Booth House Investigation

Location: 43 Old Taylor Lane , Harpers Ferry , West Virginia 25425

March 12^th crew: Dale Kaczmarek, Jim Graczyk , Stan Suho, Lisa Krick, Nicole Tito, Joey Tito.

March 13^th crew: Dale Kaczmarek, Jim Graczyk , Stan Suho.

Phenomena reported: Luminous glowing figures seen in the backyard near a former Chinese pagoda, footsteps in the slave quarters upstairs, numerous EVPs on the second floor, shadow figures seen.

Website: www.thehauntedcottage.com

Joey Tito: The part of the Booth House that had the biggest impact in the paranormal sense to me was the cellar. It was in this area that I had my experience with something out of the norm. Dale, Jim, Stan, and I went to the cellar and immediately noticed that there was some minor flooding taking place, but did not let this impact our investigation. We made our way into the area where a bicycle is set up (possibly a trigger object) and began shooting video and taking pictures. Shortly after we began I noticed something move to the back of the furnace through the LCD screen of my camcorder. After initial viewing of this footage I thought that it could have been an orb. Now we all know we share the same thoughts on orbs and that I am not a big fan of them. This anomaly was too big to be a dust particle, definitely not an insect, and was not caused by a flash light or any other light source as it moved in an unnatural motion. I'm still not sure what to make of this, but I figured it was worth noting. Shortly after this had taken place I had the back of my pants tugged and snapped back. I had turned around immediately to see if someone was fooling around with me, but the only person near me was Dale and he was using his full spectrum camera taking pics near the opposite corner of the room at that point in time. I immediately announced to the team what had just taken place. Around this time Dale began experiencing some dizziness and the feeling of being light headed. We initially thought that maybe the flooring not being completely level could be a contributor to his sense of imbalance. We also thought that maybe the natural EMF around the fuse box could have something to do with it. Dale and I were in close proximity to each other the entire time we were in the cellar and I must say that I did not experience these feelings. Nicole and Lisa made their way down to the cellar and were immediately asked if they had any EMF meters with them. Nicole grabbed a K2 meter and followed Dale's instructions on where to take readings. When she reached the area that Dale and I were standing in she picked up a high reading (red) around the bicycle. Shortly after these readings took place the reading dropped down to normal. Dale instructed her to take a reading near the fuse box. The readings did not pick up until she was right on top of the fuse box. This leads me to believe that the feeling Dale was experiencing was not caused by natural EMF.
The following morning I was told by one of Vince Wilson's team members that there is a ghost of a little boy that inhabits the cellar of the Booth House. Could this ghost have caused the tugging and snapping of my pants? I'm not sure, but it does make for a good experience to talk about!

Here is a clip from that event: Basement tug

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Booth House on May 12th & 13th, 2010. Team members included: Nicole Tito, Lisa Krick, Stan Suho, Joey Tito, Joe Tito, Jim Graczyk and Dale Kaczmarek.

Jim Graczyk :

Equipment: 12mp Digital Camera, EM Pump, Moultrie Model I40 Digital Game Camera and the TIF digital pyrometer.

The Haunted Cottage is a very old historic building located in Harpers Ferry , WV . The building has a newer addition that has a larger living type room along with two bedrooms and a bathroom.

Upon arriving at the site the GRS was given a tour of the building by Vince Wilson. We were shown the complete building and were told about the history and alleged haunting. The backyard, cellar, foyer, slave quarters and upstairs bedrooms are the hot spots on the property. I decided to take most of my digital pictures on Thursday night since I knew that we would be by ourselves and would have the opportunity to minimize the photo contamination.

Friday and Saturday night I was paired with other members of the GRS and had an EM Pump as well as digital camera, a Moultrie Model I40 Digital Game Camera and the TIF digital pyrometers.

Friday night I randomly took pictures of the building with the game camera which will be reviewed by Dale. I really didn’t get much of a feeling this night except when my group (Dale, Joey and Stan) was in the cellar area. As we were in the area where the bicycle was located, we had all the lights off except the entrance way by the water heater. As Dale, Joey and Stan were in the furnace area, I was positioned in the hallway between furnace room and water heater area. A few times, I thought I heard something behind me, in the water heater room. I would turn and look but didn’t see anyone. I did get a feeling twice that someone was approaching or was there in the water heater room. It was raining outside and the cellar door was wide open so I think maybe the sounds could have been the rain. I can’t rule out the feeling of someone else in the area.

The furnace area was rather unique and had a space behind it that someone could be hiding behind. I did feel once that there was someone behind the furnace and kept taking pictures of the area with the game camera. Dale mentioned he was feeling light headed and thought he saw someone/ black shadow behind the furnace. Joey was standing on my left as we were taking pictures and video of the furnace room. Joey had an experience of his pants leg getting tugged on and I was there to hear him react to the event. Clearly we were all alone without anybody physically behind us.

I returned to the area later in the night with the EVP Team of Nicole and Lisa. I witnessed the high reading with the K2 meter that Nicole had took as she was on the bicycle. The reading was pretty high as she swept around the bicycle, then it suddenly returned to a normal reading. This event was a random one time event which I could not explain.

Saturday night, Stan and I went into the cellar and set up a Sony night shot as well as motion detectors by the bicycle. This camera was located in the hallway looking into the finance room, focused on the bicycle and motion detectors. I don’t remember if Stan or I was the last one that left the area. I do remember turning off the lights and looking toward the camera in the hallway. Apparently I did not see it turned toward the wall.

