Haunted: The Leland, Detroit

For those who don't know, the Leland is and was a historic hotel in Downtown Detroit. Currently the first few floors are hotel, the top most are apartments and the basement is storage and "storage" with an outer sub-basement that's an unattached "goth" club.
I can't say if it's a ghostly experience I had here or just my own nerves amped up from Little J and I not B&Eing in to wander around (we were let in by helpful fellas who thought we were staying there), but it's definitely something. We went in thinking we were Nancy Drew investigating gangs and Jimmy Hoffa, but really, we were just hooligans who wound up feeling like the sneakers became the snook! (Parks and Rec reference)

This was with no flash. Wonky lighting. That's a window to the lobby.

Same floor. Looks normal for an operational business.

After acting like we belonged there enough to find the elevators (about 20 feet from the door) we walked through the mezzanine. The lighting here was weird, the hallway nearest the elevators had lights, the far side of another hallway down the way had lights, but in the lounge area, no lights! But in that darkness we had spotted, helped only by me holding down my camera flash button, an old broken piano and the whole place is covered with dust. It was a weird feeling here, intriguing but not sinister. Nothing felt sinister, more like we were constantly being watched throughout our journey. Though we didn't break in illegally, we felt like we didn't belong anywhere in this place. Like when you're staying at someone else's home for the night and have to get out of bed in the middle of the night for something but you're too scared of making an unwanted noise. We felt like middle of the night bathroom steppers.

The fourth floor is completely blocked off- the elevator opens there but there's a black iron door padlocked, welded/rusted and blocked shut with mysterious bullet(?) holes. Rumored to be Jimmy Hoffa's favorite hang, the 4th floor used to be a bar. Now it's dead. I tried to get my camera though cracks and holes, alas, nothing really worked. You can peer in slightly and see that it's still set up like a bar area from long ago, which would have been really cool to see, or reopen for business, but, nothing could be committed to camera. Even though we could see clearly with our eyes, the camera had a consistent black view.

Death's door?

Like classic buildings born in the 20s, there's no 13th floor mentioned. Somehow people thought that by not naming it the 13th floor made it less likely to be unlucky, despite floor 14 still being the 13th floor. Well, this place IS unlucky. J and I heard what sounded like muffled TV all over one floor but only actually heard actual audibles coming through one door in the very last apartment on the furthermost hallway to the center of the maze. But we no doubt heard the same tv sounds the whole way through the floor, and then it didn't even get louder the closer we got to the actual apartment with sound-which seems scientifically impossible. We joked about soundproofing but we couldn't hear the other floors, sometimes we heard nothing at all and then that blasted tv floor.

Creepy Titanic ghost tv halls

We also climbed through an open storage area (I say as a question) and onto the first sub-rooftop, which was where the "roof jumpers" must have dove from during and after the Depression, and absolutely, according to historical description and photos, was where the Purple Gang threw people from the roof and made it look like accidents. Interesting!

I read once, long before I knew about residual hauntings (playbacks of a past event where it's energy based, not ghosts) that people could be seen at night throwing themselves off of the building from here, but I call malarkey on that. Being on this sub-roof was the ost like ourselves that we had felt the whole time here. It's like the energy is strictly encased within the walls themselves.

We found our way to some abandoned apartments, which is weird for me, because the Leland has become half-abandoned? Is that even a thing? Some of the apartments on the floors you could hear tv, people talking, babies crying, normal apartment stuff. Then two doors down you have possible death traps and tetanus activators like these. It's so odd that one door is a door to a home, and the next is a door to a caved in and battered apartment that looks so abruptly vacated that I wondered if cops were involved. But if that were to be the case, would a family with children stay living next door? Or move in after the fact? Look at this mess, it had NO DOOR! Where did the door go? why didn't anyone fix it? Rumor was that it was so paranormal that people just ignore it and go about fixing the stuff people actually live in and just avoid the ghosts (of the paranormal and this sad show of physical form) all together.

Would you move your family in with this just a three inch wall away?

 So, all in all, a great time was had. I can't promise you is it 100% factually haunted, but I can say that it's either incredibly weird and active, or not sound proof at all. In any area. But the number of vicious crimes done here, the urban legends about mobsters, gangsters and murder, these walls would have a lot to say. For a poplar night club in the underground of this hotel and living space, you'd think it would have had better upkeep. The hotel side where guests can see may be nice, but we actually avoided that area and went from Mezz to 3rd floor directly. You know when you're not welcome somewhere because there are no lights. They don't bother lighting the areas because they're unclean, unsafe and completely uninhabitable. It's just so odd to me that half of each floor looks like this, and people still live there, pay to be there, and pay for hotel stays. I'm pretty positive it's haunted, but it could also be based on the foreboding factor and ick of the living spaces.
That 4th floor, though.... still so intriguing!

