wonders
if he should put the axe back where
he found it, in the garden shed, or
leave it next to the not-yet-cold
family of corpses. Deciding to
take it with him, he saunters to the
icebox in the kitchen and pours a
fresh glass of chilled milk.
After leisurely gulping, he washes
and puts away the glass, uses his
sleeve to erase the white liquid
from his lips, then cleans himself
of the blood splatter strewn across
his face and forearms with a
dish towel from the kitchen sink.
He puts the dirty towel inside of
his trumpet case and walks out,
closing the door behind him,
and leans the rusty, dripping axe
against the doorframe as a gesture
of politeness that surely the police
will find amusing. Tipping his hat
as he leaves, he says to himself
“Goodnight sweet angel of death.”
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE
THE AXEMAN OF NEW ORLEANS
Thirty years after Jack the Ripper ravaged the
East End of London with his sharp and bloody
blade, the Axeman of New Orleans terrified an un-
suspecting city to its core and caused widespread
panic. He was perhaps the only serial killer since
the Ripper who wrote mockingly to the media
about his grisly ventures. Labelled as “America’s
own Bayou Jack the Ripper”, the Axeman is known
to have assaulted 12 innocent people (of which 5
were slain) in the Crescent City and its suburbs
between May 1918 and October 1919. His modus
operandi, a borrowed axe from his own victims,
he bludgeoned them while helpless and sleeping
soundly in their beds. Throats slashed, heads
bashed in, and nearly decapitated were just some
of the descriptions used in the police reports.
Many homes were ransacked, but nothing of value
was ever taken from the victims’ households,
other than the non-permissive use of their own
axes and the lives it violently took. Most of the
victims were of Italian descent and owned Italian
grocery stores, this led to the belief that the
killer was a part of the Mafia. The dreaded and
mysterious axeman of New Orleans and his violent
agenda disappeared in the autumn of 1919 as sud-
denly and hastily as they arrived. The fearful
midnight murderer was never apprehended and his
identity remains a mystery to this day.
In the dark of night, the Axeman
slays. He walks slowly through
the crisp, early spring air of the
city like a swampy sludge of the
blackest fear. He knows what he
has done and who called him to do
it. A demon in the dead of night, his
bloody work finished.
H2 1 11
 Found Dead in Bed”: Hell, March 13th, 1919
The Victims of the Axeman In March of 1919, the New Orleans-based Times-Picayune newspaper
received a taunting letter from the supposed Axeman. He revealed
Many of the Axeman’s victims were Italian grocers. Did he his love of jazz music and propositioned the citizens of New
have prejudice against these immigrant families? Did they Orleans to “jazz it” in their homes the eve of St. Joseph’s day (a
offend, ridicule, or hurt him in some way? Or was it all just major holiday for Italians) or “get the axe.” The letter reads:
random acts of violence? The world may never know. We do
know that those who survived his attacks were left with a Hell, March 13th, 1919
ghostly vision for the rest of their lives of a dark man wielding a Esteemed Mortal of New Orleans:
heavy axe over their beds and reining his strength down upon
their sleeping bodies. They have never caught me, and they never will. They have never seen me, for
I am invisible, even as the ether that surrounds your earth. I am not a human
being, but a spirit and a demon from the hottest hell. I am what you Orleani-
Name/Occupation/Status/Date ans and your foolish police call the Axeman. When I see fit, I shall come and
claim other victims. I alone know whom they shall be. I shall leave no clue
Attacked/Survived/Died except my bloody axe, besmeared with blood and brains of he whom I have sent
below to keep me company. If you wish you may tell the police to be careful
Joseph Maggio not to rile me. Of course, I am a reasonable spirit. I take no offense at the way
Italian grocer 5/22/1918 died at the scene they have conducted their investigations in the past. In fact, they have been
so utterly stupid as to not only amuse me, but His Satanic Majesty, Francis
Catherine Maggio Josef, etc. But tell them to beware. Let them not try to discover what I am, for
Wife of Joseph 5/22/1918 DOA it were better that they were never born than to incur the wrath of the Axeman.
Louis Besumer I don't think there is any need of such a warning, for I feel sure the police will
Italian grocer 6/27/1918 survived always dodge me, as they have in the past. They are wise and know how to keep
away from all harm.
Harriet Lowe
Mistress of Louis 6/27/1918 died 2 months later Undoubtedly, you Orleanians think of me as a most horrible murderer, which I
am, but I could be much worse if I wanted to. If I wished, I could pay a visit
Anna Schneider to your city every night. At will I could slay thousands of your best citizens
8 months pregnant 8/5/1918 survived (& gave birth) (and the worst), for I am in close relationship with the Angel of Death.
Joseph Romano
Elderly 8/10/1918 died 2 days later Now, to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night, I am going
to pass over New Orleans. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little
Charles Cortimiglia proposition to you people. Here it is:
Italian grocer 3/10/1919 survived/divorced
I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether
Rosie Cortimiglia regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in
Wife of Charles 3/10/1919 survived/divorced full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band
Mary Cortimiglia going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain
2-year-old daughter 3/10/1919 DOA and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it out on that specific
Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.
Steve Boca
Italian grocer 8/10/1919 survived Well, as I am cold and crave the warmth of my native Tartarus, and it is
about time I leave your earthly home, I will cease my discourse. Hoping that
Sarah Laumann 19 thou wilt publish this, that it may go well with thee, I have been, am and will
Homemaker 9/3/1919 survived be the worst spirit that ever existed either in fact or realm of fancy.
Mike Pepitone
--The Axeman
Italian grocer 10/27/1919 died later at hospital

“Don’t Scare me Papa”

12:15 o’clock Tuesday evening
March 18th, the residents and
revellers of New Orleans jazzed
it like they’ve never jazzed it
before. Restaurants, clubs,
and bars were overflowing
with patrons who felt their
lives depended on it. Every
musician, whether they had
been booked before or not, was
contracted. Every neighbour,
friend, family member, and
stranger were gathered together
surrounding the jazz trios and
full bands playing their hearts
out that night. Every saxophone,
trumpet, trombone, drum,
clarinet, violin, and piano in the
city was humming a tune just for
the Axeman’s infatuated ear.
Inspired by the letter to
the Times, one auspicious
composer named Joseph John
Davilla claimed to have
composed “The Mysterious
Axeman’s Jazz (Don’t Scare Me
Papa)” while waiting for the
Axeman. A “bit” of a self-
promoter, by that Thursday
morning he was offering the
sheet music for sale to the
public at a price. His business
manoeuvre was so shrewd that
many thought he could have
written the letter himself as part
of a marketing ploy to further
sell his composition.
On Wednesday March 19,
St. Joseph’s Day, the Times-
Picayune printed an illustration
depicting a family frantically
playing jazz music from their
piano with looks of sheer terror
on their faces as they waited for
the Axeman to pass over the
city. The article described all of
the jazzy festivities across the
metropolitan area and the fact
that the Axeman did not strike
that evening. Mr. Davilla would
later use this very illustration
as the cover of his now well-
known, published sheet music.

12 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
Saint Joseph’s Day
Saint Joseph was married to Mary, Jesus’ mother, and
regarded as Jesus’ legal father. He is recognized by
the Catholic Church as the Patron Saint of the sick and
happy death, of fathers, workers, and carpenters.
In Sicily, where many immigrants to New Orleans
hailed from in the late 19th century, Saint Joseph is an
important part of their Italian Catholic culture. According
to legend, he prevented a famine during the Middle
Ages, which is how the typical Saint Joseph’s altar
came to be. Fruit, fava beans, zeppole, cakes, breads,
and cookies, wine and spirits, other meatless dishes,
flowers and candles are all arranged on a three-tiered
(to represent the Trinity) altar and then traditionally
served to the needy once it has been dismantled.
The breadcrumbs of these specially prepared dishes
are said to signify the saw dust that would have
surrounded Joseph as a carpenter.
The Feast of Saint Joseph, celebrated on March 19th,
is a major, city-wide, public event for New Orleans
and her Sicilian-rooted immigrants. Altars are built
and usually open to the public for viewing and paying
homage. Parades through the cobblestone streets of
the city, similar to the likes of Mardi Gras and Saint
Patrick’s Day, are a tradition not to be taken lightly by
the Italians. In Italy, March 19th is also celebrated as
Father’s Day.
Another New Orleans tradition says that if you bury a
small statue of Saint Joseph upside down in the front
yard, your house will sell more promptly. The Mardi
Gras
Indians also celebrate “Super Sunday”, the last
procession of the season and where costumes are
dismantled. on the Sunday nearest Saint Joseph’s
Day. 1918-1919
New Orleans: The Great War, The Spanish Flu,
and The Death of Storyville
In 1917, much to the chagrin of the mayor and a good portion of the city’s
debauchery-gripped citizens, Storyville (the segregated red-light district of New
Orleans) was shut down and prostitution deemed illegal. “Men must live straight
to shoot straight”, as the rigid Navy secretary put it. The United States was “all in”
on the Great War, and there were strict vice laws constructed to keep military men
away from lustful extravagances. There was a renewed sense of patriotism and the
government wasn’t going to let the city of New Orleans - the city of vice - bankrupt
that. With the termination of Storyville and the enforcement of the vice laws, many
jazzmen were left without work. Jazz music (and its advocates) was seen as a
corruption of good morality by the Federal Government, and many performers
became worried about the widespread draft into the war. In June of 1918 (a
year after the first jazz recordings by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band), the
Times-Picayune published an article entitled “Jass and Jassism”, in sheer
opposition of jazz –

“Its musical value is nil, and its possibilities of harm are great."
“Why is the jass music, and, therefore, the jass band?
As well ask why is the dime novel or the grease-dripping
doughnut? All are manifestations of a low streak in man's
tastes that has not yet come out in civilization's wash"

Home of one of the nation’s busiest seaports, the first movie theatre, and
all manner of indulgences including but not limited to Mardi Gras, New
Orleans had a booming economy during this time.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 13
 1918-1919 New Orleans: The Great War, the Spanish
Flu, and the death of Storyville (continued...)

Wages reached inconceivable levels of up to $2 a day,

occasionally more in urban areas. On the darker side, the
Big Easy was also home to the largest mass lynching in
American history, a considerable amount of organized crime,
and one volatile serial killer. But with pockets full, debts
paid, and luxury items in tow, New Orleanians were vastly
supportive of the war effort. “100 percent Americanism”
was the sign of the times, and anyone who didn’t display
this new-found sense of pride for their country was quickly
exposed and ejected from society.

With the end of the war in 1918 “at the eleventh hour, of
the eleventh day, of the eleventh month” came a new kind
of adversary to the docks of the Crescent City’s seaport...
the Spanish Flu. Influenza massacred 50-100 million people
worldwide, and according to the Board of Health for the
Parish of Orleans, between October 1918 and April 1919,
the city experienced 54,089 cases of influenza, of which
3,489 souls perished. New Orleans experienced so many
horrific cases of the epidemic that Charity Hospital became
100% dedicated to the care of influenza victims.

The late teen years of the Crescent City saw a lot of peaks
and valleys from soaring patriotism, a booming economy,
and the death of Storyville, to the Great War, the Spanish Flu
epidemic, mass lynching, rising crime, and one very elusive
serial killer.

Italian Immigrants and the Mafia of New Orleans

Over 80% of Italian Immigrants
that arrived at the Crescent
City ports in the late 19th
century was Sicilian. By 1900,
New Orleans was home to
the largest known Italian
community in the South,
composed of approximately
20,000 including the children
of immigrants. Stereotypes
surrounding the Italians,
such as a common distrust
and disdain for authority,
led to settling quarrels the
“old fashioned way.” The
“Vendetta”, as it was referred
to, was a common tactic as
witnessed by the frequent knife
fights, gunfire, and other violent
crimes. In fact, Decatur Street
had become so well-known
for its vicious vendettas, it was
nicknamed “Vendetta Alley.”
There was much discord
between the Irish and Italian
population of the city, and
in 1890, the Irish chief of
police, David Hennessy was
assassinated after being
involved in a violent dispute
between two Mafia families,
the Provenzanos and the
Matrangas. The first known
usage in print of the word
“mafia” was in association
with Hennessey’s death. Many
New Orleanians believed that
the Italians, whose population
was continually growing and
causing apprehension about
Italian influence on their
beloved city were responsible.
The largest mass lynching in
Louisiana history and one of
the largest in the U.S. occurred
when over a hundred men
were arrested in connection
with Hennessey’s murder.
Most were released, but eleven
unlucky Italian citizens were
horrifyingly lynched when a
mob stormed the jail after their
subsequent acquittals.
Dating back to 1879, New
Orleans was the first city in
the United States to have its
own “Mafia Family.” In New
York and New Orleans, Italian
grocery stores were known
fronts for racketeering and
extortion by the Mafia. There
had been apparent suggestions
that the Axeman of New
Orleans had a relationship with
the Mafia and “black-hand
crime.” A practice derived in
Southern Italian communities,
“black-hand crime” meant
the victim was threatened
with violence if money that
was demanded was not paid.
New Orleans detective John
Dantonio, a recognized expert
on the subject of the Mafia,
denied the claims saying that
a “black-hand attack would
not have left any survivors.”
He believed the Axeman was
nothing more than a deranged
serial killer with inexplicable
motives, not unlike Jack the
Ripper.
Comparable to other poor
immigrants in America at the
time, the Italians were vastly
discriminated against and the
subject of much suspicion
from local New Orleanians.
They were considered “not
quite white”, having worked
alongside African-American
laborers in the fields of the
sugar and cotton plantations,
pasta factories, and swampy
docks of the city and its
outskirts. But, to the dismay of
plantation and factory owners,
an immigrant who delicately
hoarded his earnings in these
low-wage positions could
be self-employed within a
matter of a few years. Italians
became a mainstay in the
French Market, selling their
fruit from horse-drawn carts
and successfully dominating
the corner grocery business.
By 1900, almost 20% of all
groceries were Italian owned,
and by 1920 they possessed
exactly half of all groceries in
the city. With so many Italians
settled in the lower French
Quarter in the early 20th
Century, the area from Jackson
Square to Esplanade Avenue,
between Decatur and Chartres,
became known as “Little
Palermo.”

