Ignoring the female narrator, who sounds more like that medium on Poltergeist (with a cold), this is a great documentary about a haunted house in Villisca Iowa. The axe-murder of Josiah Moore and his entire family in 1912 is considered one of the worst mass murders in US history. Since then, the house has had a series of renters and owners. Darwin Linn is the current owner, who hired paranormal investigator Dave Christensen of Paranormal Investigations, Inc. to check out the cold spots and creepy goings-on in that old house.
I listened to a former resident describe how she felt chilled when she saw a picture of the victims with an unknown drifter, and how the sight of his face sent a chill through her. Then I listened to the investigators describe an icy draft that makes visitors feel uneasy. Finally, I listened to Villisca Axe Murder House - EVPs. Put all this together, and it makes me wonder if this unknown stranger was the killer, as the former resident suggested. The killer was never caught, but he may still be lurking in that house, waiting for his victims to fall asleep.
For further reading and ghost tour information, visit Roadside America.
Pleasanton, California is a peaceful city that is nestled between rolling foothills of Northern California. I drove through this town everyday for two years, on my way to work in neighboring Dublin. Sometimes, I would get to venture out of the office to eat lunch or go shopping. In all appearances, Pleasanton seemed to be quite ordinary and suburban. I wasn’t aware of its rich history until I read an article about Gloria Young, a Northern California ghost hunter who founded Ghost Trackers in 1992.
“It’s very unusual,” Young said. “Urban legends are usually just that — urban legends.” After an early visit to Gay 90’s, Young was looking through still photographs and found a picture taken of an old mirror. It reflected an image of herself, a male team member and Ghost Walk coordinator Rebecca Bruner. What was surprising, however, was the image of a woman with camel-colored hair, also reflected back from the mirror. There was no one else with them that day who looked like that additional image.
Young’s five-week investigation of Pleasanton will be released in early 2008 as a documentary, entitled Ghosts of Pleasanton.
Jason and Grant of TAPS visit the infamous Waverly Hills Sanatorium and capture something strange on their thermal device. Did they catch an animal darting across the hall or the apparition of a little boy named Tim, who has been seeing haunting that area of the old hospital?
Andrew and Tonya Keyser began researching paranormal phenomena for a book project, only to toss the idea when they felt a book would be too dry. They turned their focus onto making a film, which they called The Other Side: Giving up the Ghost. The 80-minute documentary contains interviews with people who run or attend ghost tours, paranormal research teams, paranormal organizations, skeptics and psychology experts. It was filmed mostly in Gettysburg over the summer and fall of 2006. Other locations include Allentown; Amherst, N.Y.; Philadelphia; Richmond, Va.; and St. Louis.
There are a great number of people Adams County who are interested in the paranormal. However, Tonya wasn’t sure if this interest is because they experienced paranormal phenomena or because they are seeking to experience such phenomena. This was one aspect she and her husband covered in the film, which is due for release in DVD format on May 1, 2007. They will sell this DVD directly from their website, but hope to sell it on Amazon soon.
