Ghost hunters

|By LESLIE BAILEY, Features Editor|

Sunday, June 12, 2005

JEFFERSON – The Metroplex Paranormal Investigations team wants you to know they are not Ghostbusters.

If they come to your house and find that you have an actual ghost and not bad wiring or a draft, what you do with the ghost is your business. They just document; they don't exorcise.

Six members of the Dallas-based group, whose slogan is "We believe you," joined Dallas author Mark Alan Morris for a trip to "the most haunted small town in Texas" this week as Morris filmed a documentary tentatively titled "Ghosts of Jefferson." The film might be finished by September 2006, Morris said.

Morris, the author of "The Ghost Next Door: True Stories of Paranormal Encounters from Everyday People," said he was thinking about writing a second book when he decided to go a step further with a documentary.

The paranormal investigators all have regular jobs and families. They dedicate their free time to helping people who think they might have ghost problems.

The team uses equipment such as electromagnetic field meters, digital and analog sound recorders, digital cameras, temperature probes and motion sensors to conduct investigations. They also do a lot of research.

Team leader Vicki Isaacks can tell you the normal range of a human voice. (Anything below 300 hertz is considered paranormal.) Ghostly glowing orbs that show up in a photo are probably just dust, added team member Kristie Hughes.

After ruling out natural explanations, the team looks for at least two sources of confirmation before they label something paranormal – for instance, a sound recording and a photo collaborating what the investigator saw.

It will take days of analyzing their data before they know if they found ghosts in Jefferson. However, plenty of residents need no convincing.

Jodi Breckenridge, who was interviewed for the documentary, runs The Original Historic Jefferson Ghost Walk, which she started about four years ago.

On Friday and Saturday nights, and by appointment during the week, she can be found leading tourists on a walking tour of Jefferson haunts.

Ms. Breckenridge tries to approach the subject of ghosts with a healthy amount of skepticism, but she does say that odd things have happened on more than a few of her tours.

Her favorite stop is the imposing 1850s-era Schluter House. "That particular home seems to draw people for some reason," she said.

Legend has it that a ghostly crying infant can be pacified only by placing a doll in the window of its room. For many years, every family who lived in the Schluter House carried on the doll tradition, Ms. Breckenridge said.

She's also heard tales of contractors working at the house seeing tools fly across the room and ladders fall over of their own accord. One man on her tour took video there and captured what appears to be children looking out a window; the house was empty at the time.

In fact, she's got CD after CD of digital photos taken by tourists of strange glowing orbs or ghostly figures.

"I've learned to be more open-minded than I used to be," Ms. Breckenridge said. "I don't want to say I believe in ghosts, but ... you can't discredit somebody for believing."

For seven years, Ms. Breckenridge managed another of Jefferson's reputedly haunted sites: The Jefferson Hotel. A psychic once said there are at least seven nonpaying guests staying there.

Kelly Prewitt, the current head desk clerk and manager, has worked at the hotel for only three months, but she's seen enough to almost convince her the stories are true.

She and her son had their own brush with the paranormal about a week ago. They were staying in Room 16, watching television, when they noticed the chandelier's shadow jumping from side to side.

Ms. Prewitt said she thought at first it must be light from the TV causing the phenomenon, so they switched the set off. The shadow kept jumping.

That same night, her son's insulin pump, which Ms. Prewitt says is always under close watch, went missing.

"My son says he's not spending another night in this hotel, at least not in Room 16," she said.

It's said that a petite blond woman in a nightgown haunts the hotel, as well as a man in a duster and boots. In Room 19, supposedly the hotel's most "active" room, the mirror in the bathroom sometimes fogs up, with or without steam from the bath, and the word "Help" appears.

Paranormal happenings are so common, there is a log in the lobby where guests can record their experiences.

"I can tell you right off that I thought I was gonna be laughing at these people (who believe in ghosts) all the time, but after three months working here, I think there might be something to it," Ms. Prewitt said.

"I don't want to be convinced," she added. "I want to be able to laugh at the people who believe in this. That was more fun."

On Wednesday night, the ghost hunters visited a house known as The Grove. There has been a structure on the property since the 1840s, but the home now standing was built in the 1860s.

The property was the site of a couple of hangings, and is reputedly haunted by a man in a pin-striped suit.

Dr. Rita Louise, the team's psychic, took copious notes about her impressions of the house and grounds. She didn't feel at all welcomed by the house's ghostly inhabitants, she said during a debriefing Thursday with Morris and his assistant.

She said she sensed a man and woman buried in a shared grave under the front porch; a child also was buried there, but separately, she said.

On her way to the attic, she had to force herself up the steps. "The energy wasn't very pleasant," she said, grimacing. "I felt a little slimed by it."

She was so exhausted by the home's negative vibes that on Thursday, she took a two-hour nap before her debriefing.

Over at the McKay House bed and breakfast, the ghosts are nice – much to the relief of owner Hugh Lewis.

The McKay House is 154 years old. Lewis believes the house is haunted by Bess McKay, who died in 1956. She was the last McKay to live there. Lewis said Bess watches over the house.

"The things that I see are very benign, very caring types of things," he said. "I work a night shift for a newspaper in Texarkana, so when I come in at night, I'll walk the floor just to check on things. I've gotten to where I'll talk to her."

If something is amiss, a telephone in the hallway will ring. It's an internal phone system that can't be dialed directly from outside, Lewis said.

Using the telephone, Bess once alerted him to a gas leak, and also has let him know about unlocked doors or water left running.

The cottage house also is haunted by the ghost of a woman who seems to be a servant, Lewis said. Guests have reported being offered food or being tucked in at night.

Lewis has owned the McKay House for about three years. He said it had been suffering from mild neglect when he first moved in, and he immediately began restoring the house to ship-shape condition. He thinks Bess likes to see it kept up.

"Well, it is her house, I guess, so I honor what she wants," Lewis said. "Most people think I'm nuts, but it's all in good fun. We've had fun over the years, that's for sure."