14 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
Bloody Work:
Crime solving techniques in the
early 20th century
At the time of the Axeman
murders, fingerprinting was
just coming into the limelight
in the U.S. and was not yet a
standard in identifying criminals
even though it had been used
by Scotland Yard for several
decades. Policing in urban
America was exceedingly
controlled by politics and the
public agenda. Policeman
were elected officials who were
given the ultimate responsibility
of enforcing morality on the
immigrant populations of the
city. The standard of the time
was that if someone with
specialized knowledge could
help investigators, then the court
would allow their testimony. But
there was no regulation with this
failed attempt, and with it came
countless cases of fraud.
Despite the circumstantial
evidence against one Joseph
Mumfre for the Axeman murders,
there was absolutely no actual
evidence to convict him of the
crimes. Joseph was fatally
Was it circumstantial? Did Esther
mistakenly identify Joseph as the
shot by Esther Albano, Mike Axeman? Why weren’t the New
Orleans police involved? Was it
Pepitone’s widow, in 1921 after
threatening her in her own home.
Esther, the sole witness to Mike’s
murder two years prior, said that
just an excuse to kill a man in
she recognized Mumfre as the cold blood? Was Joseph Mumfre
really the Axeman? No one will
Axeman and shot him repeatedly
until he was dead. She claimed
that he had been harassing her
and her new husband, Angelo,
ever know.
who had coincidentally gone
missing on the anniversary of
her first husband’s murder, two
months before she fatally shot
Learn more about the Axeman of
Mumfre. Mumfre spent time in
prison from 1911-1918 after
New Orleans
his involvement in a gang that We recommend the following books:
preyed on Italian immigrants. “The Axeman of New Orleans” by Miriam
The timing is very suspicious
C. Davis and “Empire of Sin” by Gary
considering there were a series
Krist for further reading and research on
of axe murders in 1911 that
the Axeman of New Orleans. Buzzfeed
stopped when he was in prison
Unsolved also has an episode about
and started again upon his
the Axeman on their YouTube channel
parole. Promptly following Mike
Pepitone’s murder in October of that is worth watching. You can listen to
1919, Mumfre fled New Orleans Joseph John Davilla’s composition of
for the West Coast. His sudden “The Mysterious Axeman’s Jazz: Don’t
relocation also coincided with Scare Me Papa” HERE:
the abrupt end of the Axeman https://youtu.be/x_iSLK74ZI4
murders in New Orleans.
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 15
 BY SAM BENNETTS
ABOUT THE SÉANCE:
The Séance is the central ritual of spiritualism and has provided Let the séance begin:
thousands of ordinary people the opportunity to try and gain
1.    Sit around the table, both
access with the spirit world, within a supportive and like-minded hand placed flat and touching
the people’s hand either side of
group setting. you, till all hands are
touching.
A BRIEF HISTORY:
2.    Call for Spirit to come and
join you, you can say
In Ancient Greek times, the Greeks used many different techniques something like – “Are there any
to try and make contact with the dead, one of these was something spirits or loved ones that
which to communicate with us’
that resembles the modern-day séance, which originates from then follow this with the more
traditional question of “is ther
the Victorian phenomenon. The excitement and enthusiasm for e anybody there`’
contacting the dead came from America in 1848, when Maggie 3.    Before you move on you nee
d some sort of response, for
and Kate Fox managed to communicate with a spirit that lived example a bang, temperature drop
ping, hairs on your arms
within their home. From this amazing success, these two ladies standing up or even a sensing
presence. If no response repeat
started doing large demonstrations to large crowds. Other the same question “is there any
mediums then stepped forward, and these demonstrations where body there”
then also done in smaller groups, in people’s homes, allowing the 4.    The main part of the séance
is when you do get a response
public to become the ‘sitters’ for the séance. and can start asking questions,
remember some mediums
who do this may go into trance
By 1851, which was only 3 years later, the séance was massive. which can show physical and
personality changes. Also post
Many mediums became celebrities for their work. They performed ure, attitude and voice can
for society figures, wealthy aristocrats and even royalty. Here change. The questions should star
t with general questions
they also started to show a wide range of paranormal powers, far connected to the spirit you hav
e connected with. Their
beyond that of simply passing on messages from the other side. identity is very important. If the
spirit is not whom you wish
From this the Ouija and Table-turning became huge as a medium to speak to then ask them poli
tely if it would be possible to
was not required. Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria and Prince bring them in to talk to you. No
matter what you ask always
Philip were massive fans of table-turning. remember to speak politely and
never malicious, and never
why have a séance? ask questions that will give you
an unpleasant answer.
5.    When you are finished don
Some may find the whole thought of having a séance a very e just get up and leave. Thank
scary and frightening experience, but there are several reasons the spirits for joining you, tell
them that you hope they come
why it is a good method to use when trying to contact someone again but for now to return to
their spiritual plane, send them
from beyond the grave. your thanks and say goodbye.
COMFORT – those who attend a séance are there to try and 6.    Once the séance is over, then
it’s time to clean up, but do
speak to their friend or a loved one who is no longer on the earth not forget what you saw and wha
t you learned. The answers
plain, just for reassurance that they are happy and fine, with provided by spirit may become
their new being. clearer later on or may be a
springboard of your own reflectio
ns. Give yourself some quiet
SYNERGY – several people working together combining their time after the séance to mediate
and take it all in.
energies to bring a greater force.
Finally, some important prin
WISDOM – Our past loved ones have so much wisdom which ciples:
comes from their own knowledge and life experiences. ·      Don’t be afraid.
·      Be real
Getting ready for a séance: ·      Be courteous
Location is very important for a séance. You need to have an ·      Be polite
area where you won’t be disturbed, where loud noises and ·      Pace yourselves
bright lights will not intrude or ruin the atmosphere or scare
Enjoy doing the séance, rememb
of spirit. er to be relaxed and enjoy
the experience. Once the séance
You need to have a group of like-minded people for the is over, maybe take a note
of what you witnessed and wha
séance. People you trust, they do not need to be believers but t answers you were given, so
that in later years you have som
understand that they need to be supportive and serious. ething to look back on.
REMEMBER: THIS IS NOT A GAME.

16 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
 So, you can imagine when I got invited to the Paranormal Lockdown UK press day
at an old disused underground station down in our capital how I felt? Like a man
running headlong, at some speed, straight into an old steam train, I WAS CHUFFED
TO BITS (did you see what I did there?)
I was rubbing shoulders Line, Superman IV, The Krays, Second World War it was used
with real proper journalists, Creep, 28 Weeks Later & as an air raid shelter for 2,500
I tell you, from The London Sherlock to name but seven). people, trust me, it
Standard, The Guardian, The would take a
Mirror, Best Magazine and NOTE: The spiral staircase special kind
Total TV Guide AND it was is a joy to walk down, but an of bomb
great to catch up with the absolute bastard to walk back to reach
guys and girls from Quest up, it has to be said. down
Red, the channel which PLUK there.
And you can see why, it’s eerie,
(Paranormal Lockdown UK) is It was
it’s spooky, it’s old fashioned,
on. Suitably suited and booted also the
you can hear non-underground
in our orange hi-vis jackets home
London above you and every
and steel toe capped shoes from
now and then you get a blast
we were taken into the depths of air coming from somewhere, treasures
of Old London that we know where, I have no idea. A ghost from
as “the underground”, deeper train maybe? Buckingham
and deeper we went. The Palace, the Victoria & Albert
venue was a now defunct and The historian. Alan Brooke, museum and most notably, The
disused underground station, for the venue told us some Elgin Marbles.
Aldwych Old Station, situated fascinating stories about
in the Westminster part of the location. It was opened I love historians, YES you can
London. I say disused, it is now in 1907 and it was used to research stuff off the internet
used for tours, the odd ghost take passengers to an ever- now, but they always have that
hunt and TV & movie location increasing popular theatre little nugget of more information
sets (Battle of Britain, Death The Royal Strand. During the than you can find.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 17
 One of its two tunnels ran directly under
a sight that something rather gruesome
was uncovered. In the 1830s a man
was charging people money to bury
their loved ones at a local church, well
that’s what the people paying money
thought he was doing, he was actually
dumping the corpses in a 6ft deep,
60ft wide pit which lay undiscovered
until 20 years later when 12,000 bodies
were found after people complained of
a foul smell and lots of strange insects
buzzing and flying around.
Now, I’ve smelt some things in my
time, ghost hunting with the rest of the
HauntedLIVE boys, it’s part and parcel
for the course but I cannot imagine
what that must’ve smelt like. As well as
the smelly ghosts from the “graveyard”
many people say that they’ve seen a
woman dressed in theatrical costume,
thought to be the ghost of Francis
Maria Kelly, the star of a one woman
show at The Royal Strand theatre and
is rumoured to haunt the station in
sorrow, devastated that they closed the
theatre and put an end to her career.
18 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
Other people have seen a man (in
uniform) thought to have died on the
tracks and have smelt strong perfume
/ cigarette / cigar smoke whilst others
have reported loud operatic singing
echoing along the tracks.
An amazing location, with an amazing
history, which is where Nick Groff and
Katrina Weidman came into it, we’d all
listened to the historian and then we
were introduced to Nick and Katrina.
Now, I’d spoken to them on the phone,
on Skype, and messaged them on
social media over the past so it was
kind of nice to get a “hey Paul man,
finally nice to meet you” greeting from
Nick along with a high five handshake
and a manly hug and “hey Paul, at last
we meet” greeting from Katrina, with a
much less manly hug.
Then it was time for the other
journalists, writers, editors to fire their
questions in, to be fair, I thought it “fair”
to let the others ask away more than
myself as we have access to Nick and
Katrina on a fairly regular basis, but we
got some corker questions in though.
WHAT’S THE MAIN DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN UK & USA LOCATIONS?
Katrina: Without a shadow of a doubt, the
history, you guys have layers upon layers of
history, documented, researched history. Ours
is only 300 years old or so, our spirits are just
babies. We picked up so much more than we
expected.
Nick: Katrina is right, we were sleeping in
locations that have a 1000-year-old history, we
can’t do that back in USA. There are so many
factors to investigate when we’ve been at a
location over here, it’s not just the Victorian era,
the 1800s, it goes beyond that.
WHICH LOCATION OVER HERE WAS
THE SCARIEST?
Nick: That’s a hard one, Shepton Mallett, the
prison was weird, and kinda freaky, Skegness
Hell House was dark and spooky, each location
had something, something that didn’t feel right.
Katrina: I agree with Nick, it’s hard to pick a top
location, or even a top three, the first episode
of the series is Shepton Mallett and that was
definitely a good one, in terms of evidence and
scares, but all the locations had that fear factor
at some point.
The other reporter’s eyes were drawn to the
gadgets like ghost flies around a supernatural
jam jar, and to be fair, I was too, Nick & Katrina
are blessed with gadgets, new gadgets and
bespoke gadgets too, a lot of that is down
HAUNT ED
to their good friend and fellow investigator,
Elizabeth Saint, the gadget guru, the goddess of
gadgets,
ARE GADGETS IMPORTANT IN
GHOST HUNTING?
Nick: Absolutely, there’ll be times when we pick
up on things without gadgets, but to us they’re
just another great way of trying to communicate
with ghosts, spirits, what ever is out there.
Katrina: We will try a few out later when you
come and do some investigating with us.
And so, it was time, ghost hunting / paranormal
investigation with Nick Groff & Katrina Weidman
in this spooky disused train station. We
assemble on mass to one of the carriages, it’s
large and empty, some of the other reporters are
looking around anxiously and then Nick turns
on the Ghost Box and after a few seconds a
loud echoing male voice clearly shouts HELLO
at us and then just to show that it’s not always
booming loud voices coming through there’s
a soft whisper sound, as if from a female. You
couldn’t have got much differing voices if you
had tried.
“Can you try and talk to us” Nick calls out, the
soft voice replies “what is it”, followed by the
word “actress” (no effing way, yes effing way).
Katrina explains that the spirits are most
probably trying to communicate by using our
energies to speak just before the softer voice
asks, “how does it work?”.
MA GA Z INE H2 1 19
20 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
Alan, the historian was in
attendance and it appears that
his name is being said a few
times and is encouraged to
speak. Both voices are trying
to talk over each other, “do
you remember me” from the
soft female voice, “is anyone
a medic” from the louder male
voice. Alan explained that the
man who died on the tracks
suffered a large head injury.
A few of the reporters then
appear to go cold and start
to shiver. To be fair, there is
a gush of cold wind coming
from somewhere. Katrina
explains that this is common if
spirit activity is near as they’re
trying to use our energies in
an attempt to connect more
clearly.
This would have made a great
place for an episode of PLUK
but due to health and safety,
it wasn’t allowed
(shame).
One of the female reporters
jumps as she feels “something,
someone” walk past her,
touching her softly. Yes, it’s dark
and spooky and your mind can
play tricks, we all know that, but
I have no reason to doubt her.
Nick asks if one of us wants to
go into the other carriage alone,
of course, anyone who knows
me knows that I would’ve
stepped up to the challenge
(ahem), but I felt it only fair to
let the other reporters do it. One
of them started to move into
the carriage, then on the Ghost
Box, we heard “Danger” and
“don’t go in there”.
Katrina told the solo adventurer
“spirits often try to spook us
but remember it’s only the living
that can hurt us”. In attempt to
get more activity, before we go
to the platforms Nick tries to rile
up the male voice to which the
words “shut up”, followed
by a swear
word and a sigh are echoed
through the box. Katrina turns
to me and says, “do you want a
go Paul?”
HELL, YES, I DO. “we’re just
about to leave these carriages,
we’d love you to follow us and
try to communicate with us
some more, whether you mean
us harm or not, come follow us”
Katrina and Nick look at the
faces of the other reporters,
almost laughing, “thanks for
that Paul, “laughs Katrina and
I get a “what the chuff did you
just say” look from the girls at
Best Magazine. IT HAD TO BE
DONE!!
As we venture onto the
platforms, you can smell the
oldness of the location, hear the
rumblings of the
city of
London and get that icy blast
from time to time, where it
comes from baffles me.
After a while it was photo time
and I got my selfie with Nick
and Katrina, but there was also
a photographer there who took
shed loads of photos from the
event, far better than mine,
far clearer than mine, some
of which are included in this
feature.
Before I left I briefly chatted
to Nick and Katrina, and to be
honest, it was like we were old
friends with a common interest
in the paranormal. They are so
excited for PLUK and jokingly
loved the fact that “our swear
words aren’t

beeped out”. I also found out that Rob Saffi, the camera man,
the theme tune guy and all-round nice guy doesn’t sleep in the
locations with Nick and Katrina, that I did not know, I will have
to catch up with him at some point and see how he rated our
Premier Inns / Travelodges over here.

By the time you read this issue, Paranormal Lockdown will be

well into its debut series on Quest Red. We hope that this is the
first of many series of PLUK, obviously it depends on audience,
viewing figures, budget etc etc but I think the UK has impressed
both Nick and Katrina with our “haunted” locations. Here’s

Paul
hoping. Oh, and the girls at Best Magazine are talking to me
again.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 21

F
or centuries, all over the British
Isles, there have been ominous
sightings of monstrous, demonic
dogs. Described as colossal in size,
with black, shaggy fur, it always has
glowing red eyes or, like a cyclops,
one fiery eye that glares at its victims
from the middle of its forehead – worse,
anyone who faces it’s blazing glare is
doomed to death, or at least disaster
shortly after.
Nobody knows when the horrifying
hound first made an appearance, only
Picture Credit: Spookhound
HAUNT ED
BY
LUCY WILLGRESS
that reports date back at least five
centuries. The legend of the black dog
– infamous throughout the British Isles -
could have evolved from several ancient
sagas. Accounts bear similarities to not
only the Hound of Odin, described in
old Norse mythology, but also the Celtic
tales of Arawn, god of the underworld,
who released his hounds of Hell to
search for human souls.
Growing up in rural East Anglia on the
border of Norfolk and Suffolk, ‘Black
Shuck’ or ‘Old Shuck’ as he’s known,
MA GA Z INE H2 1
had been part of local folklore since
time immemorial. Everyone knew of
someone that saw two glowing, red
eyes in the black of night and suffered an
unfortunate turn of events – sometimes
even death. I’d always assumed it to be
an East Anglian phenomenon - Black
Shuck was our monster. However, it
didn’t take much digging to discover
that the hell-hound hunts – maybe even
haunts - all over the country. Going by
various names, all of these derive from
the old vernacular, usually middle-
English regional dialect.
23
 Picture Credit: Paul Atlas Saunders

Black Shuck – East Anglia

Stories and sightings come from far and wide all over East Anglia, from the sandy
shores of North Norfolk all the way down into Essex. The name is thought to
originate from East Anglian dialect, ‘shucky’, meaning shaggy, or ‘Scucca’, the
Anglo-Saxon word that translates as ‘demon.’

By far the most famous account from this region is the story of the day of the
demon dog, appearing in two Suffolk churches in one day, both during a violent
storm. Blythburgh and Bungay aren’t far apart geographically – a mere twelve
miles, yet during the sixteenth century, even the fastest racehorse would surely
have struggled to get from one place to the next with both congregations still
present. The strange thing is, it isn’t just a folk tale. Broadsheets printed stories
about the supernatural occurrences that day, and Church wardens even wrote
about it in the ledgers.

A contemporary broadsheet states that:

‘A strange and terrible wunder wrought very

late in the parish church of Bongay…namely
on the fourth of this August, in y yeere of Our
Lord 1577, in a…tempest of raine, lightning
and thunder, thys like whereof hath been seen.
With the appearance of an horrible-shaped
thing, sensibly perceived of the people then and
there assembled.’ (sic).
Written records were not commonplace at the time, making it even more
unusual that the church warden recorded that two men were killed in the
belfry, while several members of the congregation were maimed.

Primary sources as evidence in cases such as these are rare in the extreme.
While many people could read by this date (compared to the century before),
not many of them needed to learn to write. Instead, shocking events such as
this were made into verse and recited or sung in alehouses and town squares
all over the country. One such verse that survives tells us of the happenings that
day:

‘All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew
And, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew’.

