ArtRojasDesign

After a bit of a hiatus, Haunted Collector is back for the final episode of the season. For this one they spend time down in Florida at the Odom Residence and Palmer House Antiques.

Odom Residence

The owner has had experiences of apparitions moving around the house in multiple locations. This has taken the form of a figure heading toward the bathroom area and a woman in a flowing dress.

The team starts off the investigation with some Polaroids where one of them appears to be burned. The picture had been of the Spanish breastplate over the fireplace. Oddly, the fireplace poker falls when they try to take the second picture.

There is the capture of an EVP with the word "Win". It doesn’t seem to make much sense but they tie this to Earl Winfield Spencer Jr, who went by the name Win. They feel this is the voice of Wallis Simpson who married Spencer. It also comes to light that Win may been a bit of a bastard. It’s said he used to get drunk regularly and abuse his wife. There are reports that he would tie her up then leave the house for a bender. It’s also claimed he would burn family photos in the fireplace. The same fireplace with the breastplate and the burned Polaroid.

A final part of the investigation has Jesslyn dealing with all the meters going off while she’s the command center. There is a slew of noises and multiple bangs. Even the attic style door comes flying open during the ruckus. They can’t quite pin a source for that one.

In the end John binds the fireplace with salt to try and appease the spirit of Wallis. They don’t really have any tangible evidence, but feel the fireplace is the source of the problem since Win would get drunk and destroy the photos there. The activity seems to stop, but there are still footsteps in the attic. Due to the age of the house, I still keep saying that’s an animal roaming around.

Palmer House Antiques

For the second part, John goes out to visit and antique store that has shut down because of the activity. People see apparitions, things move around, people experience a tightness in the chest and they hear footsteps.

The team discovers that two doctor Palmer’s lived in the house. It was built by Thomas Palmer who died in the house when he shot himself in the head after the war. Dabney Palmer also died in the house when he fell down the stairs and hit his head on a spittoon. He died a couple of days later.

Second doctor Palmer is a bit of an odd bird it appears. He was also the mortician with his operating room upstairs in the house. He would drain the body of blood then poor that into the earth once the body had been buried. There are also claims he performed experiments in the cadavers he worked on. It’s not specifically said what he was up to with the bodies.

The team sets up bells on string in the doorways, on the doll that keeps moving and other objects. They hear the bells repeatedly, but can’t find why they keep going off. When asked if someone performed experiments, they get the answer of "yes".

As they search the house, a trepanning tool is shown as glowing hot orange in the thermal imager. This would have been used to bore into the skull. Why bore into the skull? It was a cure to mental illness, depression and even headaches. It would have also been used to study the brain.

While using the voice box, John and the team are startled when they hear breathing behind them. Coincidentally their meters have all lost power. Is someone there? Unfortunately, they’re not able to grab anything concrete during that moment.

There is another mysterious event. There is a body of 555 Marlarial medicine in a bottle. One moment that bottle is full, the next it’s empty. The bottle isn’t broken, nor is it wet. What happened to contents? Oddly, a bucket in another room holding medical equipment mysteriously has liquid in it. Turns out the liquid in the bucket was plain water, but an odd event none the less.

John concludes the trepanning tool is the cause of the problems and that Dabney Palmer needs to be removed from the home. His unusual experiments have no place in an antique shop. John takes the skull drill and things seem to calm down. There is no direct evidence that links Palmer to the tool, but it was showing some odd behavior with a temperature so much higher than everything else.

Again, lots of leap in logic and very little concrete evidence to support the conclusions they draw. I can only assume parts are left out for the sake of time. The ease at which the find the items and uncover this information always bugs me. Brian make two swings at the ground and poof, he finds exactly what he’s looking for. We’ll leave it as the magic of television.

But even still, the links they form still come across as weak. I don’t always buy how they put it together. Their story could make sense, but there are always a ton of assumptions.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Haunted Collector – Bare Bones and Octagon Haunting – S02E08
• Haunted Collector – Farm Stalker and Echo Club Spirits – S03E01
• Haunted Collector – Enfield Horror and Masonic Spirits – S02E11
• Haunted Collector – Haunted Bayou/Library Ghost – S01E01
• Haunted Collector – The Sanitarium & Firehouse Phantom – S01E04
• Haunted Collector – Firestarter and Haunted Museum – S02E10
• Ghost Adventures – Palmer House Hotel – S07E04
• Ghost Lab – Episode 4 – Chicago/Texas
• Haunted Collector – Stirring the Dead and Ghost Writer – S02E06
• Paranormal Lockdown – White Hill Mansion – S02E08

Madison Seminary

For the first part of this episode John heads out to Madison, Ohio to investigate the Madison Seminary. The location has gone through many hands and played many roles. It started as a school, then turned into a home for elderly widows, then a home for the mentally ill. It closed under dubious circumstances and of course the first thing we think of when a mental hospital closes down during the 1950-60 timeframe is abuse and mistreatment of patients. However, this particular facility closed due to lack of funds. They went bankrupt and were forced to shut down. No abuse.

