Haunted Collector – Shadow Boxer and Ghost Storm – S03E08

Shadow Boxer

John heads out to Missouri to visit two locations with a variety of activity. For his first stop he visits Kansas City and the Whatsoever Center where children are seeing apparitions, the boxing equipment swings on it’s own, there are footsteps and one person even claims to have felt an energy pass through her.

As the investigation gets underway, Jason and Jesslyn go to the boxing arena and low and behold they hear the ring buzzer go off. This is the same activity the owner has experience. That certainly sounds like a short, but he’s had it checked. At the same time the upstairs camera that Brian has placed starts snapping photos. It appears to have captured a figure against the back wall of the hallway.

The team also learns about the boxing death of "Tex", who mysteriously died in his bathtub. Since boxing was linked to gambling and the mafia, they wonder if he met with an untimely end by not throwing a fight. It’s later discovered that he in fact died of epilepsy and that it was most likely an accident.

On the second night of the investigation while Jason and John are down in the boxing area, one of the bags starts to swing. None of the others appear to be moving. Brian, while watching the monitors, sees some plume of dust from under the boxing ring so they bring out their snake camera and check it out. They pull out a wrapped up bottle of phenol barbital and smelling salts. These definitely look to be related to boxing and more specifically to Tex. Phenol barbital would have been used to control seizures. This may have been Tex’s medication or it may be totally unrelated.

John links all the items together and feels the spirit energy is Tex even though he didn’t die anywhere near the boxing ring. Also, the idea of Tex doesn’t explain anything related to the two girls that have been seen on the stairs. John takes the bottle and the smelling salts away and the activity dies down. But as stated at the end of the segment, people still report the girls.

I think this is another one of those times when John may have jumped the gun and tried to link too many things together without taking all the evidence into consideration. The items he found more than likely have nothing to do with Tex and since he didn’t die there, John is making a leap. It does make sense and they certainly can be linked, but that doesn’t mean they really are.

Ghost Storm

The second part of the trip takes John and team to Joplin, Missouri, site of the massive tornado of 2011. Bob Wilson, the owner, claims he sees shadow figures, feels a dark presence and images appear in an old mirror on the stairs. Interestingly, John brings in Chip Coffey who picks up on some energy on the stairs and feels something is odd about the mirror. He also feels there is some sort of pounding or lashing rage in the daughter’s room. This coincides with the daughter saying her furniture shakes, which the guys do experience, but it comes across as more of a large truck driving by than anything else. It’s still weird nonetheless and would be freaky as hell to wake up to that.

Too bad Chip doesn’t stay around for the investigation. He’s only there for a minute before whisking off. But the team sets up a laser grid on the stairs to see what they can capture. While Brian asks if there is something the family should know, he gets the words "Let go" as an EVP. At the same time the Rem Pod goes off and there appears to be a shadow moving across the laser grid. Within a couple seconds they get multiple hits on different devices.

Shortly thereafter a strange thing starts to happen with the mirror, it appears to be forming shapes and swirls. John can’t see any of the activity himself, it’s only visible with the camera. He tries to check for light sources and moves the chandelier, but it doesn’t change the effect. Oddly, John says he sees the number 22 in the patterns and associates that with the tornado since it happened May 22.

John begins to give Bob the evidence he’s collected when Bob drops a bombshell of a story. He said before he helped pull 19 people from the rubble of a building right next to where he worked. He tells of sitting with a man telling him everything is going to be fine knowing full well it won’t be. As he puts it, he lied and he is utterly torn up about it. Bob stayed at his side until the poor man passed away. How completely heart wrenching.

John associates the "Let go" with Bob and that he needs to let the story out and release his emotions about it. This could be the root of the problem. It seems Bob is dealing with "Survivor’s guilt" and needs to talk about the things he’s seen and experienced.

His story is strange because something appeared to go through the laser grid and energy caused the Rem Pod to go off. If we go with Chip’s feelings, he felt a presence as well. Something tangible seems to be going on, more so than just Bob letting his feelings out. While John overshot the root of the problem in the first part of the episode, I think he falls totally short for the second part. I don’t think he’s discovered or unraveled anything at all. But yet, they claim all the activity has stopped since he told his family about helping the victims. Again, parts of this just don’t tie together correctly.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Haunted Collector – Hollywood Haunted and Gold Rush Ghost – S03E10
• Haunted Collector – Emmitt House Ghosts and Shadow Intruder – S03E05
• Haunted Collector – Lakeside Terror and Pythian Secrets – S03E09
• Haunted Collector – Cigar Bar and Childs Play – S03E02
• Deep South Paranormal – I Fear That Train A Comin – S01E01
• Haunted Collector – Ghost Behind Bars and Haunted Brothel – S03E03
• Haunted Collector – Ghost of Geneva and Fort Fear – S03E07
• Haunted Collector – Haunted Rectory and Grand Midway Ghosts – S02E05
• Haunted Collector – Haunted Seminary and Ghost Games – S03E11
• Haunted Collector – Farm Stalker and Echo Club Spirits – S03E01