Sadly, no evidence of this demonic encounter survives in the existing fabric of

Bungay church, mainly due to the reformation and erasing of anything relating
to ‘superstitious’ Catholicism. An unfortunate side effect of this was destroying
past evidence that we today would find fascinating. However, the same cannot
be said for Blythburgh; the church door still bears the scars of scorch marks,
supposedly left by monstrous claws.

Picture Credit: Raiden Silverfox

24 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
 Picture Credit: Britt Martin

Yeth Hound – South West

While the description remains the same – a huge, shaggy
black dog with glowing eyes – the beast of the West Country
is reputed to embody all the lost souls of Dartmoor, it’s most
notorious haunt in the County. Here, legend focuses on the
souls of stillborn, abandoned or aborted babies, whilst in
Cornwall, the belief still survives that a baby born at midnight
will have power over the ‘yell’ hounds and the supernatural.

In Devon, the beast is called the Yeth Hound, derived from

the old dialect pronunciation of ‘heath.’ Mentioned in the
nineteenth century collection of folklore ‘The Denham
Tracts,’ it may also have been the inspiration for Arthur
Conan-Doyle’s ‘Hound of the Baskervilles.’ Sighting were
so commonplace in centuries past that Black Dog Hill in
Wiltshire was named after it.

Barghest/Barguest – Yorkshire
Also known as Gytrash and Padfoot, the dog of doom has been sighted
everywhere from the snickets of York to the coastal town of Whitby. One
of the most famous cases from the area is the Legend of Troller’s Gill in
the Dales. It was first recorded in William Hone’s ‘Everyday Book’ of 1830,
then later in the nineteenth century in Thomas Parkinson’s ‘Yorkshire
Legends and Traditions’. The reader is told that one night, a brave local
took it upon himself to go out into the gorge to confront the Barguest,
summoning it forth with ritualistic magic. Unsurprisingly, he never returned
to tell the tale, and his mutilated body was found weeks later by a
shepherd, who said that across his chest were strange marks that ‘had not
come from the hand of man.’

That’s one Barguest I’d rather not have a pint with!

In popular culture
The black dog has been sparking our imaginations for centuries, and today is no exception.

Barguests feature in several well-known books, including Roald Dahl’s ‘The Witches’ and Neil Gaiman’s story ‘Black Dog.’ Glam Rock band
The Darkness – from Lowestoft in East Anglia - recorded a song called Black Shuck. The shaggy one is even more popular in video games
these days, making appearances in The Witcher and Kingdoms of Amalur, and even TV series, such as Grimm. I guess there’s no reason
why Omens of Doom can’t move with the times!

New Evidence
Until recently, the only evidence for the existence of such a creature came from accounts and stories recorded in stories, papers and songs
down through the centuries. That’s until archaeologists made a shocking discovery in May 2014. During an excavation at Leiston Abbey,
Suffolk, the bones of an enormous, male dog were unearthed.

Standing seven foot tall with an estimated weight of 200 lbs, the skeletal remains certainly match descriptions. If nothing else, this find
proves that an animal of such terrifying size can and did exist in times past.

Such physical evidence, combined with the existence of written accounts and reports, leads me to think that the legend of Black Shuck
could have its roots in reality. Whether a real beast or not, it’s certainly fed the imaginations of generations for hundreds of years. I can’t
imagine that changing any time soon.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 25
 W
hen one thinks of the occult,
secret societies, and a Utopian
community, not many people think
of Niagara Falls. Sure, the locals call it the unofficial 8th
wonder of the natural world, and it’s also been deemed
the Honeymoon Capital of the World. But home to
America’s very own sage? It sounds like something out
of a fairy tale, but less than an hour from Niagara Falls
Home of Occult Architecture,
is the home of the Sage of East Aurora. It’s a place still
Secret Societies, and shrouded with mystery, sacred architecture, and the
a 20th Century Utopia ghost of its fearless leader. Welcome to the Roycroft
Inn.

s
(oh and a rather nice Quiche of the day)

The Roycroft Inn and Campus was founded by Elbert

Hubbard in 1895 (not to be confused with L. Ron
Hubbard of Scientology infamy) and named after the
17th Century printers Samuel and Thomas Roycroft (the
name meaning “king’s craft”). The Campus was home
to those swept up in the Arts and Crafts Movement of
the late 19th-early 20th centuries. Together, Hubbard
along with his wife, Alice, and their followers, created a
medieval guild-like organization which eventually led to
a sort of Utopian society where they worked with their
“heads, hearts, and hands” instead of the gears and
grease of the Industrial Revolution.

s
The Roycroft Campus continued to grow over the years
and by 1910, the Campus contained over eighteen
buildings acting as places of work and group housing
for more than 500 craftsmen and women, spiritualists,
suffragists, reformers, radicals, prohibitionists, and
freethinkers. But with the claim of a secretive, Utopian
community hoping to change a country in grass-roots
movements, there are always rumours of societies and
cults lurking about, and the Roycroft is no different.

By
s
Hubbard was known as the Sage of East Aurora and
for a good reason. It’s a truth universally acknowledged
Amanda R. WoomeR by historians and paranormal investigators, alike,
that Hubbard was a Rosicrucian. Rosicrucianism or
(Spook-Eats) the Order of the Rosy Cross was established in (you
guessed it!) 17th Century Europe. Like most secret
societies of the day, Rosicrucianism was (and still is)
a mixture of Kabbalah, Hermeticism, alchemy, and
mystical Christianity.

26 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
 According to the teachings of the
society, members were privy to the knowledge
and secrets in nature that provided insight into
the physical universe and the spiritual realm. This
claim to fame as a Rosicrucian led Hubbard to be the
charismatic leader of his beloved Roycroft community,
even taking on the nickname of Fra (Latin for brother)
which is a common term of address in monastic orders.
Despite this direct connection between the Roycroft
Campus and the Rosicrucians, it’s still unknown
whether Hubbard was running a cult-like commune
on the Campus or if the Arts and Crafts Movement
could have been considered a religion at a time when
spiritualism was on the rise and religious unrest was
sweeping the nation. A religion follows a set of beliefs
while a cult follows an individual. Strangely enough,
the Roycroft is home to both these ideas, leaving
researchers dumbfounded of what to make of this
community.

s
Hubbard and his wife, Alice, died tragically when the
Lusitania sank off the coast of Ireland in 1915 (an
event that Hubbard prophesized as far back as 1896).
Despite this heart-breaking hardship, the community
continued under the guidance of Hubbard’s son until
it fell into a state of disrepair in 1938. The Campus lay
quiet on the corner of Main Street and South Grove
Street until it was granted National Historic Landmark
status in 1986. Today, it acts as a restaurant, boutique
hotel, and the 21st century home for those continuing
the Arts and Crafts Movement. But even though planes
fly overhead now, and cars go zooming by, there is still
a sense of mystery and otherworldliness that surrounds
the Roycroft Inn and Campus and all who visit it.

s
While the Roycroft may not boast stories of murder
and malevolent spirits stalking its halls, it certainly has
an air about it that seems mystical and sacred. Lights
turn on and off on their own. Objects such as glasses
move by ghostly hands in the bar (which used to be
Alice Hubbard’s [known prohibitionist] office). An old
hag and young serving girl appear in the gift shop. A
full-bodied apparition of a man stares out one of the
Inn’s windows. All these claims (and more) haunt the
Roycroft. Long-time employee, Rita, shared that when
she first began working at the Roycroft Inn over fifteen
years ago, she heard a man call out her name in
Hubbard Hall.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 27
 Despite the feeling of
uneasiness, a disembodied voice might
cause in most individuals, Rita claims that she
wasn’t afraid, and she believes it was Hubbard calling
out to her. And that feeling of protection and positivity
resounds throughout the Campus.

s
The Roycroft Campus may not be nearly as (in)famous
as the Stanley Hotel, the Farnsworth House, and other
haunted places in America, but it is definitely one of
the more fascinating and beguiling locations I’ve had
the pleasure to visit. Sacred architecture runs rampant
at the Roycroft Campus, and it comes as no surprise
that everyone’s favourite Rosicrucian, Hubbard, had
complete control over the design of his community. Not
only do the shapes, angles, and locations of many of
the buildings directly correlate to occult architecture
and mystical philosophies found in the works of the
Masons, but the terracotta face on the side of the
chapel adds a level of mystery to the place possibly
representing a god-like figure radiating knowledge…
one that strangely looks like “The Rosicrucian King”
Frederick of the Rhine. In all honesty, no one has any
clue what this pagan-like face is doing on the side of a
church (other than adding to the enigma of the Roycroft
Campus).

s
But the Roycroft Inn isn’t just the home of wayward
spirits, occult symbolism, and impeccably crafted
furniture. Today, it acts primarily as a restaurant offering
(officially) Buffalo, New York’s best brunch (seriously,
with endless Bloody Mary’s how could it not be #1?),
lunch, and dinner both inside the main dining room, the
Larkin room, and the outdoor peristyle. The ambiance is
both charming and warm, the staff is amiable, and the
menu is extraordinarily varied. There’s an impressive
selection of beer, wine, whiskey, and cocktails (might I
recommend the Larkin About, named after Hubbard’s
time working with the Larkin Soap Co.?) as well as
a soup of the day, salad of the day, catch of the day,
crêpe of the day, and quiche of the day. However, sadly,
as I’ve begun to learn with most haunted locations, the
prices are a bit on the higher side, so be prepared to
spend anywhere from $40-100 per couple depending
on what you order and at what time of day you choose
to visit. Luckily for those of you who have a hard time
spending a pretty penny on a sandwich (like myself),
the portions are fairly generous, and the box of
leftovers takes some of the pain away as

28 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
 you hand over your credit card.
I highly recommend their shrimp and lobster
bisque (I consider myself a connoisseur when it
comes to lobster bisques, and this was the best damn
bisque I’ve ever had). I’m not a huge fan of sweets but
their candied cashew caramel cheesecake is to die for
(seriously: if I were Elbert Hubbard, I’d forget haunting
the waitresses and spend eternity eating my weight in
cheesecake and never grow tired of it).

s
Once you’re done gorging on bisque and cheesecake
(trust me on this one… you can thank me later), feel
free to wander around the Roycroft Inn and chat
with the employees. Whether they’re believers or
sceptics, everyone has a story to share, and almost
all of the stories revolve around a single room where
employees refuse to go, and it is said to be the hub
of all the hauntings: The Ruskin Room. This room
has many claims of paranormal activity ranging from
séances, lights turning on and off, mysterious noises,
psychic experiences, poltergeist activity, and even
the apparition of Fra, himself. The Ruskin Room is
said to have been Elbert’s private study and also the
location for various Rosicrucian ceremonies (use your
imagination). According to local folklore, a Seneca
shaman showed Hubbard exactly where he should
build the tower housing the Ruskin Room after various
dowsers found natural energy beneath the ground.
It’s believed that these underground energies stir up
paranormal activity and help to lift the veil between the
worlds, offering those brave enough (or crazy enough)
to enter the room a chance to see the spiritual world
around them.

s
I sadly did not hear Elbert Hubbard call out my name,
nor did my cocktail move on its own while I visited the
Roycroft Inn. I did, however, leave feeling revitalized
and rejuvenated as if the calming and soothing
environment of the Roycroft Inn is still alive and well,
despite its fearless leader having left this world over
100 years ago.
For more information on the Roycroft Inn or if you’d like to
reserve a table or a room, check out their website at
www.roycroftinn.com or call them at 1 (716) 652-5552.
And if you find yourself in Niagara Falls, be sure to
experience the “Supernatural Roycroft” ghost tour
with Mason Winfield located right at the Roycroft
Campus.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 29
 UK HAUNTED
MIKI YORK’S
GHOSTS,GADGETS
AND GIZMOS

Twitter: @TheRealMikiYork
YouTube: MrMiki272

“ALL I HEAR IS RADIO GA GA...

Facebook: MikiUKHaunted
Instagram: TheRealMikiYork

RADIO GHOUL GHOUL..!”

YOU KNOW THE DRILL BY What’s the best tool to talk to the own use and charm about them Many people would be aware
dead? Your own body, using your and yet many of these (if not all), of the usual ones, like the spirit
NOW, THERE’S PEOPLE boxes used on shows like Ghost
senses, the gadgets that God have been criticised and judged
THAT LOVE GHOST has blessed you with? Flashy Adventures, P-SB7 and P-SB11
by the paranormal community. For
HUNTING GADGETS AND gadgets, where some look sleek, me personally, my favourite piece the principle being that they scan
THERE’S PEOPLE THAT slick, modern and some look of kit has to be the spirit box or and sweep the radio frequencies
DON’T. I GET THAT, retro or ‘Steampunky’? The good ghost box. I have used many kinds
backwards so if you hear words
WE ALL KNOW THE old-fashioned Ouija Board, the on different investigations like the
then its spirits using those
frequencies to communicate with
PARANORMAL IS AN one that you can buy from toy
original franks box, designed by
us and not Sara Cox from Radio
shops, but Victorians swore by it
INDUSTRY, A NICHE, A back in the day? Old radios, full of
the late Frank Sumption. I do in 2. There are however, gadgets like
GENRE, A SECTOR, CALL IT electrical interference, white noise,
fact own 4 different kinds of ghost this that some of us may not have
WHAT YOU WILL WHICH low frequencies, hi-frequencies?
box and with Alex of UK Haunted, heard of.
HAS MORE DIVIDES AND we have 7 in total. They each have
A few years ago, I had the
Well over the years I have used all different ways of communicating
WEDGES THAN A TRIVIAL pleasure
the above, they each have their with spirit. 
PURSUITS COUNTER OR
A TERRY’S CHOCOLATE
ORANGE. BUT WHAT IF P-SB7 & P-SB11 SPIRIT BOX
GADGETS AND GHOST Just to recap the P-SB7 is the original ITC spirit box that is designed and made
HUNTING GIZMOS WERE by Gary Galka. He made this device (and other equipment) so he could speak to
MORE THAN JUST FLASHY his deceased daughter. It works by scanning and sweeping the white noise of the
radio frequencies. You only hear each radio frequency for a quarter of a second
LIGHTS, MORE THAN and in theory if you hear full words or sentences, then it’s more than likely you
RANDOM WORDS AND are speaking to a spirit rather than a DJ or hearing words from songs.
RADIO WAVES AND THE
The P-SB11 is the updated version of the P-SB7. On this device there is a
NAY-SAYERS ARE WRONG, second spirit box and can sweep both boxes forwards and backwards at the
WHAT IF THEY COULD same time and at different sweep speeds. It also incorporates a temperature
ACTUALLY COMMUNICATE reader that lets you know when there are spikes in the temperature range.
WITH THE DEAD? Again, this is an ITC (Instrumental Trans Communication) device. 