Wonder if he did that?

Stay safe out there, kiddos, and add me on Insta.

Detroit; Active or Haunted Spots

There is a large list of Detroit activity going around. Ever since I was a teenager I would drive around and explore with my friends. Typically, when a major publication like the Detroit News or Hour Detroit Magazine says something is haunted I avoid it- because it seems more tourist trap than genuine. But sometimes it's legit. Also, if a report says anything about a woman in white- nope. Tip: Not all ghosts are heartbroken women or soldiers, not all women wear white and not all souls mope around their own graves only at night to smile for the camera. Those ones tend to scream urban legend, not actual paranormal encounters.

However, here is a small list I have compiled where I can confirm some activity,  or at the very least some places that feel like they go bump in the night.

The Whitney: This is one of those places that play into being haunted by cashing in, minus having guests pay for tours. Commonly said to be haunted with kitchenware flying off of walls, counters, glass breaking, lights on and off, elevators going when nobody requests them, or stop suddenly. Typical stuff. None of that was experienced by me personally, but it will be in every google search you do with the words Whitney and haunted. What I did take note of when I was there (numerous times) are these few things; The ladies room on the second floor is not as commonly noted as being anything active, but ramblings have been mentioned. Here is my rambling- I first stepped into the room around 6am on Thanksgiving one year while working as a volunteer. One step from the well lit hallway to the slightly less well lit bathroom was a drastic change in energy. It went from commonplace to someone is standing next to me in one pass through the door. You know in teen movies when someone is hiding in a bathroom stall and the person they're hiding from presses their face against the crack in the door and stares them down before dramatically pushing the door open? That's how it feels in this bathroom. Like someone was waiting for you, is watching you, and does not want you to completely ignore them. Also, the rooms off of the Ghostbar on the third floor go a little wonky in their atmosphere. I remember one time I walked into one of the rooms, felt lightheaded, had a quick swoon, walked out of the room and was fine for the rest of the day. Someone told me it could have been something moving through me or near enough to cause a reaction. The intrigue!

Historic Fort Wayne: Aside from knowing these grounds are haunted from countless others, I have had experiences in a few spots. My favorite of my whole time there happened in the jail during a paranormal tour with MPI and other famous investigators. This story happened over spirit box with Johnny Zaffis and ticket holders, and I was sitting up font at the jail table with Johnny taking photos and going with the flow. A man came through the box to chat, Tom, and he was not really responsive to much, and broke in and out like static for a few minutes while John asked crowd sourced (uninteresting for the most) questions. Then I started chatting directly with Tom over the box and asked him personal questions more so than why are you here. I asked him, Tom, would you call yourself a handsome man? It was what we can only identify as a laugh with the box lights and meter going off, and a yes. His answers got faster and clearer, so, Handsome Tom became my buddy. I also asked if he was happy, if he had a family, if he frequents the park often,what he misses and we mostly made out is that he had a family, he died after the 67 riots from burn injuries and he was possibly a sweet talker. (The fort was used as a triage during and after the riots, as well as shelters for homeless)
I also noticed an almost magnetic feeling in the gym of the Visitor Center. Like, a scary feeling that if you looked around you would see some crazy shite.
Officer's row also had a few instances of lights shining when no lights aught to be. Were they weird dirty reflections off of a boat a mile or two out? Or something else? Hard to say, because they were small twinkle lights, it was . We saw lights in the Commanding Officer's house. Also the barracks has a lot going on. I haven't personally seen or heard much here but I have heard others' EVP recordings and photos and stories. As seen in my doc, I thought I heard something, we all did, but we cannot promise that it was a ghost. But we definitely did all hear it.

Masonic Temple: Though I don't doubt that the Masonic is spectacularly haunted- the only thing I really witnessed were cool spots (it's an old building) and electronics not working in a room or a hallway when they were just seconds ago working fine. I'm told that can be a sign of something ghostly. Or- again- it's just an old building and reception might not hit every nook and cranny of this beautiful palace. I am working on costumes for Theatre Bizarre this year inside the Masonic, so, hopefully something will happen for me.

