Latest / Caught on the Mike... / "Macabre in the Midwest" with Jamie Chadd

Transcript

"Macabre in the Midwest" with Jamie Chadd · Caught on the Mike...

• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's Halloween.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's Halloween season.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Is Halloween a day or is it a month?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a year for me.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I would argue that it's a whole season.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just one day.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's the moment.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it's the moment 4th of July ends.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: I start thinking about Halloween.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm crazy like that.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: But uh anyways, you have an exciting business venture.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start off by introducing who you are and uh what you do.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So my name is Jamie Nestral, and I own Midwest Paranormal History Tours.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I have been giving ghost tours of Omaha for five years now.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: So how did you get into that?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh boy.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've been a weirdo my whole life.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like back to when I don't remember it, but my parents talk about it.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: But either way, uh I ended up going on a ghost tour in Savannah probably about 10 years ago, just on the way home from Disney World.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it was such a killer time.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I had so much fun.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, nothing scary happened, but it was really neat and really interesting.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I have a degree in history, and so I kind of found a way to use that and my interest and my passion and bring one to Omaha so everybody can go on a ghost tour and I can give them for a living.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've asked both uh we have mutual friends in Johnny Hauser and Brian Corey, and I have asked both of them, so I'm gonna ask you because I wonder if you might have a different answer than they both had.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something about the Omaha area or our sector of the Midwest in particular that um tends to elicit a little bit more hauntings or a little bit more spiritual activity to where we do have so many great haunted places within an hour's drive of here?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Midwest has a ton of hauntings, but I guess when you really get into the nitty-gritty of any state or any county, they do.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to be local to know about them, I think.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, however, I think Omaha has a ton of great places.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And as you said, if you go an hour to two hours in any direction, you can visit a lot of really cool places that are said to be haunted.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you had to pick any one specific place in the Omaha metro area, where where do you think the most activity occurs?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hummel Hummel Park.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Hummel Park.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So uh okay, so I I'm I'm glad you said that because typically I hear about Ball Cemetery a lot.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we hear about the Black Angel and Council Bluffs.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um a few of the older buildings that will not get mentioned in downtown Omaha.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think you and I might both know off the air which ones those are.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but Hummel Park has always been one that uh that people challenge from time to time.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about Hummel Park a little bit.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I have been giving tours there since 2017.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um I I have my actually my number one scariest thing that's ever happened in me in my life, and I have 104 of them written down, happened on a tour at Hummel Park.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, before I started giving tours of Hummel Park, I was kind of like, I believe most people in Omaha, I knew that uh a little bit of the legends and more like the stigma and whatnot.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and a lot of it I thought was hocus pocus, to be honest.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's exactly that.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's the game of telephone and how much it changes from person to person.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I began giving tours there.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And aside from my own paranormal experiences that I've had within the park over the past five years, I have really been blessed to hear probably at this point, hundreds of other people's stories.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I love men's stories that are a little older than me, like 45 to 50.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, man, I was out here, I was a senior in high school, dot, dot, dot.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then they tell me something insane.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And these men that I've heard this from, and of course there's women too, incredibly genuine stories.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: They they were not on my tour claiming that every single noise was paranormal.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't them.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: They were like, look, all I can say is that I saw this at Hummel Park in the early 90s, and I believe them.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So although there is some fire behind it and stigma uh and legends, I speak from personal experience that Hummel Park is haunted.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's talk about some of the specific haunting, some of the more popular ones.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because the first one that comes to mind for me is the Devil's Staircase.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the morphing stairs, the Devil Staircase.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh I talk about that in the very beginning of my tour.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: It is it is the biggest Omaha urban legend, and it is a super fun one to do.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: We uh we do it on my tour.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: We only do it one way.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: We we count the stairs coming down.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh now to complete the entire legend, you would have to count the stairs going up, turn around, count the count them coming back down.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: But that is asking a lot because I know how many stairs there are.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I have never seen them morph.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't count anymore, you know.