Saturday February 06, 2016
David Dominé
Tonight's guest was David Dominé author of True Ghost Stories and Eerie Legends from America's Most Haunted Neighborhood, along with ten others in print, and three new ones upcoming. The Victorian neighbourhood of Old Louisville is comprised of about 400 structures in 45 square blocks, one of the largest historic preservation areas. In the 1960s it was more sketchy, safety-wise, but it was improved in the 1970s.
David spoke of a number of his haunted experiences, starting with a poltergeist named Lucy in the Widmer House in which David lived for a time in the early 1990s. He'd just moved to Kentucky, living in Old Louisville; what was a one year planned stay became 23 years.
When he went to buy the house, the realtor warned him of its ghostly resident, and that she would not appreciate too many changes. Shortly he'd moved in, indeed Lucy began to make her presence known. Other neighbours conveyed on the hauntings in their own homes.
A couple of nights were so bad, David had to leave the house. He would clearly hear heels walking down the hardwood halls. At one point his then Schausers began growling, and David could hear footsteps in the hallway just outside the bedroom, even the sound of running down the hallway in barefeet. Then he began hearing footsteps within the room, to the left of his bed. At hearing another step, he was desperately trying to deduce what could be making the sounds. After a time the footsteps could be heard at the foot of the bed, as the dogs began growling.
When the footsteps moved to the right side of the bed, David had had enough, and took the dogs outside to the car. After a while he braved returning inside, and watched TV for a few hours without incident.
Ceiling Cat Barbara Duncan asked whether Lucy was reacting to the renovation, which David concurred was a well known concept that stirs up ghosts.
David spoke about a butler's pantry off the kitchen, which David turned into a TV room. The realtor originally had shown him where Lucy knocks pictures from the wall. Sure enough, David would hang a picture, and five minutes after leaving the room, he'd hear a crash, and find the picture in the middle of the room, its glass shattered, and the stalwart nail on which it was hanging still resting in the wall at the correct angle. This happened a number of times whilst David lived there. Towards the end of their stay, David's friend Wendy rehung it for the last time, openly speaking to Lucy, notifying her that They Lived There Now, and they were caring for the place, essentially asking Lucy to leave the picture alone. And to the end of the time living there, the picture remained on the wall.
Around Kentucky Derby time once, David had retired for the night but being party week, resisting friends' invitations to go out and party. Meanwhile, knockings on the backdoor with no one there had been taking place. One of his friend calling, aware of the Activity, happened to ask about the place. As David was telling him about the knocking, three loud pounds came loud enough his friend could hear it over the phone. David could look out a window to see the back door and the yard, with no one being there, and no cover had someone been running away. On the third floor where David had his office, he began hearing weird sounds. He went up and found he'd left on his computer, its 1990s fish scene screensaver bubbles making the strange bloop bloop sounds. Feeling foolish, David started down the back servants' stairs, passing two tall stained glass windows. He noticed the hem at the bottom of one of the lace curtains was lifting up as though someone had reached beneath it with their fingers. Suddenly the curtains blew out as though a gale force wind had hit it, having them parallel to the floor for about half a minute. Still on the phone, his friend asked after what David was gasping. Relaying what he was seeing, his friend told him simply to shut the windows, to which David had to report... the windows were painted shut.
As David switched off all the lights he'd been turning on, his friend on the phone strongly suggested David maybe not stay at home Just Then. Getting back into bed, just as David was assuring his friend It Was Probably Nothing, the hallway light came on by itself, flooding the hallway and the bedroom. The friend quickly came over, and no Activity took place.
Most of the Lucy activity took place during the first year. Somehow the local newspaper learned of the Activity, writing up a story on the house. Unfortunately this led to David having odd and/or crackpot people showing up "with advice," sometimes at 3:30am. One woman did suggest David start keeping a journal in the Activity, such as what happening where in the house and when, and that such would help him Notice Patterns; once he could see patterns in the Activity, it could provide Answers. By doing just that, soon he began to notice certain things would take place at certain parts of the house at certain times of the day. On occasion he'd find the kitchen chairs all moved around, as well as plates and such, as though someone had had a dinner party and not invited him.
