This entire investigation seemed to me to be a hurried bit of time filler, and something the TAPS team can point to and say, "See? Not every place we investigate is actually haunted!"

I would think the show would be better served to start the episode with this than to use it as filler at the end. With only about 15 minutes left, you know they're not finding anything. At least if you start the episode with this, there's still some interest.

Although, Heather, if my wife ever kicks me out - I'll be there and we'll find those ghosts together.

Mary, I think the "rushed" feeling was generated more by the cuts and less by the investigation technique. In other words, they might have been just as thorough (lol, Musty = Musky? — maybe not so thorough) as a regular investigation, but since they didn't find anything Pilgrim chopped it down to nearly nothing.

CrowTRobot, that is a fantastic point. If anyone at Pilgrim reads this site, they would do well to lift that idea and bring it back to their editor.

This case was very disapointing and it was jammed in at the end of the episode. It would have been nice to see some real debunking like they did with the door. Although the door only slightly swung with the reverse pressure created by opening the front door. It would have been nice to see a bit more done on that.

The tilted shelf in the kitchen, well yes that could have caused the bowls to fall down but did it. They were stacked glass bowls. Ok how were they stacked and were they heavy enough to not just slide off? None of that was really explained. They tried to debunk by placing a glass of water on the shelf to confirm the shelf in fact was tilted slightly. If the shelf was so lopsided why didn't the glass move? The bowls falling were the only instance of this occuring at least that was the impression I got.

The musky smell is definetly not musty. Also don't you think they would be able to tell the difference between a really old dusty, musty smell and a musky smell of perfume? How long would that smell linger if indeed it was the from the drawer? Also they they indicate that those drawers were in regular use for anything? If they were frequently opened would you not smell the musty smell often? Again I thought the nice pretty lady told us that the perfume smell only happened once? Did I get that right?

I am so sick of basements with wires hanging from every where and crap all over. Really you can see that the high EMF coming from mile away.

While I personally did not get the feeling that anything remarkable was happening here it would have been nice to have them seem to take this case seriously. However, we do not know how this was edited as they only showed about 15 minutes of footage.

Mary good observation as I can remember Jay and Grant saying that they debunk about 80% of the cases they get. So you have one haunted and one not haunted.

Logisti I also liked your point of saying come towards the thing my friend is holding. Chances are the spirit will have no idea what an EMF, FLIR or digital recorder is if they are from a time period that did not have these devices or they were technically unsophisticated. That is unless of course they watch TAPS and have a clue as to what all the gizmo's are

Okay, here is the part where I will admit it *did* seem a bit like they had predetermined the place to be "not haunted" before even investigating. It wasn't any one thing they did that gave me that impression, but as Robbin just pointed their debunks were quick, dismissive, and some were borderline weak explanations.

I didn't want to come right out and say it in the main post because I thought maybe it was just me, and it did seem important to point out that not *every* commercial location gets the TAPS seal of haunting-approval, but in the end it did seem like their investigation was rather slip-shod and that kind of overshadows everything else.

Everything mentioned already is dead on. Dead like the last fifteen minutes of this episode. CrowT you nailed it with your observation that this should have been the first fifteen minutes of the episode. I didn't even bother to watch the reveal. WEAK SAUCE! Although I might not have stuck around to watch the rest of the show if this is how it had started.

That's not true, but you know what I mean.

Kris was in the basement "fear cage" and didn't get sick this time. I guess the speculation made several episodes ago that she was EMF sensitive requires more investigation. Maybe they simply didn't have enough time to show her sprinting to the nearest toilet because there were too many other super awesome fascinating moments from the rest of the investigation they had to jam into that fifteen minutes.

If only…

Not that I have a problem with the Ghost Hunters walking into a place and debunking everything. I think that's great. Maybe it was how they went about it this particular time, perhaps it was the way this particular case was edited, it felt like was filler and borderline tedium. Would have rather seen 15 more minutes of the Mt. Washington Hotel.

Yep, agree pure filler to get the debunk stats up, I do wonder if in those 80% debunked stats, there must be cases deemed to boring to even get air-time? In that case we cant strictly just count aired cases in the stats to be fair.

This is actually located in NORTH Providence, which is a different town than Providence or East Providence. They are from here they should know the difference. Anyway, of course there is a "fear cage" in this basement, look at the wiring!! I don't like the term "fear cage" did they make that crap up? Yeah, alot of the so called debunking on this case was not well proven, unsustantiated dismissive rushed boring garbage. They should have saved this for another episode and just done a whole episode at Mount Washington. What a let down after a great episode. What were they thinking? Stupid producers. This show is becoming tedious and boring. I think it has jumped the shark. Debunking has taken a backseat to using sloppy evidence. I don't like their generic pseudo-scientific theories like granite, limestone, sand, mud and gravel create hotbeds for paranormal activity. In that case the whole earth would be roaming with ghosts. EMF, Geiger counters, what hooey. I love the show, but I am sick of their crazy unprovable science. First time poster, dedicated reader. Thanks for the site and forum. I love it!!

Okay Everyone, here's what REALLY happened. I am the Executive Chef of the Ruffstone Tavern, located in NORTH Providence, RI. When Grant and Jay arrived, I was there to greet them before anyone started taping anything. They already seemed bored and had pre-determined the place to be NOT haunted. We closed our doors to paying customers for THREE days to tape the show…please keep that in mind.