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh those days have passed, but I I do have other people count.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And over the years, I've probably only had 20 get it right.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: However, there is a a very common number which I think could be accurate.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but even the the people that have gotten it right, uh, the devil has yet to appear uh in the parking lot.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I think that may be a legend.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: So what isn't a legend at Hummel Park?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a lot of the legends that people talk about, which would be the albinos, um, that's a legend.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: The hermit, that's partially a legend, it's partially not.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but a lot of people talk about dark magic being practiced there.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, give it a name, dark magic.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna go any further with some of the other names given to it.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I have no doubt that that has been practiced there and and could potentially still be.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I I've met people that have seen things uh that are are definitely ritualistic.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's pretty spooky.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like kind of not the thing you you see at 1 or 2 a.m.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: and you approach and be like, what are y'all doing?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Being my age, I remember um the late 80s, early 90s, back when Geraldo Rivera was on, and and Ozzie was on Geraldo like every other mom, Ozzie Osborne was on, and they were all having this satanic panic of the late 80s.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so I have this unnatural fear in the back of my head because of that, because I was a kid and I was into heavy metal music, man.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and and now it's like it's like well, it is what it is, right?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: You do you, yeah, yeah.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I uh don't really remember the satanic panic because I would have been very young, but I'm here for it.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and I wish I would have been a little older for that because I would have been glued to the television.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: My gosh, it was there were 2020 specials, and this was about the time that Judas Priest was going on trial because of backwards messages allegedly being in their songs that caused some kids to kill their parents and then suicide afterwards.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: It was crazy times back then.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Gosh, what a time to be alive.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So going back to Hummel Park, you said you had a terrifying experience there.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Can you talk about your terrifying experience?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Are you willing to?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, um, first of all, I tell it on my tour.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So thousands of people at this point have heard it.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Second of all, um, I've had some people write articles about it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: In 2017, it was actually May 26th, because you don't forget a date like this.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was not a regular tour.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: I had a girlfriend who now lives in Germany, and her husband at the time was at Offit.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he had a bunch of people coming in from different bases, and he said, Hey, if I rent a 12-passenger bus, will you take us all on a tour?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I did.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody in the group, it was probably six men, six women, everybody over 30, most of them active duty military.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when we got to Hummel, everybody except for Casey and I wanted to do the entire stair legend.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So Casey's from Omaha.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I know how many stairs there are.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, okay, well, have fun.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: We'll come back for you in 15 minutes.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So Casey and I go off by ourselves, and it is it's twilight.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh getting to the point where some people might use a flashlight, might turn on headlights.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh however, I'm familiar with where I was going, we did not have flashlights on us.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: We also, Casey is one of my best friends, we were having fun.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, we hadn't even started the ghost tour.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: We nobody was being spooky.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we go up, not the devil's staircase, but another set of stairs that lead you up to a road.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I remember it was just it was really cool.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was dark and the trees bow over the road in a really unique way.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I had just started my business, and I thought it would be a really cool photo to potentially use like Facebook or Instagram or whatever.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: So Casey had a brand new phone.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had like an iPhone negative five.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, ooh, Casey, take a take a spooky photo of that.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So she did, and as she did, I turned around and uh about 40 feet in front of me, there was someone standing in the road.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I say someone because it was definitely bipedal.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was bipedal, and there is a there's this branch that that sticks out, it juts out over the road in a different way than other branches.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's still there, by the way.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's great, it was standing right by it.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew based on this branch that this thing was about seven and a half foot tall.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, it was it was all black, it was darker than the dark.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: It uh I could see arms, legs, torso, head, and uh, I I used to call it fuzzy, but but people started relating that to Bigfoot.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean hairy, furry, I mean out of focus or not sharp, grainy on the edges, and it had yellow glowing eyes.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, right, so I froze because I'm not gonna run.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not super close to me, but close enough.