As Stan and I returned to retrieve the camera I immediately saw it was facing the wall and went with Stan to find Dale. As the GRS and other investigators came back to the area we all noted the camera facing the wall. After review of the footage, Dale saw the camera spin ad a footstep into a puddle near the camera was heard. Apparently as Stand I had set our camera and left the area, somehow the Sony Camera apparently got bumped and spun around facing the hallway wall. The event of the camera was apparently from Stan or me grazing the camera as we left the area.

Overall most of my personal encounters at the Haunted Cottage happened to be in the cellar area of the building. I did witness and heard the EVP experiments upstairs in the Booth and Brown rooms. After review of my digital pictures, I did not see anything out of the ordinary to report. My findings do recommend the building to be investigated again and that there are numerous events that are taking place there.

Nicole Tito:

Team Partner: Lisa Krick

Impressions/Personal Experiences: On Thursday March 11^th, 2010 , Lisa and I got to go on the initial walkthrough with the entire GRS team with an overall tour led by Vince Wilson. During this walkthrough, I did not have any impressions besides the normal curiosity regarding an older home. Later that night, Lisa and I began EVP experiments in the upper two rooms. It is very difficult to perform such an experiment with other people in the house as noise travels easily even if people are sitting in the newer, expansion area of the home. We could hear people talking easily below. It is also pertinent to mention that the floors upstairs are very slanted and we demonstrated this by taking a flashlight and watched as it easily rolled to one side of the room. Thus, a person can feel very unbalanced while standing due to this uneven floor layout. We had a K-II with us at this time and it remained at a baseline green level with no fluctuations. We also did an experiment with the K-II meter to see how sensitive it was towards cell phone usage. I turned on and off my cell phone and it affected it when I was turning it on making it go to the red for a few seconds, but did not affect Lisa’s K-II meter approximately six feet away.

On our second night of investigation on Friday March 12, 2010 , Lisa and I began our investigation in the slaves’ quarters. We used the video Ovilus (VO) upstairs and could not get it to level off after several minutes. It kept repeating random words for approximately ten minutes straight without stopping. Lisa and I both heard a lot of noises in the quarters, but attributed it to the window openings to the outside.

After being upstairs, we decided to go to the cellar to look for the rest of the GRS team as Lisa and I needed some help regarding VO tech support. We encountered Dale, Jim, Joe, Joey, and Stan in the basement reporting that there had been some strange occurrences prior to our arrival. Dale asked us if we had any equipment and we only had the K-II meter, which we played near the bicycle in the cellar. The K-II meter quickly jumped to red around the bike, but once it was moved outside its vicinity returned to the normal baseline green light. There was an electrical fuse box nearby, but only lit to red when the K-II was physically touching the box. A few seconds after the initial K-II reading of the bicycle, I placed the K-II back at the same spot on the seat of the bike and it remained at its baseline green light.

Later on that evening, we conducted a session using the VO upstairs in the room with the fireplace. With Dale recording us and several other GRS members present, I asked out loud what did you do here. There was an immediate response that said cycle. Again, this could be pertaining to the bicycle downstairs in the cellar.

EVPs: No EVPs. Several interesting comments from the VO.

Still photos: Nothing out of the ordinary captured in both exterior and interior shots.

Dale Kaczmarek: I found the place to be somewhat smaller than what I had envisioned but steeped in history and possible hauntings. I did not get the chance to investigate either the upstairs slave quarters or the attic area but did concentrate on the basement, two upstairs bedrooms and the backyard.

While in the basement I thought I saw a shadowy form emerge from behind the furnace area while taking full spectrum pictures however nothing showed up on the images. I got light-headed and off balanced even though I was standing on level ground. At first I thought it could have been caused by high EMF given off by the fuse box but later tests indicated devices had to be placed within a few inches to get any reading at all. An extremely high K-II reading on the bicycle seat was short lived and was not caused by the proximity to the fuse box or any AC wiring in the basement as the reading would have persisted. After the K-II went back to normal, I began to feel better and not longer felt light headed.

There were a few “possible” anomalous photographs taken with the full spectrum camera in the backyard where the luminous figures have been seen in the past, however it is possible that it could be a bit of lens flare from the backyard light. One image is interesting however as it looks as if it moves even though the camera did not.

EVP sessions upstairs on Saturday, March 20^th using I.C.E.S. proved interesting as the name George and fire were repeated several times. While in the John Brown room and a few seconds after footsteps were heard in the slave room, at around the six minute mark on tape 35.mov several names were called out including George, Jill, Lois and Helen in conjunction with fire and foyer. There had been a fire in the foyer in the past.

EVP tapes are still being reviewed as is Sony IR tapes from the basement.

Full spectrum video of Booth Room session with Nicole, Lisa, Dale, Joey, Jim and Stan revealed at 3:50 “cycle” when asked of George “What do you like to do?” and at 7:36 “empty” when asked “If you are the only one here?”

At 11:17 there is a creepy disembodied female girl’s voice captured in the background on the audio from the full spectrum.

Pictures: 109.jpg taken in the basement shows a strange purplish mist in between the bike and Nicole.

004. jpg taken in slave quarters shows a strange purplish swirl of mist to the left of the IR illumination.

0015.jpg taken out in backyard shows a squiggle of light on the grass when the camera apparently wasn’t moved.

0016.jpg & 0019.jpg shows dots of lights also in the grass (lens flares?)