30 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
 COOPBOX
A ghost box made by a good
friend of mine, Steve Cooper. He is
a self-taught engineer who makes
these individually numbered,
unique spirit boxes. These have
never been radios but continuously
sweep the stations. You don’t get
radio bleed, so in a way it is similar
to the P-SB7. Some of them have
a built-in echo so you may get
a better chance of hearing what
is being said. Some have the
capability to turn the sweep on
and off. As with most things in life
(phones, TVs, games consoles),
each version of the Coopbox
(pictured right) is an improvement
of the one previous, like being able
to connect an external spirit box
or music to and play through the
internal speakers. He is adding
new things to each one he makes.  JUST WOULDN’T BE ON ANY RADIO STATION
of using an original Franks box while on
location at Fort Paull in Hull. There weren’t
that many of these boxes made, with all of
them being individually numbered. Sadly,
Frank died on 17th August 2014, so no
more of these amazing machines will ever
be made again. Without Frank’s idea for a
device to communicate with the dead like
the hacked radios and ITC boxes like the
P-SB7, we wouldn’t be using them today.
Frank is the man responsible for creating
this whole area of research and that should
never be forgotten.  ADVANCEMENT IN THESE
At that time, I had only used the P-SB7 and
the Franks box was so different, we had
more words and radio bleed on this device.
Using this type of spirit box, you must
expect the music or radio stations coming
through but it’s the voices and words
between the stations that you need to look
out for. This is where you receive messages
from the other side and it can get to the
point where you are asking questions and
getting intelligent responses at times.
RADIO SHACK 12-587
This is similar to the Franks box, where you would get
radio bleed and stations coming through while it scans.
There are many RadioShack radios that have and can be
hacked, Alex from UK Haunted has a couple of them. They
are great at capturing the voices between the stations and
I fully believe that when using these devices, that we are
speaking to a spirit.
In the past I have used this particular ghost box at
Houghton House in Ampthill, Bedfordshire. This old
Manor House is derelict, and we captured
very graphic swear words at about 8pm and
if it was radio bleed then the cu*t word
wouldn’t have been on the radio, before or
after the 9pm watershed. It was a controlled
question.
“WE ASKED THE SPIRITS IF THEY
MEANT US HARM AND 3 SECONDS
LATER A VOICE REPLIED, “KILL
THE CU*T”. THIS LANGUAGE
ANYWHERE. THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED
AGAIN, SINCE THAT NIGHT.”
JENSEN GHOST BOX Ghost hunting is unique, I can’t think of any
teams or groups or people who investigate
This is my latest ghost box. I’ve been
the same way as others, that’s the beauty
after one of these for many years now
of the paranormal, whether your old school
and have managed to get hold of one in
or into your gadgets we are all trying to see
the last 2 months. I’ve had some amazing
if there’s anything there and you know what
responses on this little box and I can say gadgets may just be the answer, one day.
that I have been blown away by what has
come through.  There are some paranormal investigators
don’t like the spirit box and just say it’s
Answers to radio bleed or coincidence when voices
controlled come through, which is their opinion and
questions, if that’s what they think then so be it.
locations that I personally don’t agree with this way
I was at and of thinking. Random words can and
people’s names do come through but over the years, I
that could be have had too many correct answers to
verified. So, at controlled questions that I have asked,
the moment this to not believe that the spirit 
is my favourite spirit
box or ghost box is a credible way of
/ ghost box.
speaking to spirits. If you spend enough
time with the devices and find out
“IT’S SAFE TO SAY THAT THE
how it works, what happens when if it
malfunctions and why it malfunctions,
GHOST HUNTING DEVICES IS then yes, I think you can use it to actually
PRETTY COOL AND AMAZING speak to and find proof of the afterlife and
AND WHETHER YOU LOVE intelligent spirits. 
THEM, HATE THEM, OR ARE
UNDECIDED THEY ARE HERE TO Give gadgets, gizmos and ghost boxes a go
before you totally dismiss them, you may be
STAY”
surprised as to what you hear and capture.
You can’t reach Miki via a Ghost Box yet and hopefully for the
foreseeable future, as he is well and truly alive, but you can contact
him via social media.
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 31
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1 33
34 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1 35
36 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1

In the last issue, we talked to Neil Packer
and his Haunted Antiques Paranormal
Research Centre. Whilst producing the
magazine, a US based proprietor of
Haunted Antiquities got in touch to let
tell us a little about his Archive of the
Afterlife and the curiosities that reside
within.
Stephen Hummel is a Paranormal
Historian, Researcher, Author, Artist and
Haunted Relic Archivist. From an early
age, Steve recalls being fascinated by
accounts of ghosts and ghost stories and
after experiencing several occurrences
of unexplained events. his interest in
the paranormal piqued. Steve has spent
the past 11 years of his life conducting
day and night paranormal tours at the
former West Virginia State Penitentiary.
For the past 8 years he has co-founded
and has co-produced the YouTube
channel Paranormal Quest show, “This Is
Reality”. In addition to the aforementioned
experiences, for the past 7 years Steve
has collected and rescued hundreds of
residually charged and spiritually haunted
items for his Historically Paranormal
museum known only as the Archive of
the Afterlife a “National Museum of the
Paranormal”.  Moreover, Steve is an
ordained minister with his focus based
on Spiritual Cleansing and Demonology.
Annie's Portrait - This portrait has become widely
excepted as a conduit for a lady by the name of
Annie. It is one of our most active haunted relics in
He bases this early calling through his addition to being one of the highest visited relics!
Christian Studies from Warner Southern
University and Omega Bible Institute &
Seminary. Steve's passion and interest for
helping those in need stems from demonic
attacks that a very close loved one was
subject to as he was growing up, and also
being personally attacked himself. Some
of Steve's experience and involvement
includes having been featured in the Wall
Street Journal, featured on Destination
America's "Ghost Asylum", A & E's "My
Ghost Story”, “Paranormal Quest”, “This is
Reality", & much more.
The Execution Cap the West Virginia's Electric
The Archive of the Afterlife Chair "Old Sparky". 9 inmates died wearing this
relic as their death sentences were carried out.
Making this one of our most haunted artefacts! 
The Archive of the Afterlife currently
resides in Moundsville, West Virginia and
was established in mid-November of
2011 for the sole purpose of harbouring
haunted and cursed relics and artefacts.
Whether from private residential cases
or commercial locations The Archive's
mission is to not only offer sanctuary for
the relics and the entities attached to
them, but to help alleviate unwanted or
malevolent energies and/or entities from
their current locations. The Archive also
focuses on not just entertaining it's guests,
but also educating them to the complex FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CHECK OUT
and mysterious field of the paranormal.  https://archive-afterlife.weebly.com
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1 37
Nicky Alan’s
Horror on
Hallows’ Eve
I
was smoking at the time. I was standing
in a pub garden at 1am on Hallows’ Eve
looking up at the sky wondering what the
hell I was going to do as I frantically drew
on every puff. Madness had ensued that’s
the only way I could describe it, horror and
madness.
It was like any other ghosthunt. Public entry,
small group, paranormal investigation, get
evidence, review footage, go home, job
done. It didn’t quite work out that way.
We had been told of a haunted pub, The
Plough in Birdbrook. It was a pleasant
enough place, nestled in the Manningtree
countryside in Essex. I along with my team
thought it would be a great Halloween venue
as it had a spooky cemetery at the back of
the premises.
I have been born into generations of
psychics, mediums and healers. My siblings
are all psychic as well as my aunts and
uncles paternal side. There is nothing much
that I haven’t witnessed as a medium on the
paranormal front. But let me tell you, as I
stood behind that pub smoking my cigarette,
38
I remember clearly saying to one of my team
mates,
“I have no f**king clue on how to stop this!”
The evening had started off pretty well.
We were getting contact in various
‘hotspots’. A young spirit lady did well to
effect communication through rapping on a
wardrobe door. We had a trigger object, a
toy car, moved by a little spirit boy who kept
following other groups to corroborate his
presence. All in all the evening was going
well and everyone was enjoying some form
of unexplained phenomena.
There was one sceptic in the group. Fair
play to him, he approached me at the
beginning of the evening to express his
views. His name was Darren, ex-army and
built like a brick out house. He made it
quite clear that he thought it was all a load
of rubbish and had been dragged along by
his mum. After a chat and confirming that
his scepticism wouldn’t affect the rest of the
keen group, he reluctantly trailed around in
one of the teams.
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
They say that midnight is the witching hour,
well the timing was impeccable. Everything
literally just stopped instantly. All of the
spirit interaction that we had achieved
and built up literally left the building. The
silence was deafening. We contacted
each other on radio as we had all noticed
this unprecedented halt in proceedings.
We agreed to regroup as we were totally
perplexed as to what had stopped our
investigation.
My brother Richard then said,
“A head honcho has walked in and he is not
great.”
I agreed and decided to keep the public
group in the ‘safe zone’ whilst I and Rich
went to investigate. My safe zone consists
of an allocated area that I have saged
before the investigation. Its perimeter is
then protected by rock salt and grounding
crystals. I also have a rosary in the centre of
the zone that my granddad used to take on
house clearings and investigations.
I found the hot spot immediately. The closer
I walked to a back store room the more my
heart palpitated and I started to feel sick.
As we entered the room our thermometer
dropped thirteen degrees within seconds
whilst we felt hot. A clay pot then flew
across the room. The sense of foreboding
was palpable.
I turned and looked at my brother, “Looks like
we have found the head honcho.”
Whatever had arrived in the ether had
shoved every other spirit out of the area.
We regrouped and I asked for volunteers to
carry out a tumbler seance in this back room.
We also set up a live feed for the rest of the
public to watch. I wanted to know who and
what we were dealing with.
With the tumbler set up in the middle of the
table and simple paper letters to form the
communication, we were all shocked when
as soon as our fingers touched the tumbler
it was speeding around the table erratically.
We could hardly keep up with the strength
that this tumbler was being launched with. I
was desperate to make sure everyone kept
hold of the tumbler, it was repeatedly trying
to fly off the table. It then stopped dead and
slowly moved to A M which are my dad in
spirits initials. It then spelt.
WATCH OUT BASTARD
COMING...
My dad was warning me.The hairs on the
back of my neck went up as I felt searing
pain spread up the bottom of my back. On
inspection I had an angry red welt start to
form on my skin. I was livid. I started to
demand who we were talking to. I then got
a burn mark like a poker burn in between my
knuckles.
The tumbler remained strong and started
to spell out WITCHES. The spirit still would
not identify who he was. Darren, the sceptic
who was sitting to my left then let out an

Scratches inflicted on Darren although he insisted on carrying on with the séance

expletive. I asked him what
was wrong and he said he felt
burning on his back.
I looked at his back and was
horrified to see a bleeding
welt rising up his lower back. I
stopped the séance there and
then but Darren insisted he
wanted to carry on. There was
a girl, Kate, who was a beginner
in investigations and this spirit
started to intimidate her, forcing
her to leave the room absolutely
terrified.
Within seconds Darren jumped
up again. On looking at his
back, I could see a puncture
wound in the middle of his back
dripping blood. I couldn’t believe
what I was seeing.
Darren insisted on continuing to
do the seance. As I had told the
spirit to never touch me again I
had no further injury. This entity
obviously went for the next best
thing, a sceptic.
After another few minutes Darren
had even more scratches, cuts
and deep skin welts on his
back. It was then that I halted
the séance and regrouped in the
safe zone.
Everyone was shocked into
silence. Darren’s back had been
slashed time and time again.
I went outside and had to link
up with my guides to ask what
the hell to do. I had never been
faced with such a violent spirit
before.
After much discussion we then
filmed Darren’s bare back and
recorded footage of an unseen
energy scratching through his
skin.
We then thought of another
approach. We couldn’t just
lave a violent spirit in the pub.
I had the strongest and most
experienced people on the
table. We decided to proceed
to try and identify who we were
communicating with.
Darren’s back continued to get
slashed as we continued. We
eventually identified the spirit as
Matthew Hopkins. Truth be told I
had no idea who he was.
It turned out he was the Witch
Finder General between 1644
and 1647. It also turned out
that he had lived just down the
road from where we were and
the cemetery at the back of the
pub was where tried witches
were buried after being tortured
and hung. We were basically
right in the hub of his old hunting
ground.
The hunters had become the
hunted.
Matthew Hopkins would use
an implement that can only be
described as a chisel crossed
with a scalpel. He would rip the
implement through suspected
witches usually trying to find scar
tissue that wouldn’t bleed. If
the skin did not bleed he would
declare them a witch.
He was responsible for over 300
executions of purported witches
during his three year spate of
terror.