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I started without taking my eyes off of it, I started swinging at Casey behind me to get her attention, and and finally I got a hold of her, I whipped her around.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Casey is the opposite of me.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: She screamed hysterically and went tearing off towards the stairs.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a rule on my tours is that I only have to run faster than one person.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as she right, as soon as she's I'm I'm right on her coattails, and we go down and we get the rest of the group, and of course, all the men in the group think they're gonna go up the stairs and like go find it.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and we did not, as you can imagine, we didn't find it, as you can imagine.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So after that experience, it took me about three weeks of rabbit holing, taking tall friends out there, tape measures, cameras.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was really rationalizing and trying to debunk it that I didn't see it, that that I couldn't have seen, what I thought I saw, and I started telling ghosts, you know, it's what it's exactly what a ghost tour guide wants on a ghost tour.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I began telling telling its story.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that was that was the first time that I saw it.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: So there's been more.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: There has.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I have uh and all three times that I've seen it full body, someone else has seen it with me.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's been a few times where I thought potentially I I had a sighting, but I can't say for sure because it wasn't as good as those.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, as I began telling the story over the years, I have probably had at least 15 to 20 people at the end of the tour, you know, people take off, and then you have a few people staying behind, and you know they they're gonna tell you something.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I've probably had between 15 and 20 people say that they saw exactly what I saw, but not like that night.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Where I the the oldest one I have is from like 1985.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not the only person that has seen something like this.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I personally know people because I've kept in contact with them.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: You don't forget when someone tells you they saw the same thing.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I know who they are.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I had one guy specifically use the word werewolf um when he saw it in the early 90s.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and I don't think it's werewolf-like.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen any features on its face, no snout, nothing like that.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes people just use a word that's familiar to them to describe something they they just are unsure of what they're seeing.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh werewolf to me is is much more like you know, an American werewolf in Paris type of type of stuff.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's not at all how I see it.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: There have been historical accounts of an apparition on the roadway that is hanging from a tree.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Are you familiar with that story at all?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, only familiar with it as uh actually someone asked me about it last night.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I don't know where specifically people have reported that within the park.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's part of the folklore that comes with the park, but for sure, for sure.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Where are some of the places you take your guests on these tours?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: So Hummel Park is obviously a big one.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um the fun thing about my tours is you don't know where you're going until you purchase a ticket.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: You might know vaguely where you're going.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh like you know you're going to a cemetery tour, but what I don't want is I don't want people Googling the history before they go.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I also don't want people showing up uh that are not on the list, obviously.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I do several different cemeteries all throughout Omaha.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: I do Hummel Park, of course.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I do one called Spirits of Sarpie, that's in the Bellevue area.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: That also has an elemental figure behind it, as well as some local true crime.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: I do one called Under the Bridge in Bellevue, that is also paranormal in true crime.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I do a Sasquatch one.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not joking.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: I do a Sasquatch one.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's always a good time.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: I actually do that at Standing Bear Lake since my other location got flooded out a few years ago.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: I do uh Fort Omaha Haunted History Tour.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: That is through MCC.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, and I hope to add on a couple with MCC next year in the works.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: So gosh, I think I think I cut there's like 10.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: I should know this off the top of my head, but uh the cemeteries are kind of all inclusive because there's there's several of them.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: So right.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: So do you find that there's a lot of true crime stories tied with I mean, this is kind of like a redundant question, but are there a lot of true crime stories tied with haunted areas then?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, well, and and I'm a true crime professor too.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: So all of my tours have an element of true crime in it.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Humble Park is a given, it has a lot of true crime.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: But even on my cemetery tours, I'm a I'm a dark historian.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't, it's not that I don't like regular history, I prefer dark history.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if you come on one of my tours, you're not going to hear the happy parts, you're going to hear the darker parts of the stories of that cemetery.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I I tend to believe that that crime, tragedy, things like that can go hand in hand.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, not always the case.