Tourists, Ghosts and Me (Katie again)

Well things are changing at old JFK Prep.

Fundraisers to help repair the church (pictured in the blog's main page) are underway. This is a direct result of other ghost investigators such as us becoming involved with the facility, specifically from Southeastern Wisconsin Paranormal Research (SEWPR). These are great folks with whom ECWPI is building a good relationship (for a change, based on our past experiences with working with other groups). They have a similar philosophy to ours, which makes it easier to understand each other.

One of the fundraisers is a ghosthunting class and a tour being offered on the third Saturday of each month (see my previous entry for contact info). The first class didn't work out, but the tour was much more successful and I got to assist in taking some new folks around the buildings. This particular group of people included a family who had experienced paranormal phenomena in their daily lives for years. It's easy to 'poo poo' accounts like these, but photos I got in certain areas where they were that night were very interesting.

Normally I don't pay much attention to orbs, but these orbs seemed to be following us around! They had a very distinctive size and shape. Also, they really did tend to hang around this family as they went. I even got a photo of a huge orb right on the face of one of these folks! I am trying to find out what he was sensing at that time but it will take a few days to get back in touch with these folks. I have checked the camera for a dirty lens, as the orbs seemed to appear in the same area on each photo, even though we moved around. The lens looked fine, but I cleaned it and we are going back next week to do some more investigating. Unfortunately these folks can't come with us, as it is just ECWPI going back, but I'm going to see if I can't reproduce some of these things.

Unfortunately, I was experimenting with a new microphone for audio recording and despite all the orb photos, I forgot to TURN IT ON. So I got nothing on audio. Hubby was videorecording though so I hope to be able to review his video this weekend. Maybe he got something.

Oh well, another chapter closes and next week, another opens on JFK Prep for us as we return to do some debunking. These are different times for the old place. Instead of falling down into decrepit nothingness, it appears to have some life left in it. If we can get the church into use again, maybe the buildings around it will begin to rise from the ashes too. The grounds are still beautiful and peaceful, with athletic fields still in use-able condition behind the buildings. It would be a shame to see this interesting and unique piece of Wisconsin history crumble into nothingness with only another fricking Walmart to take its place. Of course, I assume the spirits inhabiting JFKP would just move on into sporting goods or housewares. Let's hope Ash Williams isn't working there if that happens.

Return to IZ (Katie)

It's amazing but the owner of the site has allowed us to return and wander around the grounds a couple more times. Although we haven't done a full-scale investigation again, just being free to explore and experiment basically to our heart's content is very gracious of him to allow.

I'm not under the same restrictions that Matt is, so I can talk a bit about what has happened there since. For instance, I can now tell you where the site is. I hope you'll forgive me when I say that I lied in my initial posts to keep readers off-balance about the site. It's not in southwestern Wisconsin but in east central Wisconsin (like you couldn't guess from our name?). The building complex is called JFK Prep and it's fairly notorious for being haunted. I won't tell you the town name here--I have to give the reader SOME work to do, right? It has been investigated before but we were the first group to investigate it for the current owner, who was impressed enough by our professionalism to basically give us carte blanche with the place in our subsequent visits.

Before you go rushing off to ghosthunt there, I want to caution you---YOU MUST HAVE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION TO BE ON THE GROUNDS AT ANY TIME, DAY OR NIGHT! It is under surveillance and there are security people there. If you are caught on the grounds, the police will be notified, you will be arrested, jailed and fined $5000.00 for breaking and entering, NOT trespassing (which carries lesser penalties). The owner is serious--he wants the grounds to be secure.

Now, if that puts you off, I can help out a bit here--there are plans to have ghosthunting classes conducted there once a month, topped off by a walk through the buildings. YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST PRE-REGISTER FOR THESE by contacting ghost_matt@hotmail.com. YOU CANNOT GO TO THE CLASSES BY JUST SHOWING UP. You won't be allowed past the front gate (or anywhere on the grounds) if you are not on a list of class registrants.

There will also be volunteer opportunities as the owner tries to revert some of the buildings to community use. If you are interested in that, please email Matt at ghost_matt@hotmail.com. Serious volunteers will be accorded ghosthunting time on the grounds as long as they put in some quality sweat equity for it. You'll find more info at http://jb8301.tripod.com/index.html.

Okay, all that being said, what happened when we returned? I can only speak for my own experience so I'll go from that. The most active area on all visits continues to be the building known as the old dorms, especially the 4th floor in a room we call "the suitcase room". This is room 412, where there are a couple of old decrepit briefcases on the floor. (If you enter this room, please don't move these briefcases--they are subjects of experimentation).

One of these briefcases reportedly has a habit of closing itself when it is left flipped open on its back. I didn't witness this but the room seems to attract a certain amount of energy. I've gotten one EVP there ("no no no"). On our return trip, one of us had a geiger counter, which we used as a type of communication device. We used the needle gauge (VU meter) to get what could have been responses from unseen entities (right for yes, left for no, middle for no answer of course). While the needle fluctuations witnessed when we were asking our questions MIGHT have been some kind of communication, the most significent response was to "we should wrap this up and leave" which buried the needle to the right (YES!). Hmmm...

Also, as I am very slow, I am always the last one to leave a building. I was recording during this time and as I was going down the last flight of stairs, I recorded a strong whispered voice. There is debate over what it says--at first I thought it said "all pissed off", which seemed logical given that it could be conceived that we were pestering the ghosts. But others have interpreted it in other ways, such as "longest hallway" (it felt that way to me). So interpretation is up in the air.

Also in the old dorms, I asked questions of the spirits. In our first visit, I had gotten an EVP that said "doctorproof". I assumed this meant that the speaker had been terminally ill or injured and considered themselves beyond a doctor's help. On our return, I asked the spirits what they had meant by "doctorproof". I got an EVP response saying "docproof". This is my first (and only) case of getting a direct response to a question.

We also walked through the basements of some of the buildings. There is a large bakery in one area, which we surmise was used to bake bread for the students and possibly to bake communion bread for sale to area parishes. In one part of this area, I recorded a whispered voice saying quite clearly "bake bread". I don't know if this was an observation or an order. LOL! I'm fairly sure that it wasn't one of the living investigators present.

The buildings have some interesting aspects that I had not yet explored. This time we went down into a sub-basement area that appeared to have been either a stable for horses or a storage area for grain (possibly both at different times). There are also tunnels and other sub-areas that suggest the underground areas are very extensive. Down in this sub-basement, my legs apparently were bitten very badly by some "no-see-ums" and I got some large swollen itchy welts the next day! Ouch! If this happens to you, calamine lotion is like tossing a bucket of water on a forest fire. Go straight for antihistamines. Always wear long pants and sleeves, and good sturdy shoes if you visit these buildings.

Anyway, that's a short summary of some of our subsequent experiences there. We plan on going back in the next few weeks sometime to try to do some debunking and experimentation.

Investigation Zero

Unfortunately I can't post my impressions of Investigation Zero at this time, but they will be posted and we will explain everything then.

--Matt