Saturday October 15, 2011
John Kachuba
After my working that morning on another USC student film, tonight's guest was author John Kachuba of Ghosthunting Ohio On the Road Again, Ghosthunters: On the Trail of Mediums, Dowsers, Spirit Seekers, and Other Investigators of America's Paranormal World, Ghosthunting Ohio, et al.
Henry started out announcing the next week would be a live investigation at Hillview Manor, then the following week being our Halloween Show.
Henry had me introduce John, and we started out with his speaking of Ed and Lorraine Warren and Monroe, Connecticutt, and that he'd been to Dudleytown, to which I mentioned having been there and Dark Entry, to which he conveyed having written a book entitled (and about), Dark Entry (which he's been shopping around)...
Henry asked which site in the new book that he investigationed the library at Ohio State in Mansfield which was very active. He really liked the James Thurber house in Columbus, and he discussed the ghost story that Thurber wrote, The Night the Ghost Got In, and other paranormal experiences at that building.
John discussed the Kelton House, built in the mid-1800s just before the war between the states, they were also a stop for the Underground Railroad, with a lot of different ghosts. The last Kelton living there was Grace Kelton; she helped Jackie Kennedy redesign the White House.
Before having Craig take us into our first break, Henry reported that tonight apart from our elite regulars in the chat room, we had listeners in the US, the UK, Canada, Peru, Five Others...
Henry asked after the Cincinatti Observatory, about which John had been contacted by observatory staffer John Ventre to "come check out the observatory." Apparently there was a 68 year old astronomer at the observatory named Dr. Elliot Smith, who hung himself therein in 1943; they found his New York Times obituary dated september 30, 1943. In the observatory they got some EVP growls and such.
John clarified about [the varied] Cry-Baby Bridge/s in Ohio, though John has counted in Ohio ten such urban legend bridges.
Henry asked about the Snow Hill Country Club; John indicated investigating with OOPS (Ohio Organization Paranormal Studies)
John spoke about the headless motorcycle Elmore Rider story, and how there are several such stories, as well as the Blue Flame about a murder in Sugar Grove where a woman.
John spoke of the boyhood home of Thomas Edison in Milan, Ohio. After taking a tour, John asked the tour guide about anything paranormal, who smiled and said there's Stuff Going On All The Time. An unoccupied parlour rocking chair rocks, there's a basement kitchen in which a Shadow Figure of a man has been seen, and a young man who sells tickets to the tours volunteered having heard people speaking in the house, being pushed or touched, etc. It is suspected the spectre might be female caretaker.
As John spoke of Malabar Farm, in my headset a rooster could be heard crowing... from one headset side to the other. None of the other guys admitted to it being a sound sample being played. The cock-crow came again, very clear (in my headset), but none of the others claimed to hear it.
John spoke of a Cleveland Holiday Inn Express, at which a ghost is often seen at the elevator, shadowy figures in the halls, and the elevator being heard rising and descending despite no longer functioning, etc. John stayed there and ventured down to the 13th floor, and trying to look unobtrusive, but nothing happened.
Lafayette Hotel in Marietta; there was a Mr. Hogue who'd sitting in the lobby while working on the ledgers. The restaurant staff will sometimes see him in his favourite booth, and sometimes seen in the lobby. The hotel maitre d' went into the locker room and found a scruffy young guy just silently sitting there, eventually wandering away, The maitre d' watched after the young man, who walked down the corridor and turned left and passed into the wall. A few months later the maitre d' was working and going through some hotel photos, and this time he came across a 1902 photo of the Ohio River frozen with ice, and a wagon with two men posing in front: in the back of the wager was the same young man he'd seen in the locker room.
There's the Riders Inn in Painsville, in which its first innkeeper still unlocks the front door to let people in at night; the Grandville Inn, a B&B across the street from the haunted Buxton Inn; Punderson a state park with a lodge that'd begun as a Cleveland family estate with gypsies that migrate through Ohio (and still do), led by a man named Peaches: a woman in blue can be seen rising from the lake and coming towards shore. One year the gypsies were there, the women kept coming, and came ashore. The gypsy women recognized the woman as a ghost and insisted she return, which the ghost did, and the gypsies have never returned. A photo of the spiral staircase conveyed a good full body apparition of a well dressed man in a suit.
Henry asked about the Mystery Farm House, which is called so as John is not allowed to reveal its location. It's an abandoned farm house he investgated with Sherri Brake. At the house some hunters encountered "gangsters," gathered about a table, as though from during prohibition. Another time they felt there was a Native American spirit, as well as contacting a female spirit named Ester. Sheri's pure-skeptic husband saw a woman which he realized was not part of the group. The woman vanished; he gave chase but she was Gone, giving him a new perspective. Sheri brought a friend who brought a Ouija board, on which the name Ester was spelled. Ester was asked if she wanted help Crossing Over, and the planchet zoomed to NO and would not move again that night.
Craig asked about any experiences that've stood out the most for John. John said he's gotten EVPs and such, but you don't know you have such until later. He does like Collinwood Art Center in Toledo where even the air feels thicker, emotions shifting, etc.
In Florida May-Stringer House, Supposedly hauted by a girl named Jesse, and a returning WWI ghost soldier. After experiencing nothing all night, at 4am they just packed up and as heading out, they walked by a wood burning stove, on which was a long, heavy metal cast iron rod about a foot and a half long. As they walked by, it raised up on its own and did a 180, and with great force... and of course all their equipment was shut off and packed up.
We spoke of haunted theatres, and John brought up the Agora Theatre and a few other theatres which have a few ghosts.
John gave out his website, his Facebook profile and his contact information, as well as conveying a few upcoming events at which he was scheduled to speak.
After the show we chatted with and thanked John for being such a great guest.