Karyn claims she has been hit in the hand, that people see an apparition carrying a tray and that doors open and close. People have been poked and had their hair pulled. Generally speaking these are the same experiences that a lot of people have.

For the first night of the investigation Brian, Chris and Jason hear a squeaking sound and perhaps the sound of a chair moving across the floor. Brain goes to check it out and discovers the chair that looks like a holdover from the institution days isn’t up against the wall like it normally is.

They also discover a piece of wadded up cloth attached to a line in what looks like a dumb waiter.

Aimee and Jason discuss the area with local historians and get the story of Elizabeth Stiles, a spy for the Union Army. Her husband was killed by the Confederate soldiers so she sought to help the Union. She would gather information by dressing as a nurse and working in hospitals. With this is mind the team is now looking for items to make a connection.

For the second night they catch a shadow moving across the area where the mental chair is still sitting. But the big catch of the night is a piece of fabric that actually pulls itself back up into the slits of the ceiling boards as Brian and John are walking by. Brian spies this piece of fabric, a piece John has singled out, goes to touch it and it pulls itself away from them. It quite literally moves on it’s own. The very piece John wanted Brian to get. And only that piece. And there are other poking down.

Brian pulls back some boards to reveal a bundle of clothes that turn out to be a bonnet with a very large pocket that could be used for hiding items and a blouse that appears to have bullet holes in it.

Job done and John immediately links these items to Elizabeth Stiles. Keep in mind there is not a single shred of evidence that says these belong to Elizabeth, but that doesn’t matter. And of course we should ignore John pointing to the exact piece of fabric that happens to jump away and move right as Brian goes to touch it. What are the odds of that happening???

John finds the relatives of Elizabeth Stiles and turns over the items that may or may not be hers to them and the activity suddenly stops.

Bouvier Residence

For the second part, John investigate the Bouvier residence where Elizabeth and her family are experiencing odd behavior such as banging on the walls and doors and the sound of a children running up and down the hallway.

For the first night the TV turns on without warning while John and Jess find one of the medallions on the wall. Again, their ability to find things is uncanny!

Aimee and Jason find the death record of a small boy who drowned near the Bouvier house so this is who they believe is haunting the place. He had nothing to do with the actual property and he certainly didn’t die there, but it’s close enough for this kind of work so they go with it.

They also discover that the "medallions" are something a child more than likely would have made. You take cloth or burlap, press it into clay and make a little disc. You then hide them and then all the kids go searching. This is the sort of thing kids did long before the Xbox and Internet took over our lives. Did the drowned boy make the disc? It’s possible, but more likely it would have been made by one of the kids that actually lived there…

For the second night, Brian actually has a pretty cool piece of technology, "thermal paper". If something giving off a heat signature walks across the paper you see the image. It’s a good thing they have it because later that night it appears there is something walking, perhaps dragging itself across that very paper. They look like small little circles with the heat sliding to make the next spot.

They also set up a feedback loop with the television. We’ve seen Zak from Ghost Adventures do this same sort of thing. I’m not sure why they have this theory, but it’s believed the spirit world can manipulate the pixels to show themselves. I don’t know why they can’t do when the TV is on normally, but this is how things are done.

As Brian goes through the frames he believes he sees the face of boy. Indeed, there is something there which looks like the mouth, nose and cheeks of a face. As you might expect, the link is made and this is the little boy who drowned hundreds of yards away from the house showing himself for reasons unknown. I assume they feel he made of the discs and played in this area and that his energy is tied to the place even though he never lived there and would have played in a much larger area that covered dozens of homes.

John takes the little discs away and the problems all disappear. The little boy who can’t stop playing his game and searching for discs is finally able to rest.

Once again, I absolutely question the leaps in logic that John and his team make. I can only assume there is more solid evidence that’s omitted due to time.

While the face in the static of the TV is interesting I sort of toss that aside due to matrixing. Is there really some technical difference with this loopback idea versus just the regular TV itself?

The only thing really intriguing are those hot spots on the thermal paper. That was pretty interesting. Unfortunately none of this is solid evidence and it’s pretty damn clear they are working the evidence to make it fit an interesting story.

And that piece of fabric moving into the roof slats just stinks to high heaven of trickery!

Other Articles of Interest:

• Haunted Collector – The Sanitarium & Firehouse Phantom – S01E04
• Haunted Collector – Bare Bones and Octagon Haunting – S02E08
• Haunted Collector – Cigar Bar and Childs Play – S03E02
• Haunted Collector – Casino Phantom and California Nightmare – S02E07
• Haunted Collector – Haunted Bayou/Library Ghost – S01E01
• Haunted Collector – Firestarter and Haunted Museum – S02E10
• Haunted Collector – Shadow Boxer and Ghost Storm – S03E08
• Ghost Hunters International – Port Arthur Penitentiary – S02E10
• Haunted Collector – Island of Fear and Tropical Terror – S01E04
• Haunted Collector – Emmitt House Ghosts and Shadow Intruder – S03E05