HAUNTED MA GA Z INE H2 1 39
He declared us as witches
because we were communing
with the dead.
I tried everything to get rid
of his presence. Nothing
worked. I had no idea how
or why he was still an active
energy after hundreds of
years. What I do know is
there is no doubt he still
prowls his old hunting ground
in Manningtree to this day.
His presence was obviously
optimised by the thinning veil
of Hallo’s Eve.
On conclusion, I conducted
a cleansing ceremony of the
room. I did not get rid of his
spirit but I did get him out of
the pub. As the fragrant smell
of the guide and angel realms
permeated the room cleansing
it, I knew we were to end the
investigation.
Darren, funnily enough is
no longer a sceptic and did
start to conduct his own
paranormal investigations!
It has to be made clear that
this type of violent spirit
phenomena is very rare.
However I am a complete
advocate of having an
experienced medium on any
investigation as you really
don’t ever know what you are
going to be faced with.
Be warned guys, don’t play
about with this stuff.
The footage of the
investigation was put together
by Rich and earned a place in
the Southend film festival.
If you would like to see the
investigation, The Birdbrook
Ghost Hunt is available to view
on my YouTube channel Nicky
Alan.
Nicky Alan is a naturally
born psychic medium and is
acknowledged as one of the
most highly esteemed mediums
in the industry. She officially
started her spiritual work 27
years ago whilst also being a
Major Investigations Detective
in Essex Police. She is mostly
known for her appearances
on international radio (winner
of best Show and guest for
‘Angels’ Haunted Devon FM)
and many TV programmes
including Street seer Gifted
channel, Live from Studio five
Channel 5, A Sister’s Loss Sky
One, Come dine with me (guest
medium) and Angels (two
seasons with Gloria Hunniford).
Nicky has had many
published articles since
2005 in mainstream spiritual
magazines including Chat It’s
Fate, Psychic News, Psychic
vision, Prediction magazine,
Two worlds, Paranormal News,
Kindred Spirit, Take a Break’s
Fate and Fortune and Spirit and
Destiny.
She was also the columnist
for Eternal Spirit and now a
columnist as ‘The Psychic
Detective’ in Take a breaks
Fate and Fortune and ‘Diary
of a Psychic’ in Spirit and
Destiny magazine in the UK and
Australia.
Nicky has travelled globally
carrying out theatre tours,
seminars, paranormal
investigations and teachings
of the afterlife and angel
phenomena. She has written
and produced to guided
meditation CD’s Meeting your
guides and Soul Journey and is
soon to release her debut book,
M.E Myself and I: Diary of a
Psychic.
TENNESSE’S FINEST ARE
BACK TO GIVE HAUNTED
MAGAZINE THE LOWDOWN
ON THEIR GROUND-BREAKING
NEW TV PROJECT!
The Tennessee Wraith Chasers
boys are old friends of Haunted
Magazine, we interviewed
them last year when they were
debuting Haunted Towns. Not
wanting to rest on their laurels
and continue doing they’re the
same, they’ve now embarked
on LIVE Ghost Hunting, titled
Haunted LIVE (sounds strangely
familiar), utilising the power of
a TV Network, namely The Travel
Channel BUT also (and for us here
at Haunted Magazine it’s a big BUT
ALSO) utilising one of the biggest
forces in the modern paranormal
world today, Social Media.
Not only will you be able to
watch them LIVE on the Travel
Channel, but you will also be
able to interact with them on
social media, watch them LIVE
on Facebook in what is being
described as the ultimate
paranormal experience.
We caught up with them again as
they were preparing for this very
new challenge.
HAUNT ED
Hey guys it's great to
talk to you again with
another shiny new project
'Haunted Live' (great title
btw - did you know about
HauntedLIVE in the UK?).
Chris: I did not know about
HauntedLIVE UK but I’m
definitely going to have to
check it out now! Great
minds think alike.
Doogie: Great to talk with
you again as well. I have
followed you guys for a
while. Really like the way you
all roll and the name is on
point [“winking face”].
Mike: Haunted Live in the
UK? I had no idea... coming
over to the UK is something
we always wanted to do.
Hopefully someday!
So, tell us what's it all
about?
Chris: “Haunted Live” is
a barrier breaker in many
MA GA Z INE
ways. It gives the viewers Brannon: It’s basically a live
ghost hunt on TV in which the
the opportunity to essentially
investigate with us. The fans can interact through the
energy is going to be high web.
because the pressure is Porter: The premise is that
going to be ridiculous, we find these locations
and in theory ghosts feed and investigate them live
off that energy. We hope with America watching!
this variable added to the It’s just like everyone is
intense locations we’ve going right along with us
chosen, PLUS the fact that and investigating at the
it’s completely interactive, same time! Additionally,
fans get to help us with the
will be the paranormal
investigation by watching
protein these spirits need to
the live feeds and letting us
manifest.
know via the internet that
Doogie: This is gonna be an something is happening in
epic interactive adventure
another area, so we can go
with the TWC, coming to there and investigate…it’s like
the audience live from each the viewer can legitimately
awesome location. affect the course of the
Mike: It’s all about the investigation!
fans. If not for the fans,
we wouldn’t be able to
do what we are doing.
This is an amazing
opportunity for them to
investigate with us.
H2 1 41
 One of the things that
captured the imagination
from 'Ghost Asylum' were the
brilliant array of gadgets and
traps that you designed. Will
you be using these on the
lives and if so which ones?
Chris: We definitely like to try
new things – the more creative
the better. No matter how
crazy the method, we will try
anything at least once. I think
you’ll definitely see some new
gadgets, but also perhaps
new techniques to implement
as well. This is a field based
on theories, experience and
beliefs. Without trial and
experimentation, we’ll never
evolve.
Mike: Faith is a big part of my life, of our
lives. We pray before going into a location,
and I pray during an investigation as well
as after. Like the Bible says, if God is for
me, nothing can be against me.
Doogie: The experiments
we used on “Ghost Asylum”
were pretty great from an
experimental aspect. I think we
may use some methods from
there, but with a totally different
spin for each specific location.
Mike: You never know what
we will break out! Some may
depend on the location.
Brannon: We may bring in a
new device on occasion.
Porter: We were so blessed
by our viewers in their support
of our investigations and
implementation of experimental
transportation devices in
“Ghost Asylum” …we were
able to shoot those episodes
over the course of 4 days and
take the time to implement
the device and try to get
interactions. In this endeavour
we will only have an hour of
live investigation to get that
interaction and document it for
the audience…that means that
we just won’t physically have
time to develop and implement
those devices. But in return
the audience will get to see the
good, the bad, the ugly and the
triumph that exists during a real
investigation.
What would you say are your
go to gadgets and why?
42
Chris: Definitely the digital
recorder. It’s probably the
simplest of the tools we use,
but it has gotten us some of
the most phenomenal evidence
to date. It was my very first
piece of equipment and the
fundamental tool for any up and
coming paranormal investigator.
However, technology aside,
I believe the best piece of
equipment is our own God-
given senses. No piece of
technology can trump the
human ability of sight, sound,
smell and touch.
Doogie: I think it’s different for
each team member, but the
voice recorder is one of my
favourites.
I have gotten some of my best
answers with just a recording
device that does not cost 300
bucks. Lighting up gadgets are
great...but the recordings give
you a direct answer for the most
part, and that is why it is my go
to device.
Mike: My very first go to is a
flashlight – you have no idea
how many times that little gem
is forgotten. It’s a must-have
for sure. Other than that, I can
be good with just a recorder.
A great way to capture that
“in the moment” evidence
and hopefully dial in your
investigation a little more...
who you’re talking to, what
they want, if they want you
there at all...etc.
Brannon: To be honest I like
to try a little bit of everything,
but it seems like audio evidence
is where most of the evidence
is, so I would say an audio
recorder.
Porter: I love to use the basics,
a recorder and video camera
however, some of the new
technologies provide a new way
to measure, document, interact
and communicate with the other
side. I have been experimenting
with the portals and have had
amazing interactions…perhaps
HAUNT ED
you’ll see some of these in
action on the show!
How does your faith
influence / impact upon your
investigations?
Chris: Faith for me is the
most important thing when
it comes to this field. I was
raised Christian and I still hold
very strongly to my Christian
beliefs. I may not understand
every detail of these beliefs but
that’s where the faith portion
comes into play. I don’t believe
these are human spirits, but I
also don’t believe they are all
demonic. I have no idea what
they are. All I know is they
are intelligent and from my
experience, misunderstood.
Being that we don’t have all
the answers, it’s better safe
than sorry, so we always give a
big “fist bump to the Big Man”
before every investigation.
Doogie: My faith is everything
to me. It gives me the comfort
and power of safety to push on
in an investigation when you
just want to leave sometimes. It
may be different for some in the
aspect of safety. I know some
use specific stones and what
not, but I stay with the strong
hand of the BIG MAN.
Brannon: I am a Christian and
raised missionary Baptist, so I
believe in angels and demons,
although I don’t necessarily
believe in people staying around
after death. I believe they go
to Hell or Heaven based on if
they are saved by Jesus or not,
which I am saved.
Porter: One of the best and worst aspects of
live TV is that anything can happen, and the
audience gets to live it with us! Although
we have experienced many supernatural
experiences we still get excited and startled
when the unexpected happens, and that can
sometimes produce an outburst!
Porter: I’m a firm believer in the
power of prayer and anytime
I enter a location I ask God to
keep me safe from the wilds of
the devil. I’m a Christian but
I also know that throughout
time we have used religion and
mysticism to explain things that
we didn’t understand. My faith
is strong but am always open
to discovery of science that
MA GA Z INE 2 1
may explain some of what we
consider to be supernatural.
With live ghost hunting,
we know that anything can
happen! Chris and Porter, how
do you think you will cope
with the scarier moments
when you are live on camera?
Will you need a bleeper?!
Chris: It’s definitely going to
be interesting to see how this
plays out live. There’s always
that chance of something off
colour happening that can’t just
be edited out in post. In fact, we
all have a steady pool of who’s
going to curse first, and his
name rhymes with “Stoogie.”
What locations will you be
visiting and how did you
choose them?
Chris: Each member of the
team has carefully chosen
these locations. We pick them
based on paranormal activity,
history and even some personal
experience. We only have an
hour to try and generate a
response, so we’ve chosen
the most active locations and I
don’t think they will disappoint.
Doogie: The locations will
be loaded with history and
hauntings. You will not want to
miss an episode!
Mike: All I can say is that these
locations are deep with history...
some we’ve been waiting years
to get inside. It’s gonna be a fun
ride for sure!
Brannon: Can’t give away too
much, I can tell you they are
haunted though!
Porter: We have some amazing
locations lined up for the
show…some we have never
been to and others we’ve been
to but have never investigated…
This season is gonna really be a
treat for us and the viewers!
 Chasey Ray Mcknight was your equipment tech until 2015 where he stepped back for some family
time. Are you still in touch and will there be any reunion with him in the future?
Chris: Actually, I just ran into Doogie: Chasey Ray is still a bless him for deciding to put
his wife at the supermarket huge part of the TWC family. his family first. Traveling can
today! We keep in touch as We talk to him from time to be tough, especially with little
much as possible but with time when he is not covered ones.
four kids and a 60-hour up with family obligations. Porter: I talk to CRM on
a week job, he’s a busy
You never know when Big Ol’ occasion and he is done with
guy. We miss the big hairy
CRM will show up. investigating at the moment
redneck, but I know he’s right
where he wants to be. I can Mike: Oh yea. Once a wraith and focused on taking care of
only hope we talk him into chaser, always a wraith his growing family. I’d love to
another hunt but only time chaser. Chasey is a brother, bring CRM back…those were
will tell. Stay tuned. he'll never go away! God the best times ever.

Last time we spoke Chris, you mentioned that ‘The

Bell Witch’ was on your paranormal bucket list.
Have you had the opportunity to investigate it yet
or will this be on one of your future live shows?
Chris: YES. This is at the very top of my
paranormal bucket list. I have yet to investigate
or even visit the grounds. I know if I went for
a tour it’d just be a tease for me so I’m still
waiting for the whole experience. This story has
both intrigued and frightened me my entire life.
Fingers crossed.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 43
Back to the new show, will you
be able to interact with fans on
the investigations?
Chris: Basically, you can watch
us on your TV screen, and help
us investigate through your
laptop, tablet, or cell phone. We
will have static cams set up all
over the location, so the fans
can keep an eye on each room,
even during commercial breaks.
It’ll be like having thousands of
investigators helping us on every
case.
Brannon: Since “Ghost Asylum”, we do more
experiments on occasion than trying to
“trap a ghost” or “transport a ghost,” and
we also investigate more types of places
than just asylums. Even though I am open
minded to possibly containing a ghost, I
don’t necessarily believe you can trap them
indefinitely.
Doogie: We will have a special
team set to keep up with all the
fans interactions. They will keep
us informed of anything they see
that we may not.
Mike: Yes, we will! It’s
the “Ultimate Paranormal
Experience” – fans on Travel
Channel’s Facebook page will be
able to interact with us and let us
know what they see on the web
cams.
Brannon: Yes, we will be able
to interact with the fans through
the web.
Porter: We’ll be getting feedback
from the viewers during the
investigation to help us find
potential paranormal activity.
Will there be any other
investigators present?
Doogie: Just the TWC for now,
but you never know who we may
have to call in.
Porter: No, this will be our
investigation and since its live
and time is limited we don’t want
to complicate matters more by
bringing someone in that’s not
familiar with the format.
When investigating, which
comes first? Researching the
history of a location or straight
to investigation to see what
you find?
Chris: I like to start with a good
ghost story. If you don’t have that
then why investigate? Once you
44
have a paranormal claim, then
dive into the history and try to
see if there’s a connection. Once
this is established, you know
what the best approach is to
elicit a response or debunk the
claim.
Doogie: I always say do your
research! If you get answers it
may connect back to something
you’ve learned about the
location’s history. It also helps in
having educated questions about
the specific location.
Mike: For me
it depends. Sometimes I like
reading up on the history of the
location and see what I’m getting
into. Sometimes I like going in
cold, see what evidence I get
and then do the research LATER.
See if it matches up with any of
the claims, etc.
Brannon: We usually research
the history first, then investigate
to see if the evidence agrees with
recorded history.
Porter: I personally love history,
so I have a hard time not digging
in to the history right away. It’s
great to do the investigation and
then compare your evidence
to the history and finding those
connections. I like to find the
Easter eggs and keep them in
my pocket until we have a reason
to reveal them.
It's noticeable that you don't
have a medium / sensitive
working with you. Is this a
conscious decision? What are
your opinions on mediumship?
Chris: I’m not against trying
mediums. I’m more of a large
kind of guy myself. In all
seriousness, I do believe there
are some out there with gifts and
some that just want attention. I
think if we can find one that we
all agree is legit, we’d love to
have them join us.
Doogie: We have discussed this
option and we are not against it.
It’s just something we have not
really dipped into.
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE
Mike: When it comes to
mediums, I’m 50/50. I really don’t
have a direct answer. I do believe
some people have a gift, and
then there are the other ones. We
have worked with some before,
not so much on TV, but we have
worked with them.
Brannon: I am open minded
and believe in sensitive people,
but I know there are a lot of
fakes out there, so you have to
be sceptical when dealing with
psychic mediums and sensitives.
Porter: We haven’t worked
with mediums much on the
show however, in my personal
investigations I’ve found
someone who has a real
knack for knowing information
and relaying info that is on
point and I love working
with her. I’d love to do more
investigations with her…she’s
on a sister show but would work
with her anytime.
How would you say your
investigations have changed
since 'Ghost Asylum'?
Chris: As in anything you do, you
get seasoned over time. I believe
we’re more aware in many ways.
I think we’re more aware of
environmental factors that can
mimic activity, and a little more
in tune with our own feelings and
senses. Unfortunately, also a little
more jaded but just with people.
Spirits not included.
Doogie: We moved up in the
world in the fact that we go into
much safer and cleaner places.
We interact with more people
that are using the location we
investigate now. In “Ghost
Asylum,” we investigated more
dilapidated and abandoned
places.
Mike: On “Ghost Asylum,” I
worked production. After that is
where I really got into it. A plus
from working on “Ghost Asylum”
to “Haunted Towns”, was being
able to investigate multiple
locations and see if there are
links with the hauntings..
Porter: The scope of the
investigation has broadened,
and we are no longer trying
to contain energy. If we can
communicate and have a great
intelligent interaction, I feel like
we have accomplished our goal.
Of course, if we can help in any
way we are glad to walk down
that road.
2 1
Any plans to fly across the
pond to the UK? Maybe TWC's
'Haunted Live' could join
HauntedLIVE?
Chris: That would be amazing.
Are you kidding? With so many
haunted locations and such rich
history and culture. Sign me up.
Doogie: That would be amazing!!
Let’s see how we do and that
may be an option...MAYBE...
Mike: We would be there in a
heartbeat if we could. Hopefully
that’s in the cards...so many
great locations over there.
Brannon: I would LOVE to go
to England! It’s one of my many
dream places to investigate and
to even visit. Hopefully we will
get to work with you guys in the
future.
Porter: No plans as of yet but
you never know where we will
end up.
We mentioned social media
and with our HauntedLIVEs it
plays an absolutely massive
part of Live Ghost Hunting, the
viewers literally become your
extra eyes and ears, is this
what you are hoping to happen
with regards to social media
interaction?
Chris: Absolutely. Some will
view this as just a TV show.
We view it as the ultimate
paranormal experiment. We hope
everyone joins in online and
helps us further the field with
their opinions. The more eyes
and ears, the more possible it
becomes to capture something
paranormal.
Doogie: That is exactly the point.
This will give the fans a great
interactive experience and also
give us a whole new set of eyes
that we would normally never
have.
Mike: That’s exactly what we
are hoping. There are no experts
in this field. I don’t care if you
did this for years, or are a first
or second time ghost hunter, we
all learn from each other. Having
that extra set of eyes and ears
can truly help the investigation.
Maybe they will catch something
that we didn’t.
Brannon: Yes definitely, we
are hoping that viewers will
participate and investigate with
us. And because we have the
eyes and ears of the viewers,
we will be more likely to catch
evidence of the paranormal.
 Doogie: I have been doing paranormal investigations for 20 plus years.
The equipment is the biggest change that I see. People still go about
investigations mostly the same as usual. It is nice to see the different
angles others put on their investigations. I see a whole lot more
experimental pieces of equipment, that no one is really sure how
they work. That’s the reason why I am still a lil’ old school about
using recorders and just my own senses. Don’t get me wrong...I do
like the new stuff because it gives you a visual aspect for immediate
validation. At the end of the day, I think the paranormal investigators
and equipment are headed in the right direction.