The Leland: This place, this place is whack! I'll do a more in depth post about this one later on because there was much to tell, but to catalog it nicely, I'll detail a few things now. On the mezzanine by the old dusty piano we felt like we were being watched. For some reason it made us want to whisper, so for ten minutes in the dusty darkness of this strangely lit half floor we were mostly silent but still felt rude. On one upper floor we heard a muffled TV like someone was watching it in their apartment- only we heard it through nearly the whole floor. The same muffled sound not getting much louder or softer depending on where we walked. We did find an apartment in the corner by the window with a TV on but it was definitely in a non-central location and it would not cause us to hear it by the elevators. We crept to the sub-roof where the Purple Gang threw people off and made it look like suicides, which was neat but we didn't see any residual hauntings jumping off like some claim. There were a lot of literal signs saying keep out, and a lot of icky ones like water marks turned black crawling down the walls like a horror movie. All in all, active, but I didn't see a ghost in a way that I could say was without a doubt. Would investigate again.

This is my brief list of Detroit specifics. There are more and I will get to them in another post. In the meantime, do you have anything to add? Anything I should check out? A story to share? Let me know in the comments!

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San Diego's Whaley House- Haunted or Nah?

According to Wiki, "The Whaley House is an 1857 Greek Revival style residence, a California Historical Landmark, and museum located in Old Town, San Diego, California. In the 1960s, the Whaley House was designated as an official haunted house by the United States Commerce Department."

As I had mentioned in Aoibhneas Travels, I call malarkey. Or at least a notion that maybe it USED to be haunted, but too much goings on has happened and the spirits left to finally be in peace. I imagine even ghost mothers don't want to hear your screaming and unattended children who leave sticky jam hand print all over their ancient walls when they are rumored to have their own ghost baby to take care of (RIP Thomas). I visited this house for the first time in April of 2004 with my Winterguard team during our trip to Winterguard Internationals ( WGI Hollaaaa) and it was more that we were talking about hauntings and looking for ghosts than actually feeling haunted or alert to our surroundings. In 2005 TIME magazine labeled the Whaley House as the most haunted house in America, even besting the Amityville house, the Whitney Detroit and the Sallie House which have all been proven multiple times. Me thinks TIME was promoting a business and a museum over actual proof. In 2014 I visited Ole Whaley again.
As an avid ghost hunter with an actual documentary short about Historic Fort Wayne Detroit with Metro Paranormal, I can tell you that the gut feelings you have in one place that's, to a sensitive person like me, proven itself to be with spirit like that- the Whaley House feels just like plain old house.  
But this house is DOOOOPE! If you go thinking it's a cool museum with a fun and also horrid graveyard backstory of suicide and shame, it's really cool (and sad). As a historical landmark this house has seen it all. It was home to the Whaley family, of course, the Whaley General Store, a commercial theatre and a courthouse. The family lived there, then didn't, then did, then left, then came back, all lived in it together, preserved it as a museum and stayed a family home until 1953 when the last remaining family member, Corrinne Lillian, died. 
It opens with a pre-room leading into the courthouse. It's small but so interesting. Imagine having a courthouse in your home! So weird. The theatre was really cool, imagine all of the people who came there, too! In your house! As a theatre major, I was into it! However, as much as you'd like to think all old theatre spaces are haunted ala The Phantom- they're not. At least not in the afternoon time. What you think is a moving curtain from on stage is really just an air duct pushing out cool air. That's the only motion you'll be likely to see there. Sorry. Spoiler Alert? My favorite room besides the children's room with creepy dolls and fancy clothes about was the family sitting room. Here you see some of the art collection, the family piano and credenza for what looked to be their correspondence desk. It was difficult to get any good bedroom or kitchen photos due to the plastic walls and the amount of sunlight bouncing, but perhaps a third visit may be in order. It's all really neat to marvel at. The craftsmanship alone! I have shirts that I have owned for a year that have already fallen apart and these clothes are over a century old and still exist! The dolls and toys may not be as functional as they used to be but they're still there! (IS a doll functional??) Time has aged them but not destroyed. Things used to be made better...
The photos I did manage to take make it look almost normal, but to me there is almost nothing normal about a dolly that has been sitting on the same bed for 70 years or more with plastic windows surrounding it. However, it was all really cool. It's a glimpse into a different time, a different world. The admission is cheap at just $8 with Military, Child and Senior discounts available. It's also available on the list of locations for the Go! San Diego CityPass card mentioned in my previous post here.
If you're interested, you can check out their Website to plan a trip or just investigate for yourself from afar. It's fun to give yourself the chills, so why not stop here if you're in the San Diego area? It's definitely worth seeing for yourself. 
My verdict: Not haunted, just an old tale to get people in. But maybe my two times there were slow haunting days and the spirits just had things to do otherwise. Maybe they're like Hogwarts portraits, dipping into various spots around the grounds. Either way, it's a fun visit. 
Do you believe in ghosts? Have you toured the Whaley House and have a differing experience? Let me know below!