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's some elementary schools and and middle schools that are haunted that have never had a single death in them, but they can be places of of happiness that that people may return to.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: In the area, what do you think is the most haunted location based around an instance of true crime where there might be a connectivity to one or the other?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean Velisca.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Velisca would be like the one big tragedy that happened that that was by all accounts a normal house before what happened happened.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and of course, here we are.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then a lot of other places have have a lot of instances that happen.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think Velisca is the best example of one, it's like comparable to Amityville.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: It had one big tragedy.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's one thing us as locals take for granted is how well known the Velisca case is worldwide.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it doesn't fall in the top 10 haunted places in America for you know, no reason.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of Velisca, you spent some time at another haunted location in Iowa, Malvern Manor, correct?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am uh I have been a frequent flyer of Malvern Manor.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I've definitely been there.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've investigated it, first off, like you know, uh, and I've also been there just for a ton of different events where investigation was happening, but not on a scale where we're where it's just a few people versus the manor.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, I've I've been to the manor many, many, many times.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you've got a pretty good story about one of the times you went there, don't you?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: I actually have several.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I have several from Malvern Manor.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've had things happen at Malvern Manor on the lower scale.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, even the day, the very day I went to Malvern Manor, the first time I met Josh, we had something happen at like two o'clock in the afternoon, but it was a noise.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it wasn't I don't want to say it wasn't life-changing because the manor has been life-changing to me.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: But those specific instances weren't like, you know, had me running down the hallway, sort of thing.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, however, aside from my Hummel Park story, that's my number one scariest thing.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why it's the scariest is because when you're in Hummel Park, you're incredibly exposed, right?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't know what's in the woods.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: It could be humans that are up to no good, and and it could also be animals.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's a sense, you know, there is dangerous things or could be dangerous things.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, which is why I call it number one.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: However, what I had happen at Malvern Manor is very different.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh still scary, just different because you're enclosed and and uh chances are there's there's not a mountain lion hiding in one of the bedrooms that could get you or or someone that shouldn't be there.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about that scary episode in Malvern Manor, shall we?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Malvern Manor, I have the very first time I went to Malvern Manor would have been uh probably June of 2017 and uh had some minor stuff happen.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'd been there probably 10 times, maybe 15, I don't know.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: But on February 9th, 2019, I went for an event.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Steve from Sci-Fi's Ghost Hunters was was there, was in town.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I never really watched Ghost Hunters, but obviously I know what it is.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: I had seen a few episodes, and I went.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now that night was I I mean, there was a lot of people there.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many huge ghost hunter fans.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say there was 40 to 50 people there.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I knew plenty of them.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I had never met some of them.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I I took my daughter, who was probably she probably was like 13 at that time, and we went out there.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as it started, uh Johnny Hauser took one group up into the attic, so they were investigating.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many were up there, but it was a good sized group.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the other group was was with Steve in the lobby, and Steve was talking, lecturing, what have you.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I snuck off.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I there was a guy and a girl, they were kind of also not with Johnny or or Steve.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, hey, this is a great time to go down to the nurse's hallway because everybody's tied up.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we go down to the nurse's hallway, and uh, there is a a story of a man chasing people in the nurse's hallway.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in fact, Johnny has had it happen to him.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, as has Josh and other people that I'm unsure of.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I had never had it happen, nor did I think anything ever would.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And my experience was different because it was the wrong room and wrong person.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: But but me, this guy, and this girl go down to the nurse's wing, and uh honestly we're standing by the nurse's station and we are just BSing, we're talking.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the girl had flown in from Houston that day, so I had just met her.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, How was your flight?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: How was your travel?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the the guy that was with us, his name was Chris, he was he was just kind of chatting too, and it was dark, but we had some ambient light from an exit sign and and just other little ambient.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it like it was dark, but we could I could see enough.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as we were chatting, I could have sworn that there was someone standing in the doorway uh three doors down.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I know, like I'm looking at it, definitely looks like a human, and I'm like, this is weird, everybody's with Steve or Johnny, like who is standing down here?