Porter: Absolutely! Most
investigation are conducted with
a team of folks but it’s hard to
catch everything. We are hopeful
that with America watching and
that many eyes on the screen
that someone somewhere will see
that monumental interaction that
everyone misses and bring it to
the world’s attention!
You formed in November 2009,
around the same time as
Haunted Magazine and we've
seen so many changes in the
paranormal world over the last
nine years. As you go into your
10th year in 2019, what do you
think has changed the most and
more importantly has your belief
of the paranormal changed, and
if so, in what way?
Chris: I think it’s the way people
perceive the paranormal in
general. When we first began,
most conversations that started
with ghosts ended in laughter
or criticism. Now everyone is so
much more open and intrigued
about what’s out there. I still hold
the same belief system, but my
fear of the unknown subsides
a little more with every case.
However, to this day if I go to a
haunted house and a guy jumps
out with a chainsaw…I scream
like a little girl.
Mike: My beliefs in the
paranormal have not changed,
but the paranormal is much more
mainstream than it has been in
the past. I think it’s continuing
to grow day by day. People are
becoming more open, people are
having their own experiences and
becoming believers. Investigating
is addictive...we’re always
wanting more, wanting to find
out the answers...but will we ever
know? Are we even SUPPOSED
to know? It’s a field with 100%
questions and zero facts.
Brannon: I believe that the world
has become more accepting and
open minded of ghosts and the
paranormal in general in the past
nine years. Also, I believe the
scientific community has become
more open minded in ghosts and
more technology has been made
for ghost hunting. In the past nine
years, I have become much more
open minded to the paranormal,
even though my core religious
beliefs of the Bible and the final
destination of man’s soul remains
unchanged.
Porter: Wow what a great
question! We find ourselves
being more open to learning
and experiencing other forms
of investigation and assembling
our own body of knowledge.
My belief is unchanged, but my
questions continue to grow. It’s
like a maze with no end but we
continue to follow the path to see
where it leads.
It’s been an absolute pleasure
talking to you all today. Best
of luck with the new show and
hopefully we will see you here in
the UK soon!.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 45
 When Jayne Harris met Toyah Willcox
T
oyah Willcox is a woman who
requires no real introduction. A
timeless singer, actress, presenter
and free thinker (who never seems
to age!), Toyah is someone who admits to
being very fluid in her beliefs, but you may
not necessarily associate her with the
paranormal…until now!
Toyah has been having paranormal experiences
since she was a child and now considers them
part of her everyday life. In a new documentary
Afterlife Toyah opens up about these experiences
and shows viewers around the most haunted
parts of her home! The film’s Producer and
Presenter Jayne Harris caught up with her for a
coffee and a chat in-between filming on behalf of
Haunted Magazine.
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1
J: Toyah thank you for speaking to Haunted
Magazine, (*whispers - it’s one of my
favourites!) First of all, would you tell us about
your interests in the paranormal and when
they began?
T: Well I wouldn’t actually claim to be interested
in the paranormal as such as it isn’t something I
actively seek out as an interest…it seeks me out!
What I will say is from a very early age it became
quite apparent that absolutely nothing in life fits
into the category of normal. Even time, which
we believe to be an event of movement through
space - is a construct of our own design. I don’t
believe in time as we see it. Before I was old
enough to conceive what “reality” is I was having
dreams about concentration camps, dying
in the gas chamber, leaving the body, being
suspended in eternity and then returning to the
physical world in another body. I was about 4
years old. My mother would freak out when I
told her these really disturbing dreams and she
would tell me never to tell anyone.
47
 As I grow older some things
become more apparent. Reality
is a controlled construct, without
it there would be no evolution,
just anarchy. Our sense of
reality is based around our 5
senses, these senses pick up
only the vibrations/frequencies
they are tuned to, but there are
many thousands even millions
“Past, present, of frequencies and vibrations
around us which we never
future are experience. Sometimes our
senses become highly sensitised
all the same and we can read the past, in that
we pick up on a past event or a
and so is past life, sometimes this is simply
an emotional memory left behind
eternity…it’s such as a haunting but more
interestingly sometimes we are
all here, all in the actual event itself…I have
only ever experienced this once.
at once.”
I was looking out across a field in
Worcestershire when suddenly I
witnessed an army on horseback
riding into battle. I didn’t
necessarily think of what I was
seeing as ghosts, just another
layer of time.
Past, present, future are all the
same and so is eternity…it’s all
here, all at once.
J: Your home is really quite
48 HAUNT ED
special, not only in terms of its
history but also its paranormal
activity! What can you tell us
about the experiences people
have had in your home and the
stories connected to it?
T: Luckily even non-believers
have experiences in my home!
This is incredibly important to
me, because I have always been
addressed as someone with an
active imagination, but I know
when it comes to my house
that it’s absolutely NOT my
imagination!
The most famous experience
was with the actress Rula Lenska
who is a non-believer in ghosts.
We were filming a ghost hunting
documentary with Rula, Ruth
Madoc and 5 close friends, all
reluctant to be there and all non-
believers. We were in the cellar
when Rula collapsed. She said
she was trapped with a group
of children who were locked in
down there and starving to death.
When researching this story, it
appears that during the Plague,
around the 1600’s, (my cellar
is dated from the 1500’s),
villager’s would put the children
underground thinking they
MA GA Z INE 2 1
wouldn’t get the disease, in the
case of my cellar around 15
children died there as a result
of the adults dying and no-one
coming to get them out.
J: That’s such a sad piece of
history, and how fascinating
that Rula picked up on that so
strongly! Have you ever seen a
ghost/apparition yourself?
T: My home has many shadows
which appear at the same
time, in the same place daily.
I now completely ignore them,
but guests see them and ask
what is going on. We have a
male shadow who walks past
our kitchen door to the cellar.
Everyone sees him.
J: YES! I saw that when we
were filming here, just a
brief glimpse but definitely a
shadow.
T: Exactly. We also have a woman
in white who walks outside the
kitchen windows, many friends
and complete strangers have
seen her. A slightly spooky
new one appeared a couple of
weeks ago and he ran from my
husband’s office into our lounge,
which made me jump!
J: I bet it did! Would you
describe yourself as spiritual?
T: Spiritual as in I believe the flesh
is just a vehicle for us to learn,
experience and tune our souls
through. As if we are batteries
that need charging, therefore
development and efforts in life
are vital to our eternal existence. I
believe we go on.
J: Given your experiences and
those of your friends in your
home, do you ever feel uneasy,
especially when alone at home?
T: I never feel uneasy alone. I feel
uneasy among humans! They are
the ones who do the real damage.
My home is remarkably beautiful
and has a living soul, it is unlike
any other place I have ever lived.
When I met my husband, he lived
in a house that was so evil I could
never be alone there, the devil
was present I am convinced.
J: Wow. What happened?
T: Too much. We will leave that
for another issue of Haunted
Magazine.
J: OK, moving on! There is
an ever-increasing interest in
Ghost Hunting lately both on
TV and amongst small groups,
what are your thoughts on
ghost hunts generally?
Ghost Hunting isn’t a bad thing
in my opinion. It helps people
explore their senses and feelings.
If it helps people see that they are
not just their own physical flesh
and blood I think that is a great
thing. For centuries we have been
controlled by the fear of death.
Fear robs us of our freedom in
life. If Ghost Hunting helps people
believe in the continuation of the
soul then I think that is brilliant,
even though I do believe most
ghosts are simply memories
rather than conscious entities.
Now conscious entities are a
totally different kettle of fish!
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE
Another remarkable thing about
humans and animals is our
emotions. These are so powerful
that we can leave these memories
behind…it makes you realise how
important being positive is.
Also, humans have the ability to
meditate /pray/conceive future
ideas and bring them into the
“I believe
physical world. We are so much ghosts play a
more than just our 5 senses.
Therefore, I believe ghosts play a
vital role in
vital role in broadening our beliefs broadening
and physical horizons. our beliefs
J: Finally, what do you believe and physical
happens when we die? Is there
an Afterlife? horizons.”
T: About 5 years ago I had an
astonishing dream in Seattle. I
was there writing an album. It
was one of those dreams where
the experience was so tangible
it’s hard to believe it was just a
dream.
H2 1 49
 I was staying at the home of my closest
friend who I write with and unknown to
me he had developed cancer, it wasn’t
diagnosed until a week later.
In my dream a white shaman came into
my bedroom through the window and
said he was there to teach me how to
die.
He said:
“When you die, you peel layers off
yourself as you leave your body. Like
peeling an onion, each layer comes off,
until you eventually strip yourself down
to your bones. You then detach yourself
from your bones, every layer is an
important part of your future existence,
never resist this process, go with it.”
This dream baffled me. Why was I
being taught how to die? A week later
my friend was diagnosed with a nasty
cancer and I realised the dream was to
help me guide my friend.
It has been 5 years now and in this time
the team, a group of us, all friends, all
meditate together at the same time
where ever we are in the world. we
have healing sessions with renowned
healers and we have been peeling the
layers off to find the origins of anger
50
(that we believe may have triggered the
cancer in my friend), in the hope he can
stay with us as long as possible.
Death is a painful experience for the
living, I believe death is a natural
process like being born and a
continuation of existence. I believe
we cannot die, and we return to the
physical world when we need to
recharge the soul. I also believe once in
the death process there is no necessity
for us to be the people we were in that
life anymore. In actual fact I believe if
you hold on to your past…that’s when
ghosts appear.
J: Toyah thank you so much for
chatting to me.
You can keep up with Toyah on her
website
www.toyahwillcox.com
and by following #TOYAH60 (yes, she
turned 60 this year!)
Details of Afterlife: The Documentary at
Jayne Harris
www.facebook.com/AfterlifeDoc
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE
Described by VICE’s ‘Broadly’
magazine as “the UK’s Foremost
Female Paranormal Investigator”
Jayne Harris is a Researcher,
Filmmaker and Director of HD
Paranormal Research.
Her fascination with the unexplained
started at a young age after a series
of unusual experiences and has
spent the last 20 years researching
and investigating anomalous
phenomena. Jayne is also a qualified
Psychologist and keen Historian
and regularly lectures at schools,
colleges and conventions. She is also
a published author and a regular on
paranormal TV and Radio worldwide.
Jayne is the former owner of one of
the most haunted objects in the world
the infamous Peggy the Doll who, in
2017 she entrusted to the care of Zak
Bagans and remains a consultant
on her case. Peggy the Doll can
be visited in Zak Bagans Haunted
Museum in Las Vegas.
2 1
The Lowdown on

The Three
Benbecula
Witches With Leonard Low
When I write, I usually find myself knee deep in old manuscripts and first edition
books hundreds of years old; it’s usually in my research for an old Witch trial. I
may just get a sentence from a book, just a snippet of information that will leave
me on a chase to gather more information. Ancient books after books may lead
me to nowhere! And it’s all very time consuming with usually very little available to
enhance the story. Many Witch trials were never recorded, only existing in letters
from gentlemen who witnessed the event writing to each other showing disgust
or approval to the burning. From what brief details I get I can usually go through
my sources and find something.

B
ut I question myself why after a week
of little sleep and total chaos to my
library, I at the end of my tether, and
my research archives which is now fully
exhausted, I find I have amassed only about
six paragraphs of quality material towards
the tale, two of them being the location
and past history of the area taken from my
Statistical accounts of Scotland 1797.
Basically, stuck and frustrated that I cannot
enhance the story further...
It’s a fruitless search that 9 out of 10 times
leads nowhere, but again when going
through the same search sometimes I get
lucky, details reveal themselves, piecing
together a vivid story and when it happens it
makes the previous efforts all worthwhile.
It’s with this forthcoming story, I met at one
of my lectures a lovely German Woman
called Anya Mackay, who introduced me to
her husband who had been brought up on
the West coast of Scotland on the island of
Benbecula. He had a story, a very unusual
story witnessed by himself and a friend that
when I researched his tale it produced a
most strange situation! I will retell the tale
as told to me from both the witnesses who
saw the strange phenomena. I must add
the witnesses are reliable and professional
men who brought up in the wilds of this
bleak windswept Island are not acceptable
to being frightened very easily, hardy and
tough is the lineage of the breed from this
Highland outpost.
Benbecula in old Gaelic is pronounced
“Beinn Na Fadhla” meaning “the mountain
between the fords” a flat rugged land with
one distinctive high area to the island, the
island is 8-mile square with the soil sandy
and inappropriate for crop farming.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 51
Several fresh water lochs are in the
centre of this isle and it’s here that we
find ourselves with the two friends,
out for the day with metal detecting
equipment. This is their story as they
told it to me in May 2015 Kennoway,
Fife where they had moved to live.
Mr Hugh Mackay and Mr Bernhard
Fladung … were good friends; Hugh
was born in Balivanich and brought up
on the island, he knew the Benbecula
coastline better than most, his friend
Bernhard was from Germany and
today found them on a metal detecting
enterprise; with history going back
3000 years from the monolithic
remains still to be seen on the island
they had some previous success
here in metal finds and knew the best
spots. A few hours into the expedition
brought success and a couple of
hits had found and were enough
to find their way into the keep bag.
The weather was sunny with good
visibility and, as the inhabitants
are used to here, the weather can
be traditionally unpredictable with
considerable changes the norm.
It’s something the locals get used
to, but the tourist may frown at the
unpredictability mixed with occasional
swarms of midges, the tiny Scottish
Mosquito with the 6-inch jaws!
It was nearing Dusk, and it had
become overcast, dark but still warm
enough to stay out, it was then a
strange chill took the lads they both
noticed it, then to the immediate
right of Hugh … he saw a lady in the
distance walking over the heather,
Something not quite right about her,
her skirt was long, lengthwise to the
ground in an old fashioned style,
wearing a dark blue shawl draped over
her shoulder, she was sternly looking
at him and his friend. He mentioned it
to his companion who saw the strange
woman also, but then another same
dressed woman appeared…then
another.
The three weird dressed women were
now 10 feet apart from each other they
were slowly making their way towards
the two lads, but the area they had
come from was bleak and nothing but
a peninsula into the sea, they saw no
boat to have dropped off the three
strange sisters onto the island, and
the boys couldn’t have missed the
girls go past them to come from the
direction they were advancing from.
Something wasn’t right, “it just didn’t
feel right, the women looked so out of
place with the costumes they wore,
we never saw them arrive, but we
52
couldn’t have missed them either, we
immediately packed up our bags and
moved off towards the ancient stones
of the “Ultach Fhinn” Fingels armful,
the ancient 3 Millennium BC stone age
ruins, 23 feet by 6foot carved stone
blocks.
Right next to the monolithic stones
was “Airidh na L’Aon” the chambered
cairn built as a shelter it was here they
retreated to the base of Rueval hill.
They looked over towards the beach
and again they saw the weird sisters
standing where the boys had been just
minutes ago…but all three sisters were
silently staring back at the boys!
“It was the strangest feeling ever, I had
spent my life on the island and had
never experienced anything like it, the
women had walked in a full semi circle
around us like we were being stalked,
I’m not ashamed to say I was worried,
the women never took their eyes from
us as they walked West to East around
us, I offered a nervous greeting to them
waving a hand and saying hello as
the islanders are accustomed to, but I
wanted nothing at that moment but to
retreat away from the apparition of the
three women standing staring at us.
They never responded to my gesture,
just kept staring, they wore floor
length dresses in the style of period
costumes. I honestly felt they were
not from my world! My friend thoughts
were the same, we bloody well got
away from there!”
Here the boys testament ends and
the story becomes really interesting,
the chambered cairn (Airidh na l Aon
Oidche) was once a roofed enclosure,
a “shielding for the night” a place for
Sheppard’s and fishermen caught out
in the weather to keep themselves
safe and warm for the night, a homely
abode for the lost and weary traveller
caught out by the rain, it once held two
rooms and a small living room with a
fireplace. No locks on the doors, a free
abode, a welcome respite for anybody.
It’s this building that has a connection
with two murders and three strange
sisters!
There is no specific date to this tale,
but it is ancient, it was first published
in 1883 by Rev John Gregorson
Campbell and it was recited to him
via Donald Cameron of Ruag Tiree a
famous collector of Scottish folk tales.
From these two sources Alexander
Carmichael added it to his glossary
on Scottish folklore and gave it some
fame. It goes as such….
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE
A Man called McPhee and his
two friends were cutting Kelp out
on the beach near the ancient
stones of “Ultach Fhinn” McPhee
had his black three-legged dog
with him, he was favourite with the
locals but renowned for not having
much of a bark! The dog although
attentive was always quiet, it would
always become a conversation piece
but McPhee would only say “The
black dogs day has not come yet” it
was on this day when the lads were
working, in the distance three strange
ladies appeared, they came close,
they appeared attractive and comely,
the men invited them back to the
warmth of the “Shielding” and after a
brief introduction the two rooms of the
“shielding” were occupied with two of
the men and sisters coupling off.
The
two left
standing were
McPhee and one
off the sisters, but
McPhee and his dog
were unsettled, something
wasn’t quite right! His female
partner he had noticed, had a
disfigured foot, (club foot?) not
a too unusual disability, but in the
darkness the room only lit up by the
light of the fire, shadows grew…. there
was a thump and a strange noise from
the back rooms where his two friends
were romancing the girls, he looked
with a smile to the doors thinking
himself to have picked the ugly
one out of the three as his
friends had fun! But
no…he was taken
aback as he
saw fresh
blood
pooling
from under both doorways! He
turned in shock to his female partner
and in the darkness her face was
changing…elongating, eyes widening
and oval, her face was stretching into
a beak!
He in an instant grabbed his hand
knife from his belt and plunged it
through the dress material of the
woman changeling, it imbedded
itself into the frame of the doorway, it
was enough to restrict the thing as it
launched at him, McPhee wrenched
the “Shielding” door open and ran
for his life through the darkness to
the village of Nunton. In the morning
McPhee who had a restless night with
friends as he retold his story in horror,
opened his front door to find that the
dead carcass of his black dog, with all
H2 1
 the hair taken from it had been deliberately
placed at his door, and was drained of all
its blood!
A posse of armed men and farmers were
gathered and came to the “shielding” and
found in the two rooms, both the men
dead, throats cut and drained, all the blood
missing in vampiric fashion. The three
women now regarded as Witches were
never found.
This is the legend and to validate it, it’s very
hard to get any records of this area; we
have no date to the event! Parish records
only exist from 1848. But according to
my Statistical accounts of Scotland 1844,
Benbecula at that time was under Clan
ownership by the Clanranald Mc Donald’s.
It’s here I go first to trace any news of the
murders of the two men. I find in 1798
which are the earliest records available,
from the list of tenants on the judicial rental
records.
From these records we can see there were
42 paying Tenants on Benbecula. And
number 42 and last on the list is the name
Archibauld McPhee! He is mentioned as
paying a “Fendicle of Creagory” as his
years rent!
A Creagory was a unit of measure for kelp
(used in the mainland after burning the
Kelp producing Sodium Carbonate, which
was used in the produce of glass), The
Creagory was 6tonnes in weight worth
£2.10 shillings. In the legend McPhee and
his two friends are working on the beach...
Was this them gathering Mr McPhee’s rent
for the year as the strange women appear?
Police records of the area only start in
1854, so a little too late to record any
murders. With no Parish records or Police
records I can only state that there was a
man called McPhee living on the island
in 1798. The Mc Fee name originates on
the West Coast on the island of Colonsay
once a powerful clan but the Highland
clearances of 18th century had seen them
forcefully move to the West Indies en mass.
On the list of Tenants on Benbecula there is
only one man with the name McPhee!
The first writing of the story was 1883 by
Rev John Gregorson Campbell and his tale
falls into the timeline of Archibauld McPhee
living on Benbecula.
With every legend comes a basis of truth,
we can’t find any evidence of the murder
of the two men here, but the man McPhee
certainly existed, now is there a connection
to the story and what my two friends Hugh
and Bernhard saw on that metal detecting
adventure…the three weird sisters…or did
my friends have a lucky escape as history
tried to repeat itself!