I love all theatres. The older the better!

I'm told it can still play.

If you say you're scared of ghosts and haunted houses then this is your perfect destination. If haunted at all I will say it's lightly ghosted, so you can still say you were in a haunted house but you are HIGHLY unlikely going to catch any cold spots or see any figures. 

My First Official Ghost Hunt 2012

For a school film project I started talking to people who have experienced paranormal veil crossing, as well as those who are more agnostic about the subject. I recorded first-hand stories and later reached out to a local group, Metro Paranormal Investigations, to chat about some of their experiences as well. 

Then they offered to host a night of investigations at Historic Fort Wayne in Detroit and I about squealed with joy (but hopefully sounded SO cool about it with Wayne). So, despite hours of work interviewing people about private homes and all things ookey, I traded in my second-hand first-hand stories for an adventure of my own. Some of my classmates heard about it and asked to help out, so, off we went!

We learned that it's not just ghosts and goblins, but science. We went through some EVPs with them, heard their tales on the very specific places we were going to be working in for the night, learned about their techniques and processes, and then finally, once those are broken down, we rule if it's an actual haunted location. In which Fort Wayne is. 

I have since come back here a number of times, and have had encounters that I still look back on with smiles- Hi Tom! I've learned to ask ghosts not to follow me home, but to keep in touch, and made some (actual human) pals. All of that will be in future posts. 

Without further ado, my doc:

Shout out to MPI: Jo, Wayne and Chris, to my team: Kyle, Carolyn, Kyle, Melanie and a double shout out to Megg who spent the whole night with her eyes closed and curled in a ball.

For more information on MPI click here, for more on Historic Fort Wayne (which is now a State park) click here.

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A Bad Energy at a Stranger's House

First off, for the sake of privacy, I will not release locational information.

But I will post a photo. 

Sometimes when I need to go for a walk I take to the area around my city's Public Library. It's not a big place, but it's near enough to home that I can get a lap or two in, usually listening to some tunes, returning books and/or catching Pokemon. Also usually at night. 

My path is typically the same, head down my block, cross the street, police/library/city building all in a lump there with residential homes on the other side of the street. And there is it. 

The rub. 

There is a pair of houses, normal looking, unassuming houses but it always draws my eye in between them. Always. In a shifty sense, though, like someone's watching me from the window and I can sense it. My intuition flares to keep my eyes keen and have my wits about me. Every. Time.

Last night, and this is what inspired me to mention it, I took my walk in the opposite direction than usual so that for majority of my trip back from Catching Em All my back was turned against the houses directly. But I could absolutely feel it boring into me. I was so uncomfortable about it that I stopped and took these creepy stalker style photos of some guy's house. 

The dark duo

You know when you're walking at night to your car or something and someone is behind you? That tense feeling of situational awareness that spikes your heart rate and causes your back to straighten? That's exactly how this feels. Whenever I walk down the street I can feel it staring me down. 

But it's just a house, probably. I just feel weird about them. I feel like we're watching one another as I walk. I know it sounds cliche or cheesy to say it has an energy, but this pair, it just feels like a black cloud. It's a perfectly normal suburban home duo- flag pole, decorations, the works- but there's something extra. It's hard to explain without getting a closer look, but from an innocent standpoint across the street, something is brewing or has brewed in that area. It's almost incredible because there's no way for me to know anything about this place, no reports on a murder, fire or haunt. It's just a gut feeling. My brain perks, my senses flair, my third eye (if that's your thing) pictures it as some sort of moving black cloud or vortex over it. I don't know if that means anything, that's just what manifests itself into an image when I pass by. It feels like a black spot. 

Sometimes I even get confused as to which house it is because it feels so menacing that it's hard to decipher. I think it's something in the front that's bothersome and possibly moves lawn to lawn or porch to porch. I can't tell from any photos, but again, they were sneakily stolen from across the street.

These are poor quality of one house because I'm acting like I'm hunting Pokemon at 10pm to the neighbors on the porch a few houses down. Plus, I'm not yet ready to venture across the street. Next time?

So what do you think? Am I imagining it like all non-believers would say I am? Or is something in my intuition correct about this place? From the very first time I crossed it whilst walking I felt eerie and followed. So is it in my head on repeat or cold I be right? Who's to say for now. I can't just knock on the door and ask if any murders, deaths, destruction or haunts have occurred there. Or could I?

What would you do?