Ghost Adventures – Stone Lion Inn – S14E01

To start off the new season, Zak and team head to Guthrie, Oklahoma to investigate the Stone Lion Inn. It was built in 1907 by F.E. Houghton, a prominent businessman of the time. However, he hit on hard times and had to vacate the house. It became a funeral parlor and Becky Luker, the current owner, displays one of the old embalming tables in the hallway.

Becky now leads Murder Mystery tours and uses the story of Elmer McCurdy as her main character. According to the newspapers, "She has been accused of practicing witchcraft, satanism, devil worship, being disrespectful and promoting a site that is not historic." This makes Zak both nervous around her and suspicious of her.

Elmer’s story is pretty unusual. He was a bungling outlaw, shot during a heist. Since no one came to claim the body, the coroner turned his body in a mummy and charged 5 cents to see it. Eventually, the body was sold to a sideshow and then a carnival. In 1976 while in the Laff in the Dark fun house, the arm was ripped off and was discovered to be human. After identifying the remains, Elmer was brought back to Guthrie and buried. Since Becky has used him as a focal point of her tours, she plans to be buried in a plot adjacent to him.

Michelle Smith, housekeeper at the Inn since 1986, claims an entity crept into bed with her one night and gave her a vision of an overflowing bucket in the basement. Zak associates this with scrying and a message from Elmer.

They ask Michelle to do an EVP session where they discover outbursts of "F-him" and "F-her" which Michelle had no knowledge of hearing or saying. Zak believes this to be the spirit voice coming through.

All of this is the precursor to the investigation which starts at Elmer’s gravesite. It’s Zak’s goal to make a portal where Elmer can travel to the house using infrasound. They get a man’s voice and several uses of the word, "hang", which is a contradiction since Elmer was shot. Aaron and Zak weave a story that Elmer is referring to how he was found. Since his death was so quick and violent he didn’t know he died.

Back at nerve center a camera captures a door opening. They didn’t see this first hand and continue on to the main bedroom, where they hear noises behind the bed. As Zak lays down, the camera in the hallway falls over after he hears footsteps. This coincides with a light anomaly.

In the attic where Michelle had her vision, Aaron feels someone touch him and a child’s voice saying, "ghost hunting." He also feels something is thrown.

Back in nerve center as they get ready to the EVP work that Aaron just caught, the door in the hallway opens. It’s then slammed shut.

There are some interesting points to this investigation, but Zak is making way too much of the Murder Mystery tours. That newspaper clipping was most likely from the late 80s when the media saw devil worship in every activity imaginable. Further, Murder Mystery tours are all over, as in Savannah. Also, his fear and apprehension of Becky is juvenile. Like a slew of others, (and Zak himself) Becky is just making money off the paranormal.

The scrying angle is quite a leap. He takes a dream about a bucket and turns it into communication from Elmer?

The doors opening. But, the first one could have simply been a draft. It is a big house and would have been designed for air flow. Open one door and it causes a shift in another.

The slamming door is pretty interesting. However, since this is part of the mystery story, are we sure that isn’t a spring loaded prop? Yes, that is a dash far fetched, but you never know. You have to think though, if the entity had that much energy, why not follow up with something more dramatic? And let’s also keep in mind that Elmer’s connection to the house is pretty slight. If anything, without Becky making him the focal point of her mystery, his story would most likely be forgotten.

Besides the door, there is very little to support that the Stone Lion Inn is teaming with entities as Zak suggests.

* If I’m not mistaken, the events surrounding Elmer where used in a Miss Fisher mystery. I believe a body is discovered in the same manner, a mummy at an amusement park ride

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Adventures – Freak Show Murder House – S14E02
• Ghost Adventures – Asylum 49 – S14E11
• Looks like ghost hunting is becoming big business
• Ghost Adventures – Black Dahlia House – S12E01
• Ghost Adventures – Crazy Town – S07E13
• Ghost Adventures – Museum of the Mountain West – S15E10
• Ghost Adventures – Nevada State Prison – S12E10
• Paranormal State – Return of the Dead – The Glove II – S05E06
• Ghost Adventures – Sin City Exorcism – S15E15
• Ghost Adventures – Commanders House – S16E12