The 1st site investigated for the

Haunted St. Joe Ghost Tour

presented by Ghost Tours of Kansas, LLC

Date: May 8, 2010

Time: 9:00 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.

Location:      Buchanan County Courthouse

                        St. Joseph, Missouri  

Rotunda

Top Floor View

Missouri State Seal - Tiled Floor

Investigators on Scene:

Brenda, Misty, Mark, Dee Ann

Attendees on Scene:

   Cathy and Megan from Ghost Tours of Kansas, LLC

   Andrea and new tour guide (guests of GTK)

   Night security guard.

Evidence Collected:

Digital Photos Taken: 241

Positive Digital Photos: 55

35 mm Photos Taken: 0

35 mm Photos Positive: 0

Video: pending review

EVPs: 3

The Buchanan County Courthouse is the hot spot for high drama, top notch headlines and a surplus of ghosts! From the trial of the Ford Brothers for their killing of notorious outlaw Jesse James to the lynching and torching of Lloyd Warner near the courthouse lawn, Ghost Tours of Kansas LLC presents the haunted St. Joe Ghost Tour! Not only will you find out about a suicide that took place inside the courthouse, you will hear the tales of hauntings that have perplexed the staff there for years. How would you re-act if you were the employee in the attic who came across an entity with red, blazing eyes and a vicious growl?

Miller's Paranormal Research and Ghost Tours of Kansas LLC have partnered up for the first and only paranormal investigation at the courthouse and experienced just that!  What did we do? We took pictures and recordings and got the heck out of dodge. Stories are abundant in this location including those of a possible Indian burial ground under the courthouse, and the old jail and tunnels located in the basement of the building. For more history and ghost stories be looking for the Ghost Tours of Kansas Haunted St. Joe tour coming soon!

*For non-local fans, this information will be posted after the launch of the Haunted St Joe Ghost Tour !

Reported Findings and Experiences:

+ While Misty was giving a reading in the basement, she stated that she was having pains in her chest and left shoulder. Brenda took a photograph at this time and captured an orb on Misty’s left shoulder.

+ While on the 1st floor, Brenda felt really hot and decided to sit on the stairway where it was a little cooler. While sitting there, her K2EMF meter began to spike. As she was watching the meter, she suddenly saw a blinding white light behind her eyes, accompanied by an explosive pain in her right temple. Dee Ann took a photograph of her at this time and an orb was captured behind her on the stairway.

+ Orbs were photographed on the stairway and in the vicinity where night security has reported seeing a woman in vintage clothing.

+ The investigation team witnessed the smell of a sweet pipe tobacco in the basement.

+ A growling sound was recorded in the attic while team members were preparing to leave. Although the growling noise was not audible to the human ear, the team members sensed something coming up behind them right after the growling noise is heard on the tape. Dee Ann photographed an orb at this time. This incident occurred on the teams 2^nd trip to the attic.  Full EVP with growl.  

+ Misty was getting ready to open the stairway door on the 1^st floor to go to the attic when it opened on its own. When she reached out to open the door, in was pushed very forcibly into her outreached hand, closed and then reopened again on its own. This incident occurred as Misty was going up to the attic for the 3^rd time.

+ While Misty and the security guard were discussing the attic, Misty stated that she wouldn’t go up there by herself at night either. An EVP is recorded after this statement which sounds like “Nahhhh”. As their conversation continued another EVP was recorded saying what sounds like “Why deny it” while they were discussing getting scared. MPR feels this may be the voice of the spirit in the attic who continued to follow them after their 2^nd trip. Misty felt that he was the one responsible for most of the doors slamming and other unexplained noises.

+ Several photos taken in the attic captured orbs that meet the criteria for spirit orbs.

Psychic Readings:

Basement

+ Neck pain, shoulder pain, intense shoulder pain, left shoulder, down my neck into the back of my head, nauseated and feeling bad. I want to throw up. (Outside Maintenance Door)  

+ A big burly man hung out in here. He smoked a cigar or a pipe. A pipe.

+ There was a fight down here in the men’s bathroom around 1934 or 1936. This isn’t the same floor that was in here. There was a wood floor in here at one time.

+ There was a jail down here. I’m hearing like stuff stuck in the wall. It was like a holding cell or something. I’m hearing holding tank, holding cell.  

+ The maintenance guy is following me around. He is still holding onto me. I can’t shake him off because I keep feeling the pain. He must not have been feeling good that day. He must have been walking around and feeling this pain because I’m feeling it in several places down here. (Brenda took a photograph at this time and captured an orb on Misty’s shoulder.)

+ There is something over on this wall, something behind this wall or on it. I keep hearing the word “tank”. Like an isolation. He says he can’t breathe, it’s dark, wet, it’s damp, “I can’t breathe”. He’s a prisoner but he’s not giving me a name. This was just a little opening. It’s like it was where they put them for punishment. It’s on the other side of the wall.