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's pretty much a given at paranormal events, it's a huge no-no to like hide and jump out at people.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's just we're there for real experiences, not mystery manner experiences.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking at this guy standing in the doorway.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Chris and Gabby are talking, I keep my eye on it, and I took a few steps towards it because I was like really quickly in my head, I was like, okay, someone's down there.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's homeless people that broke into Malvern Manor.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, who is this person?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of start creeping up towards it, and as I get start getting closer, I I definitely can tell that there's a man standing there.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I started getting really agitated.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: My friend Chris came up behind me and I started saying, Who is that?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Who is that?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And Chris got up beside me, and all of a sudden, this man standing in the doorway charged at me.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: He probably traveled 10 feet in a half a second.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, unfortunately, that night there were cameras set up.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: There was cameras set up behind us, so you can see us, not it, but you can see Chris and I both jump, and I immediately start running backwards.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as I got to a place where I could turn around and run, I did, and I screamed a four-letter word so loud that people in the attic heard it was the F word.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And all I know is my daughter was up there with Johnny, and Kinsley said that sounded like my mom.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Johnny's like, There's no way that was your mom, screaming and running.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, that's a great Johnny Hauser impersonation.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: So then uh they come downstairs, and of course it was me, and I'm like, get your stuff, we're leaving.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and we left, and I did not return to Malvern Manor for almost a year after that.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, wow, yeah.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean, and some of that was it it the opportunity never came up.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: I just never went out there.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like I was scared to, but the first time I went back there, I was like, oh man, you know?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then I uh as it turns out, apparently if you go take a tour there, my story is I think one that you hear.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, it was it was life-changing.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I can't believe that that something charged at us.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I I can tell you, most of the people that claim that this man charges them in Malvern manner claim he's just like this really tall guy.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, mine was not.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: The the thing I saw was six foot average, it was not six and a half foot, something like that.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: It it was very bigger than me, but but what I would call an average man size.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, with these experiences that you had, how has your process of belief changed over the years?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, well, you know, my whole life I've been a believer.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh however, now that I've begun giving ghost tours and and do all this other really cool stuff, uh a lot of things have changed for me.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I have always been somewhat skeptical.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't believe everything is paranormal, but uh things have changed rapidly for me in the way of if there are hauntings and if there are spirits, why are there?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: What do they want something?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Are they confused?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are they intelligent?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are they residual?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so every single experience kind of gives me a a different feeling when I leave.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and most of them actually just leave me with more questions than they do with answers.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and Bigfoot, that's like a whole nother situation.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Ever since I started giving ghost tours, I've loved Bigfoot my whole life, but over the past five years it's gotten a little next level.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are some of the unique skills that have helped you be successful as a ghost tour guide and um you know, aligning with the history of some of these ghost tours?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, gosh, uh I think the universe just uh a lot of people in the paranormal field, whether they're investigators or or do what I do, a lot of people believe that that you don't choose the paranormal, that it chooses you.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I would have to say that that is accurate.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as far as skills go, I don't I can talk, I guess.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a talker.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I can also remember things, which is is great in research and then spouting out facts for 90 minutes at 10 different tours.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I've just been incredibly blessed.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, the very first time I ever decided to do a ghost tour, the first month, I had to beg my friends to come.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it'll be cool, guys, it'll be fun.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we would go, and then next thing you know, I'm off.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but I had no clue.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what was gonna happen.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know if people would come, if there was an interest.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: I just signed up for an LLC one day, and I I've just been incredibly lucky in in the way of making certain connections with Visit Omaha or Omaha magazine or what have you, where I'm just like getting to live my best life, really.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned um having moments of skepticism, and this is something I think about a lot.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel that there is a uh partition of snake oil salesmen and saleswomen that have invaded the paranormal community that kind of challenge the legitimacy for those of you that you know are pursuing this as a legitimate interest?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Is that something that happens?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think so.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I even have skeptics come on my tours and I and I welcome that.