On coming home from being out at work all day, he scare the daylights out of his renovation workers, who'd ask after all the sounds of running and internal-door knockings they'd been hearing throughout the day. Towards the end of their project, mostly floor refurbishing, they showed him a mark they could not sand out: a triangular shaped mark burned into the floorwood near a fireplace in one of the rooms. David realized it was probably a hot iron someone had placed on the floor too long. Somehow he connected that the room, which he'd already deduced was the epicenter of the Activity, must have been the maid's quarters, and that the majority of the Activity focused where a maid and/or servant would be: the kitchen, the back stairs, et al. While there was no way to prove Lucy was the house's maid, once David made that connection, all Activity ceased for the remaining seven years he lived there.
He'd allowed paranormal groups to come in to Read the place, but they could find nothing. David recounted to them what had happened, and they agreed that once he had solved the mystery, that had cleared the place. At least until the next owner moved in...
Kat told David about her own 1749 Rhode Island house, which has its own ghost, and her previous Cincinatti home had a ghost cat. CC added there's the nostalgia factor; the inner urge many people have to want to walk up to a childhood home to say, "I used to live here," and ask to look around. Maybe ghosts are doing a similar thing when they knock on doors. David indicated that that was sometimes the case; he would receive visitors whose grandparent had lived in the house during such and such decade, through which David was able to compile more history behind the house.
Bringing us out of the first break, CC pointed out what a wonderful creepy radio voice David's storytelling could be. Henry had to point out to David that during the breaks, the mics are live, considering David clearly was not aware of that. We pointed out it was not unprecedented, considering my former roommate's mental meltdown during my first show co-hosting the show.
He spoke of a beautiful young female ghost referred to as "Miss G," since 1919 haunting the 1916-built First Church of Christ Scientist at 3rd and Ormsby (1305 South Third Street). Often people taking photos there get massive, blindingly white orbs in the photos, and full body apparitions.
He spoke of one place called St. Ives, with an apartment in which no matter how often a certain wall was painted, an image would reappear, and cats would not enter that room. Previous tenants had reported strange screams, moving objects, etc. David had spoken about it with a friend Kelly, who revealed the ghost was Kelly's great aunt Katie Nugent. Katie apparently had caught fire being too close to the now-removed fireplace, burning to death, falling against the wall, where now is the unpaintable image.
After the second break, CC reported our having listeners tonight in the US, the UK, Canada, Norway, Costa Rica, and Australia. We also discovered that during the break, David had fallen off the Skype call, and had to be called back in.
Kat had requested, before the second break, that David speak about the Phantom of Brooke Street, about which David speaks when he is a guide on the walking Ghosts Of Louisville Tour Friday nights, which has been extended to nightly. People tend to see this female spirit simply drifting down the street; if she notices you're looking at her, she screams as she covers her face, and vanishes.
David spoke about the haunting/s and paranormal experiences at 6th Street at the former Jennie Casseday Infirmary for Women, and the probable origins of the hauntings.
Henry asked about Annie Whipple's ghost and the spooky history of the Russell Huston Mansion.
David gave out his Facebook author page; he also gave out the 502-718-2761 Tour Phone Number, and daviddomine.com website. David is also on Twitter.
I provided my website's Paranormal View hub page on which one can find the show's respective report pages, the show's official website, that we're very findable on Facebook, page, and to Follow me on Twitter.
Kat gave out the show's @Paraviewradio on Twitter, her Jinxed Comic site, which is also Followable on Twitter at @JinxedComic. Kat's official site is katklockow.com, and her Miss Grey graphic novel series is at HuntForGhosts.com.
CC actually spoke about her cemetery photography at the show's paranormalview.com site, and her being on Facebook as well, and we wrapped out.