+ I am smelling something sweet. Like a cherry pipe smell. Something sweet. I smell cherry. Like a pipe. (Later during the investigation, several team members also smelled the sweet cherry pipe smell.)

+ How sure are they that there was an Indian burial ground here? Did they find artifacts? I am not feeling that the bones were Native American, not that much of it. I’m feeling more like the bones were from early encampments of settlers who camped along the river. There may be Native American burial grounds on down further but I’m feeling more like there was a settlement of people who came up the river. More German or European. That’s what I’m hearing and feeling. I do not hear what I normally hear when it’s Native American. I’m feeling more like it was white settlers here. The Native American burial grounds are further down the river.

+ Some of this building was added on to later. It’s not the original.

+ I’m getting that feeling in my shoulder and arm again so he’s got to be coming around again. That’s the maintenance man.

+ I hear the last name of Pope down here. It is liked he robbed a pony express guy and that’s what got him in here. He shot him, but didn’t kill him and then took what he had. They caught him. Pope is his last name. They hung Pope.

+ I’m still feeling that behind this wall there was some kind of holding tank, an isolation tank. I’m getting a name like Swearing, Swearington. He’s naked. It’s cold and damp in there. There wasn’t much of an opening. I’m also getting a mixture of time periods here. It’s not specific. Michael Swearing….Michael….I can’t quite get the last name. He died of pneumonia or something. It’s like he got sick. He’s not telling me what he did.

+ There is a short man with a pipe that runs around in the basement. His last name is Penny. He wears a suit, short and stocky, a little bit of a limp, receding hair line, wears a hat that kind of comes down over his face. A funny looking guy. He was a lawyer. G something Penny. He didn’t have an actual first name he went by, he used initials.

+ There are two actual ghosts down here, the maintenance man and the man on the other side of the wall, this Michael. The Pope guy, he just wanted to say what he had done.

Attic

+ I feel very unsteady, very light headed. There is something up here. It’s very heavy and strong. Someone is hiding up here.

+ Whoever or whatever is up here is circling around us, trying to avoid us. Until I can take some time and things settle down, I can only call it “IT” for now. I’ll get more on it later. There is definitely something up here.  

+ The guy that poured the gasoline over the black man haunts this place. His problem is that he can’t correct what he did. He is not ready to go into the light and he probably won’t go into the light. He chooses not to. The black guy doesn’t hold any anger towards him. He was already in the light when his body was set on fire. He feels the need to hide from everybody. I feel the black man was in the courthouse when they drug him out, not in the jail. I think they brought him here for protection.

+ The ghost in the attic is McNally. The woman that was raped was raped by him, not the black man. He had raped two women before her and then one after her before he got caught. Two of the women he raped were under the age of 13. They were young girls. He helped with the hanging and is sorry he did it now, but he still doesn’t like black men. He was part of a group. He says there are more like him and he’s not saying anything more than that. There were some pretty high up political figures involved in his group. McNally is his name. He likes it up here. He feels safer up here.

+ There were more black men accused of rape that didn’t do it. The women would accuse them after being told who to accuse.

+ An EVP of a growling type noise was recorded as the team was leaving the attic. See “Reported Findings and Experiences” for details.

1^st Floor

+ I’m feeling like the officer that shot himself, did it in the closet beneath the staircase. I am feeling pain in my temple. He did it right behind the door.

2^nd Floor

+ Miss Sarah Jean Sanderson is her name. Or Anderson. I can’t quite hear what she is saying on the last part of it. This is the woman they have seen on the stairway. I’m going to say 1936 or 1937. Either her last name is Sanders, Sanderson or Anderson or it was a lawyer’s last name. She would come here to see a lawyer. No children, she couldn’t have kids. Her family was from New York. She was very proper. He left her. He left her. She doesn’t know where he went, she doesn’t know where he is, he just vanished. This isn’t the only place she hangs out. There was a house up the street. She calls it a modest home. Bigger houses all around and smaller ones in between. That was further north. He left on a business trip, he was supposed to come back but he never came back. She just kept looking for him. She’s stands on about the 3^rd step watching for him to come. She took her own life. Not here, at their home. She drank something and died. She goes back to the house sometimes. Someone somewhere is going to have things going on in their house. She felt he left her because she couldn’t have children. She blames herself.

+ I don't like this courtroom (Judge Kellogg's courtroom)  There is someone watching us from in there. (MPR was not allowed access to any courtrooms so we could not investigate this area any further.)
 

MPR SUMMARY:

+MPR would like to thank the Ghost Tours of Kansas and Buchanan County for the opportunity to investigate this historic site.

+ MPR feels that the courthouse is haunted by several ghosts. Some are permanent residents while others come and go. The main haunting is occurring by the ghost in the attic who is responsible for most of the activity experienced by the staff. It is also haunted by a former prisoner who died while in isolation and a maintenance man who recently passed away there. Some of the other ghosts include the woman on the stairway, the officer who committed suicide, and a man who smokes a pipe and walks the halls of the basement.