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 53

“I love finding these hidden
gems and being able to step
back into history”
54
For my latest paranormal adventure, I travelled to Gainsborough in
Lincolnshire to investigate one of the oldest Victorian prisons in the
area. Now a fully functioning theatre, The Old Nick has stood in spring
gardens since the 1860s where it originally served as headquarters for the
Lincolnshire Constabulary and was also a Former Magistrates Court.
I have investigated this particular location many times in the past so when I saw
that Breaking Paranormal UK were hosting an event there, I knew that I would
definitely have to tag along.
Upon arrival I noticed that the Museum up into different areas of the building. The
had gone through a lot of refurbishment. investigation began in the Attic area. 
It has recently been converted into a
police museum and I have to say, they We had spent around an hour and a half
have done a really good job at capturing in this area, covering the attic, stairs and
that Victorian atmosphere. Even if you also the small ‘dressing room’ below. I am
are not visiting the site for a paranormal not going to lie, it was quiet. So quiet you
investigation, I would definitely could probably hear a pin drop. We tried
recommend a look around in the day as it
several different methods of investigation
has so much history on offer! 
in this area which included traditional as
I’ve had a lot of strange experiences at well as modern but didn’t receive a single
The Old Nick in the past. One of my most thing we could consider to be paranormal.
memorable moments was being down
in the cells. There were only two of us at
the time and we were making our way
towards the male cells at the very back
of the building. As we reached half way
down the corridor we distinctly heard
what sounded to us like heavy boots
on the ground charging towards us with
speed. I honestly had never run so fast
in my life and if I remember correctly, we
were later found cowering under the stairs
until someone came to get us. It was
utterly terrifying as this had happened a
few years back when I was first getting
started within the paranormal field, but
The only experience I received myself
what a way to start, huh?
whilst I was in the attic was what felt like
Another experience I remember well was something had grabbed my foot, although
when myself and Kimberly Reynolds I am ever sceptical of this, because we all
of BPUK had ventured down into the known that muscles spasm at the most
women’s cells. We were armed with a awkward of moments. 
K2 and nothing more. We were receiving
some very accurate responses and until After a quick break we ventured into the
this day I have never seen the K2 light up theatre area. It’s the largest area at the
to a certain colour on command. If we’d Police Museum and has a stage in the
asked for red, we’d get it.  centre with rows of chairs on either side
I had arrived at the Theatre at around 9PM for the audience to sit. A few others and I
and met up with my fellow paranormal had sat on the right side and unbeknown
investigators. We were split down into to me at this moment in time I was sitting
small comfortable teams and separated in row twelve. 
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
Again, this area was quiet for the first half
an hour but soon we began to receive
some small activity as I had felt an in-
credible cold spot next to me on my right
side. The SLS ‘stickman’ camera was
brought out and sure enough it began to
map a small figure in the seat beside me.
We called out and asked a few questions
but didn’t receive anything and soon the
figure would vanish.  heard this almighty bang which echoed
We started in the male wing which
consisted of a long corridor and at the
very bottom were two cells which are
side by side. We entered the very last cell
and sat down as we began to call out.
Luke, one of our team leaders was stood
just outside of the door with the thermal
imaging camera. We’d only been in this
area for around ten minutes when we
through the corridors causing us all to
jump up to attention and also witness
Luke as he backed up and about fell into
the door of the cell we were in. This of
course had startled him. (It was really
funny too!) 

We all instantly went down to see what

had made the noise, but we found
nothing.

We kept on this same path of questioning
as to who the figure was and soon it be-
gan to map in again, this time it was sat
in the seat behind me. I had the Ovilus
in my hand which had been extremely
quiet. We asked for something relevant
and it said ‘Twelve’. The others and I had
automatically checked the seat numbers
to see that the row of seats was num-
bered 12a, 12b, 12c and so on. Ironically,
this figure was in that row and was right
behind me. We’d snapped a couple
of photos but didn’t capture anything
unusual. In the same instance right after
the device had spoken for the first time,
it had also said the word ‘Felon’ and with
this being an old Victorian court room
at a point in history, that response was
pretty much ‘on the money’.  other ‘romantic’ things. In that moment I
For the final part of the investigation we
headed down into the cells (The moment
Baffled!!!
It sounded like one of the heavy iron
prison gates slamming, but we could see
nothing that had been moved. As it now
seemed like we were receiving activity
we decided to stay in this area for the
time being and we began to call out,
asking who had slammed the door.
The atmosphere seemed to change in the
last half an hour. It felt much darker and
there was definitely a heavy presence
in the corridor that was being picked up
by myself and a few of the other guests.
One of the investigators had taken a
police coat and put it on and she were
standing opposite me.
I felt a hand running up my leg towards
my inner thigh and I froze. At first ac-
cusing Tammy of doing it (I have no idea
why! It seemed like the rational thing to
do at the time.) Due to my hysteria torch-
es were turned on as it was pitch black
and Tammy was found to be stood a
good way away from me. So, to this day,
I have no idea what or who was touching
me in the dark, but I can tell you that it
definitely gave me a fright! 
I could distinctly feel the fingers on my
leg as if it were a human and unlike my
foot muscle spasm, I was pretty sure this
was one hundred percent real and that it
had happened!
After this incident the Ovlius also started
to throw out certain words like ‘Kiss’ and
had to politely decline the spirits advanc-
es and move on. (As you do!)
“What I love about paranormal
investigating is that you never
know what to expect. It can
either be a hit or a miss.
Sometimes you can receive a lot
of activity and other times it can
be completely quiet and simply
come in small bursts”
by side, in the first photo a white anomaly
appears in the middle of the corridor and
in the second it has vanished. Is this para-
normal? Who knows. But I think it’s a pretty
cool picture considering the activity we had.
I would like to say thank you to Dave Kerr for
giving me permission to use this photo for the
article. It’s a great capture!  
The best part of the evening for me was once
again down in the cells and although we
didn’t receive a lot of activity I still thoroughly
enjoyed the night. It was great to meet up with
friends and engage in something we love to
do regardless of what did or did not happen.
If you’re interested in checking out the police
museum it is open Tuesday, Saturday and
Sunday between 11am and 3pm with last
entries at 2.30pm. They also have a host of
different shows taking place in the theatre.
The Old Nick is run completely by volunteers
out of their own free time and I think it’s an
amazing thing to be involved with. For more
information you can visit their website http://
gainsboroughtheatrecompany.com/

we’d all been waiting for of course!) I
must admit, this is my favourite area due
to a lot of personal experiences in the
past.
Vicky x
Interestingly also in this area a guest had Until next time, happy hunting! 
snapped a couple of photos on our way
out. Taken consecutively. As you will see
from the photo’s provided as I did a side

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 55
The Para-Urbex Girl
KATIE WALLER

Originally from Brighton, Katie

always knew she was a little different,
seeing spirits as a child was a bit
of a giveaway. These days she lives
in the midlands and works for
Haunted Evenings, a company that run
paranormal events across the UK. With
a deep interest in history, photography
and ghosts. She has learnt to embrace
her oddities spending evenings and days
off visiting some of the most strangest
of places. These kind of places, you
wouldn’t find in the guidebooks,
including completely abandoned ones
too. Her most profound experience was
being touched by the spirit of a child
at the Village, Mansfield. Immediately
afterwards she received an apology over
the SB7 spirit box (due to making her
jump.)

“Taking only
photographs,
leaving only
footprints is the
Urban Explorers
motto…”
Across the UK there is an abundance
of abandoned buildings left to decay
and rot. Mother Nature attempting to
re-claim each one before demolition
and housing companies get there first.
Never breaking in, simply slipping
into wide ‘open’ places is what I do. Not
only that, I try to collect evidence
of the paranormal. First of all, these
are dangerous desolate places, don’t
go looking for these, especially by
yourself. Don’t break in, don’t damage
anything and be mindful of the kind of
people you may bump in to. Basically,
just don’t do it.

It’s a paranormal investigator’s dream

being able to go to locations completely
cut off from the world. Apocalyptic
and overgrown each place with historic
remnants of life. It’s like discovering
a trail of clues piecing together the
puzzle of someone’s story. With no
electric, in the middle of nowhere, by
yourself, just you and the earth on
which you tread. I’m not going to lie,
it’s a rush. Armed with paranormal
equipment and my Nikon (Nicky) I
attempt to contact the spirits of people
that may linger within the shadows of
each location. From old manor houses
to hospitals, everyone covered in
fingerprints you can’t see with your own
eyes, each place is unique. There must be
a thousand stories to tell by the souls
of those waiting, wanting to be heard.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 57
 The old people’s home, one
of my favourites. I have
visited several times. It
was in its day a complete
fully functioning complex.
Many residential buildings,
common social rooms,
workshops, summerhouse and
even a standalone chapel.
I wonder up and down the
vast corridors room by room,
visualising the ‘patients’
in each one. In my mind’s
eye I can see them sat right
there in front of me, like a
flashback in time. Panic pull
cords still hung from the
ceilings. I know I’m morbid but
I can’t help think how many
of these got pulled during
death. How many people passed
away here and hoping their
family were by their side. In
reality I am not convinced.
58
This place seems to be filled
with sadness and confusion
although, it is obvious to
me whomever ran the place
tried to make it a happy
one. Personal possessions
are littered all over the
floor, their records and
hymn sheets from the chapel
coincidentally alongside
them. Oil still in tin cans and
the beautifully handmade
stain glass windows in part,
intact. What a place! I hear
whispers in the shadows, the
creaking of floorboards and
crunching of broken glass
strewn all over, glistening
in the evening sunlight. The
static charge is incredible
but I never get any response
on the equipment except for a
few K2 spikes. Here I feel like
I am being watched though,
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE
hunted almost. Perhaps the
many deceased veterans are
honing in on me, putting into
practise what they were once
trained to do. I feel drawn to
go back here, it’s addictive
like a drug. One day, just one
day, I know I’ll get something
good here. It’s simply a matter
of time.
The old farm house, it had
at least 6 bedrooms. I lost
count. A beautiful cellar
underneath an ornate crafted
main staircase which lead up
to 3 floors. The cellar was
dark and uninviting, my kind
of place. Each step worn down
by the footsteps of previous
lodgers it was almost a slope
leading down to what felt like
the underworld. The kitchen
was left as if the occupants
2 1
disappeared at the drop of a
hat. Dishes still in the rack,
they must be dry by now?
Knives and forks were still
set out on the table ready
to be used by a family long
departed. Armed with my SB7,
K2 and full spectrum camera I
start investigating. From room
to room I try to make contact.
Introducing myself and
politely asking questions I
feel appropriate. Nothing, no
response until I cross over the
threshold of one particular
bedroom. The room was dark
and musky, curtains still up
but half drawn (half-mast is
how I took it.) Dust covered
every surface and filling in
the gaps between the original
floorboards. In here I struck
gold. A man’s deep voice on the
SB7 repeatedly said ‘Hello’
but nothing else. Within the
room it’s self-stood an old
metal framed bed, with a
severely stained mattress,
a small wooden chair and a
fireplace. Above the fireplace
on the mantle were a couple
of old glass bottles, one a
whiskey bottle and the other
was medication. I took many
photographs here (as usual)
and in only one I caught
something, a face of a man
at the bottom of the grand
staircase. I wonder if this is
the face to the voice I heard,
for some reason though, I felt
like he stayed in his room,
whether or not by choice, I’m
not entirely sure.
The abandoned Church in the
woods. Finding this place
wasn’t easy but after a time
searching we found it. Gothic
and crumbling there is was,
standing proud in the middle
of the woods, in the middle
of nowhere. Held up by what
seems to be an attempt at
restoration, it’s clear this
was not a safe place to go.
Needless to say, I walked
right on in. Heart pumping
with adrenalin, I start my
explore. Taking in every
brick, every window and every
single detail. Documenting
findings with my trusty Nicky
inch by inch with not a stone
unturned. With hardly any
roof left the place was eerie
although I didn’t get a sense
of any other presence there.
To the eastern side of the
church inside was a fireplace
and within it a collection of
animal hair. This appeared to
HAUNT ED
be ritualistic. Someone had
been there trying to conjure
up something that’s for sure.
Abandoned places seem to
attract the kind of people
in which enjoy casting spells
and summoning demons. Most
places I have visited, seem to
have been used for this kind
of thing. Pentagrams, spells
handwritten on walls and
signs of sacrifice, I’ve seen
it all.
Unfortunately these places
attract hooligans too. The
kind that break windows,
trash everything and even set
them on fire. I can only think
of what the souls residing
there must feel when people
do this. Perhaps they think
I will do the same? It was
their home, workplace or even
MA GA Z INE H2 1
somewhere of
refuge and most likely still
is. Whether or not they choose
to stay here or are stuck,
bound to the walls, an object
or even the very land itself.
Many of these locations are
demolished, everyone I visit I
know might be gone soon but
I hope they can be restored
rather than destroyed
forever. Each one has so much
history and what a waste
for them to be replaced
with generic residential
construction. I will continue
to photograph these places
to document them before they
Katie
gone, lost forever.
59
 O
ne of the main reasons I got into the paranormal was due
to my love of history. It fascinates me, the excitement of
learning about a building’s past, the people that lived there
and the stories that played out within it’s walls. There’s nothing
like it, we are lucky that many of these sites are looked after and
preserved for many generations to come, yet there are a few that
aren’t, but that doesn’t make them any less intriguing.

On my Haunted Nottinghamshire travels I’ve come across many

ruins, from just a quick look on the internet it’s clear that are an
abundance in neighbouring counties and beyond. There seems to be
an extremely common theme in which many of them share – they are/
were churches!

I am lucky to have three of these pretty much on my doorstep, they

are great for the budding urbex explorer and paranormal investigator
alike, if you treat and approach them with respect, then they can
reward you highly. I’m not sure why there are so many church ruins,
the one’s that I’ve visited now have a ‘Newer’ building close by, they
are normally at least a few hundred years old themselves, so you can
imagine the history that these ruins possess.

r Colwick Old Church – St John’s r

T
his was the first EVER church ruin that I visited. quite odd. Around two thirds of the way up, the stone seems to have
It was unlike anything that I’d experienced before, been repaired. You can make out the name of Elizabeth, yet the
I was looking for locations to document and write rest appears to be in Latin (Not my strong point) and it is said that
about and I knew that I’d found a gem. What I write can’t Elizabeth still haunts the grounds with unrest after her stone was
even start to scratch the surface on what you feel when damaged.
walking around the ruin, it’s silence is loud and its beauty
so eerie. Whatever the links with spirits/ghosts may be, this is a real pocket
of peacefulness and tranquillity, you can sit on the bench and easily
Historical records show that there was a church and lose an hour of your day imagining the people that once would have
priest present in Colwick as far back as 1086. What now inhabited this historical site.
stands is the remains of the 16th century build that has
yet again, more connections with other Nottinghamshire
locations. The church was built by Sir John Byron – yes,
thee Byron! The Byron family that is so famously linked
with Newstead Abbey once owned Colwick Hall too. The
links between so much of our History and the depths of
which they delve are truly mind blowing!