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't want to challenge anybody.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna argue because at the end of the day, I like let's say with my experiences that I just told you, I truly I don't have to show you any evidence.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Whether or not you believe me is is not my business.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: All I know is that at the end of this chapter, and by chapter I mean life, I know that I got to do what I wanted to do, and I saw what I saw.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh I yeah, I mean, people it if you even try to challenge me, it's just not gonna work out.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I just am not gonna debate with people because they're welcome to their wrong opinion.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm giving up.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just kidding.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, well, you know what's funny is like I think about this that right now, because of where we're at as a society, because of where things are at sociopolitically, personal opinions aside, that there's gosh, how do I phrase this?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: The customer is always right, mindset is now being abused, right?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do you find that the skeptics are being a little bit more brazen?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because I tell you what, man, the Karen's are being more brazen everywhere else.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have never had yeah, no, um, I would I I did have, gosh, I don't know if I should say this.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: I did have someone think about it um a few weeks ago and until I brought up uh religion, and then she got really quiet really fast, and I was like, well, I mean, the Bible has a lot of ghosts in it, including the Holy Spirit.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I and that's just uh, but but she didn't, she didn't want to debate because why would you come on a ghost tour?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh right.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you no, I uh man, that's a toughie because I've never had anybody really banter back with me.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I have had skeptics come, but for the most part, these skeptics are like, hey, I don't believe, but my wife really likes it, and so I'm here for her, and that's a good partner.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's totally encouraging to hear that.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, but they're not like, this is the stupidest thing I've ever done.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be like, well, then you can walk back to your car by yourself in the dark.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I just that is not something I'm very fortunate that I haven't had to deal with because I think most of the people that come on my tours have an interest.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of them actually want to be in what I call good company.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, okay, this girl gives a ghost tour for a living.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's something that I want to tell someone, there's something that I want to share.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And sh given that she gives ghost tours, her threshold's probably pretty high.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I hear a lot of great stories, and it's been very few where I thought, wow, that person just totally lied to me and told me some fictitious story.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have heard some really incredible things even this weekend from people that are mind-blowing, and they just want they want someone else to say, I hear you, I believe you, I'm sorry that happened to you when you were little, I'm sorry your parents thought you were crazy, you weren't.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna ask, what is the most rewarding part of your experience as this tour guide and historian?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: So hands down, I have made the best friends ever.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, I I met Adrian, my boyfriend, at Malvern Manor.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's obviously the biggest one.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: But aside from just all the friends that I've met and the opportunities that I've gotten, and all of these people that come on my tours that really just want to share 90 minutes of of a good time, a ghost story or two.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the people, over well over 50%, probably 75, come on a lot of ghost tours.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: So then next thing you know, you have a friend, you know?
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and that's super amazing.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's the best part.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I imagine it gets really busy for you about this time of year.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm like not gonna sleep until uh the night after Halloween.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like, when does it start and when does it end?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, well, I do uh since I'm a professor at MCC, I will teach in inside during the year.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: I also do Zoom things about lake monsters and Bigfoot and all this other stuff during the winter to get my fix.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: But uh for the most part, I start tours in April or so, as soon as Mother Nature says, yeah, time to go outside.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Halloween is I'm going through Halloween, uh, but I have had years where early to mid-November is still doable.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: You just kind of have to play it by ear.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: This weekend was chilly.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Friday and Saturday night were and last night were were chilly.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna push through Halloween and then kind of see what the weather has in store.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome, awesome.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: So where can my listeners find you online?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: So uh my website is mph tours, so like Midwest Paranormal History Tours with an S, so plural, uh dot com.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that, and I'm active on Facebook.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: I do have an Instagram that I should learn how to use, but I uh I should probably just have my teenager do that.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I do Facebook a lot because I'm old and and my website.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Jamie, thank you for doing the show today.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for having me.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes, it's been a lot of fun.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: You gonna come on a ghost tour?
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank Jamie for joining me on the show today.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: That was a lot of fun.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoyed some of the ghost stories I've been told.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: You can find her.