Walking around the remains you’ll notice that the

entrance to the building is now blocked by metal bars
and gates. It’s a shame, I know that you used to be able to
get access not too long ago, yet due to vandalism it was
curbed, and the likes of you and myself have to suffer.

One of the main ‘pulls’ of the yard is a certain gravestone

that sits next to the outer perimeter wall. A slight glance
or a passing look may not catch your attention, yet if
you inspect it closely you’ll see that there is something

60 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
r Colston Bassett Church Ruin – St Mary’s r

T
his has to be one of the
HARDEST site visits that
I’ve ever had the pleasure to
conduct, it was ridiculous! I’d heard
that this church ruin sat on a nice
hill making it stand out and easy
to find. Well, after 30 minutes of
driving around the area I believed
it to be in, I ended up pulling over
and asking a farmer in a tractor –
yes, a tractor. After being pointed in
the right direction and pulling the
car into an extremely small lane, I
sighted it through the trees, and boy
was it worth the wait.

The ruin is something that you’d

expect to see out of a movie, it really
is set in such a way that you couldn’t
imagine it’s sheer imposing look.
Out of everywhere that I’ve visited…
this looks the most haunting.

The Grade I listed ruin has

structures from numerous eras
dating back to the Anglo-Saxon “It’s a location with a lot going on. Full of history and
times. The church yard itself is still
in use with gravestones that have
full of Ghosts. One of the most haunted graveyards I’ve
weathered so much names cannot personally investigated and one that doesn’t disappoint.”
be made out, to the newer and well- Tom Buckmaster
preserved stones. Keep this in mind
when visiting, family of those buried
here still visit so respect always
needs to be shown.

I can’t really delve too much into

the rumours and paranormal
sightings as they are hard to
come by, maybe it’s protected
a little more than most by the
locals? One person I do know
that has investigated the site is
local Paranormal Investigator
Tom Buckmaster. After speaking
with him I asked him to sum the
site up for someone that’s been
there after dark and this was his
response :

Although I’ve not investigated it

myself, the history and mystery
surrounding the site is rich and
infectious. I will most definitely
be revisiting one day with the
hopes of finding more than just
the living.

HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1 61
 r Annesley Old Church – Church of All Saints r
I
stumbled upon this location one bitterly
cold winter morning. The scene was
already set, gloves, scalf, a mist that was
as thick as the atmosphere itself, ruins,
gravestones and a location just over the wall
that needs no introduction… Annesley Hall.

My attention was purely on the task in hand, to

explore what the ruin and the yard had to offer, yet
there was an uneasy feeling, you’ll think I’m mad for
saying this but, it’s like the Hall is watching you. It’s
no secret that Annesley Hall is littered in as many
ghosts as it is in controversy, yet on this occasion it
was like it was keeping its eye on me, making sure
that I towed the line.

As you wonder aimlessly around the 14th century

remains, you are treated to amazing architecture and
grand doorways, worn floors stones and a beautifully
kept graveyard.

I can’t say that I ‘felt’ anything whilst walking

around, other than the imposing hall, yet this site
is a favourite amongst historians and paranormal
enthusiasts alike. Like I said earlier in the article, the
history of these locations seem to be entwined with
each other and this is no exception.
Annesley Hall and its grounds were once owned by the Chaworth-Musters family, a prominent family with huge might and wealth. They
also owned Colwick Hall after the Byron family, which again shows the emotional attachment that many of these locations had to certain
prominent figures in Nottinghamshire’s history.
There were many conflicts amongst the families in question, some regarding money, many regarding love. It once came to a head when
William Chaworth was killed in a duel with his cousin, Lord Byron of Newstead Abbey. This Lord Byron would later become the great-uncle
of the famous poet Lord Byron. Walking through these grounds you could be passing and even standing on where someone once lost their

life, it’s a humble feeling but one that excites me,

knowing that I could potentially make contact or
tell their story as they are now not able to do.
Being aware that the County would have
been shaped and moulded over hundreds of
years, thanks to the families that lived in these
amazing locations really is an overwhelming
feeling. Many disputes, arguments, affairs and
murders, would have played out on the properties
and surrounding grounds. The ruins of these
historic churches would have played their role
in introducing life, blessing love and ultimately
saying goodbye in death. If anywhere would hold
an energy then surely it would be here, and as for
a County in Ruin – I’m happy to keep it that way!

James

62 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
 Herb Baumeister
O
n the surface, Herb Baumeister
was living the American dream.
Owner of a chain of thrift stores,
he was a doting father to three children
and a devoted husband...or so it seemed.
Beneath the surface, things were very
different. The Baumeisters had a troubled
marriage, and their marital woes were
only compounded by financial difficulties.
Herb and his wife had drifted apart. Julie
Baumeister liked to take their children on
trips to the lake, while Herb preferred to
stay home — and murder young men.
It was the early 1990s, and the Indianapolis
gay community was living in fear. Men were
disappearing on a regular basis, and the
word was that once they were gone, nobody
ever saw them again.
Each of the missing men had gone home
with a man who called himself Brian Smart,
lured with the promise of partying the night
away in a big empty manor house with a
swimming pool in its basement. Located
amongst the woods on a sprawling 18-acre
estate, that house was named Fox Hollow
Farm.
Before heading out to the nightclub to
select his target, ‘Brian Smart’ — who
was of course Herb Baumeister — would
crank up the heat in the swimming pool as
high as it would go, then spread the cover
across its surface in order to keep the heat
in. When he came back to Fox Hollow with
his unwitting victim in tow, Herb would
lead them down to the pool and roll back
the cover, then open up the double doors
leading out onto the patio. The sudden
influx of cold air wafting over the hot water
filled the room with mist that cut visibility
down to practically nothing, obscuring the
small army of mannequins that had been
posed all around the poolside, almost as if
there was a permanent party going on.
Drugs and alcohol soon began to flow.
Once they were both in the water, Herb
would offer to show his intended victim
a cool new trick: autoerotic asphyxiation.
Looping a length of pool hose around the
unsuspecting young man’s neck, Herb
would slowly tighten his grip, increasing the
pressure until his victim began to struggle
and thrash...before finally going limp. Once
he was finished with the body, Herb would
drag it out into the woods behind the farm
and attempt to dispose of the evidence by
brutalizing and burning the remains.
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE H2 1
A minimum of eleven men met their deaths
in the basement of Fox Hollow Farm. We
know this because eleven left-handed
metacarpal bones were subsequently
discovered on the grounds. Yet the
authorities suspect that there were many
more victims, perhaps as many as twenty,
which he was believed to have killed while
taking business trips and dumping the
bodies along the side of the roads between
Indiana and nearby Ohio.
Sensing that the net was closing in, Herb
Baumeister fled the country, crossing the
border into Canada without any trouble. A
mounted patrol officer found him sleeping in
his car under a bridge, and moved him on,
giving no thought to the box of VHS tapes
that were on the back seat — detectives
later came to believe that these contained
home movies of the murders he had
committed, though they could not be sure
because the tapes would never be found.
Things came to an end on a picturesque
beach. Herb penned a rambling final note,
which he signed ‘THE Herb Baumeister,’
before placing a gun to his head and pulling
the trigger. The last life he ever took was his
own.
63
 When the police obtained a warrant
to search Fox Hollow Farm, what
they found horrified them. Not
just hundreds, but ultimately
THOUSANDS of bones and bone
fragments were just lying around in
the woods behind the house, with
still more waiting to be discovered in
the creek that bordered the property.
It took weeks of painstaking scouring
by forensic specialists, and at the
end of their search, they predicted
that still more bones remained to be
found.
They were right. Bone fragments
turn up at Fox Hollow Farm to this
day, thanks to the fact that woodland
critters took bites out of the bodies
and scattered pieces of them far
and wide. Many more will never
be found at all, a sad testament
64
indeed to those unfortunate souls
who fell victim to the wiles of a serial
predator. They will never have the
benefit of a Christian burial.
Herb’s widow understandably sold
Fox Hollow Farm and moved out,
determined to leave memory of
those horrific events behind her. The
vacant house languished, occupied
only by raccoons, until would-be
homeowners Rob and Vicki Graves
purchased it for a fraction of its true
market value, thanks to the stigma
created by the serial murders.
Rob and Vicki are both medical
professionals, and soon came to
terms with the fact that their dream
home had a somewhat tarnished
past. For the price, it was a once-in-
a-lifetime opportunity. They settled in
HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE
and brought in a lodger, a colleague
of Rob’s named Joe LeBlanc, in
order to help defray the cost.
The first sign of something strange
happening at Fox Hollow Farm
was when Vicki’s vacuum cleaner
unplugged itself several times when
she was cleaning up downstairs,
the plug virtually leaping out of its
socket. Strange, she thought to
herself, but there was probably a
rational explanation...right?
Far more difficult to explain away
was the figure in the woods. Fox
Hollow Farm is somewhat unique in
that most sites where serial killers
have committed their murders are
usually demolished, usually to keep
them from becoming shrines for the
morbidly curious.
2 1
Trespassers do turn up
there from time to time,
however, and when Vicki
saw a young man in a
bright red shirt walking into
the trees one day, that’s what
she thought was going on. It
was only when she realized that the
figure had no legs from the waist
down that she realized the man was
an apparition. She had just seen a
ghost.
Lodger Joe LeBlanc saw the same
apparition in the woods one night
when he was walking his dog, and
his description tallied exactly with
that of Vicki’s sighting — right down
to the missing legs. Joe would
go on to see the ghost of another
young man in his bedroom, which
was located upstairs in the in-law
quarters on the side of the main
house. The man seemed terrified, as
though he was running for his life,
though from what Joe could not see;
the apparition disappeared into thin
air before his astonished eyes.
One evening, Rob, Vicki, and Joe
were sitting in the living room
HAUNT ED
watching some videotaped news
segments relating to the Baumeister
murders. While the newscaster
spoke, images of the known victims
were displayed in the background.
Joe suddenly flew out of his seat,
grabbing for the remote control.
“What is it?” Rob asked.
“That’s him — the man I saw in my
room!” Joe was adamant that the
face of the young man who stared
back at them out of the freeze-
framed TV screen was also that of
the frightened apparition he had
encountered in his room that night.
As time went on, the haunting went
into high gear, much of it centered
around Joe. Heavy footsteps
thudded around the in-law quarters
at night. The heavy door-knocker
would pound itself against the door
in the early hours of the morning;
whenever Joe went to check,
nobody was ever out there. He
began to have terrible nightmares
in which an unseen something was
chasing him through the woods
outside, something that meant him
great harm.
MA GA Z INE H2 1
It all came to a head one day in the
swimming pool. Joe had invited a
friend of his over to swim, and both
men were doing laps of the pool in
the company of the Graves’s two
sons. Joe swam to the deep end and
was resting against the side of the
pool for a moment, when he felt two
hands snake around the side of his
neck from behind. Figuring it was
his pal playing games, Joe whirled
around — and saw the three of them
were all the way over at the shallow
end. Puzzled and more than a little
unnerved now, he began swimming
toward them...and suddenly felt
something drag him underneath the
water, putting Joe’s neck in a choke-
hold that threatened to suffocate
him.
Fortunately, he was able to fight his
way back to the surface, struggling
against the invisible grip. “Everybody
out of the pool!” he yelled, genuinely
terrified now. It would be a long time
before Joe ever went swimming in
that pool again.
65
 I had learned about the haunting
of Fox Hollow Farm from the
TV show ‘Ghost Adventures’
and found it fascinating. The
Graves family welcome me and
a small team of paranormal
investigators into their home and
invited us to research it. Over
the space of seven days and
nights, we hit Fox Hollow Farm
with everything in our toolkit.
Joe LeBlanc obligingly came
back to help us investigate,
as did Tony Harris — the one
victim who escaped from Herb
Baumeister and helped tip off
the authorities to the location of
Herb Baumeister’s home.
This was the first time I had
ever investigated a haunted
swimming pool — from the
inside. The water was absolutely
ball-shriveling freezing (this was
an unheated pool, in November)
and the digital voice recorders
mostly picked up the sound of
my teeth chattering...but there
was also the sound of a loud,
guttural growl that was heard
audibly by those of us in the
pool room, and a menacing EVP
that whispered the word ‘Laura’
— which just so happens to be
my wife’s name. Although she
wasn’t present at the time, I took
it as an attempt to intimidate me
personally.
One of Rob’s friends had
brought his young daughter over
to Fox Hollow one day. As they
were talking in the pool room,
the little girl raised a finger to her
lips and shushed the two men.
“Be quiet, daddy,” she insisted,
pointing toward the pump room.
“Those men are trying to sleep
in there...”
Rob had also seen a shadowy
figure in the vicinity of the
pump room, so we decided to
focus a lot of attention there.
Joe was like a lightning rod
for paranormal activity. When
he was locked in the pump
room with me and some of my
fellow investigators, our sensing
equipment went berserk. Two of
my investigators were prodded
in the back, and I felt the
definite touch of four fingertips
caressing the underside of my
66 HAUNT ED MA GA Z INE 2 1
arm; it was a distinctly flirtatious
sensation, and one that gives
me the chills to this day when I
think about it.
Upstairs in Joe’s old residence
— now home to one of the
Graves boys — we set up an
SLS camera and captured the
presence of a small, child-sized
stick figure in the middle of the
room. Despite our best efforts
to debunk and troubleshoot, we
were unable to explain it.
After a visit from ‘the one that
got away,’ Tony Harris, we went
out into the woods. He led us to
a site just beyond the tree line
which was one of the known
burn sites. He indicated a
specific stretch of the slope and
said that it was possible that
human remains could still be
found in that spot, according to
his intuition.
That didn’t sit well with me.
The thought of those poor boys
going without a proper burial
was deeply saddening. Once
Tony had left, we made a quick
trip to Wal-Mart and bought a
load of tools from their yard and
gardening section. Then we
came back to Fox Hollow Farm
and began to dig...
We didn’t find any bones, I’m
relieved to say, but we did leave
digital voice recorders running
while we dug. When we played
the audio recordings back
afterward, we were shocked to
find a class B EVP — the sound
of a gruff, almost strangulated
man’s voice uttering what sound
like the words “Get away from
there!” Two female investigators
took turns digging with myself
and another male investigator.
The voice clearly does not
belong to any of us, and there
was nobody else within earshot
in the woods that day.
As with so much concerning the
haunting of Fox Hollow Farm,
this phenomenon raises more
questions than it answers...
 YOU HAVE BEEN READING

I S S U E 2 1: T H E K E Y T O T H E H A U N T E D D O O R

CREDITS

HAUNTED MAGAZINE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:

Paul Stevenson
twitter / instagram: @hauntedmagazine
paul@hauntedmagazine.co.uk
ART DIRECTON AND DESIGN:
A.E. Soar
twitter / instagram: @thehauntedguy
andy@hauntedmagazine.co.uk
WRITING TALENT:
Paul Stevenson, A.E. Soar,
Thanks to:
The Tennessee Wraith Chasers: Chris Smith,
Steven ‘Doogie’ McDougal, Scott Porter, Brannon Smith
& Mike Goncalves
The Travel Channel, Stephanie DePietro,
Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman
Anna Mason PR, Quest Red, Kate Kielty,
Kirsty Sloan, Discovery Networks International, Old
Aldwych Station
Our HauntedLIVE mates:

James Pykett, Sam Bennetts, Simon Powell, James Pykett, Jason Wall

Richard Estep, Vicky Grant, Bambos Georgiou and Mychailo Kazybrid

Mike Covell, Amanda R. Woomer,
Miki York, Hubert Hobux,
Jayne Harris, Katie Waller,
Leonard Low, Lucy Willgress
Nicky Alan
Spook-Eats, UK Haunted, Toyah Willcox,
The Bakewell Old House Museum
Stephen Hummel, Archive of the Afterlife
The Roycroft Inn
Dr Queer courtesy of Bambos Georgiou (script) &
Mychailo Kazybrid (art) Copyright 2018

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