First, when I explained that the doors to my kitchen swing open on their own, I demonstrated the force of the swing, its big, like someone where walking through them with a tray of food. When I look up, there's no one there. When Jay opened the front door of the restaurant and the kitchen doors "moved" a half an inch, that was it for he and Grant..DEBUNKED, case closed, when clearly, this is NOT the movement I was talking about.

They cut us off at every turn and had immediate answers for everything. When Heather was explaining the MUSKY smell (that of a man) and Grant went for the hand cream and windex to explain it away, we were floored!

The history of the Ruffstone is a long one, serving as part of the underground railroad, as a speakeasy, a pub, among other things going back to 1878. The wires hanging in the basement are dead and have been dead for over 70 years. The shelf in the kitchen that they explained was slanted, was NOT the location of the falling items.

In my interview, I explained that my 30 pounds of chaffing dishes fell off the REFRIGERATOR, which IS level, and came crashing down for no reason, they hadn't been moved in 6 months, but they sure as hell moved that particular day. They never even showed it.

It was my idea to call TAPS in to investigate because of the combined experiences of staff, owners, and patrons over the years. We were sure they would find something to corroborate our experiences and feelings. Instead, they made us look and feel like children who were wasting their precious time. Having only 15 minutes on t.v was neither here nor there. It was the incredible editing job that took us by surprise.

Also surprising was meeting Jay and Grant who immediately walked in the place like 2 seasoned Hollywood actors worthy of their own trailer outside, when in reality, they're BOTH from Rhode Island like everyone else, just down the street in Warwick.

And at the end of the shoot, the producers who had been so kind to us the entire time repaid us by leaving at 4am with every door in the place unlocked, even though they were given the key they insisted they "had to have".

I was a HUGE fan of the show and was excited to meet the guys, Jay and Grant, Steve, Tango, even the camera guys were cool and showed me how the show comes together. But at the end of the day, the fearless leaders, Jay and Grant, seemed to have Paranormal ADHD and if they don't see a ghost in the first 10 seconds, they loose interest and its basically time to wrap. This is what REALLY happened and it was kind of a shame.

Thanks very much for coming by and giving us the skinny, ChefMac. I definitely got the feeling they were rushing through this investigation looking for any flimsy excuse to "debunk" reported activity

Looking back, this investigation may have generated less outrage than was its due because it was chopped down to 15 minutes and aired on the tail end of an episode dominated by a much more enthusiastic investigation at the Mt. Washington Hotel, but it's clear that the "debunking" done at your tavern was so poor as to be unworthy of even the most dismissive hardcore skeptics — a group to whom Jay & Grant most assuredly do not belong, so it was incredibly out of character for them.

Unfortunately, while the conclusions were unusual the flimsy reasoning has become more and more common on the show — it's just more often used to justify a conclusion going the other direction. What concerns me most however is the motivation. Consciously or subconsciously it's clear just from watching the episode that Jay & Grant had prejudged your tavern as "not haunted" very shortly after their arrival, if not prior to it.

Whether that prejudgment was due to them both getting the same "un-haunted feeling" or because they decided they needed an artificial credibility boost (and therefore a sacrificial lamb to do an artificially shoddy investigation on) certainly makes a difference, but we will likely never know which is the case.

Either way though, it's clear that you and your restaurant weren't given the fair, objective investigation you had every right to expect. One has only to watch the investigation as-aired to see the truth of that.

First, I think this is a great site. Second, I appreciate your comments. I also want to say that we are not TAPS haters, just disappointed, like everyone else.

The hotel should have been given the full show, to its credit, its massive and worthy of 1, if not 2 full hours. We knew as soon as the show started that we got the very short end of a very large stick.

The Ruffstone is very small. A place the Grant knows well, having grown up just around the corner from it. Watching the guys set up for us though, I thought it would be like every other investigation I've watched them do on t.v. Steve and Tango quietly worked to set everything up and took their time doing so. Tango wanted to stay longer in the basement, but was called back by Jason.

The producers of the show seemed very nice, until the cameras started rolling. Giving an interview and description of incidents felt more like an interrogation complete with "So, you could say…." "So, what you're trying to say is…" Even if that was NOT what I was trying to say, it aired that way regardless…editing.

The point is that Jay and Grant claim to be skeptics, hardcore. So, how then can you hunt for something you believe isn't really there to begin with? And how is this attitude helpful to those who have called you seeking your help in the first place? Its not because they didn't find anything at the Ruffstone, that would have been okay. It was the dismissive manner and close minded attitude with which they conducted their "investigation" that has us puzzled. Combine that with Jay and the producers concerned more with having their pictures taken with Heather (sorry, unavailable!) and the ones it became a creepy investigation for was us!

To be fair to skeptics, being a skeptic (even a hardcore one) does not mean someone believes there is nothing there to find, it means they are uncommitted and open to either possibility. Some people who call themselves hardcore skeptics have clearly turned a deaf ear to many possibilities and have settled in their beliefs (that such things don't exist).

Being a "real" skeptic can help an investigation (I think) by better sorting out the unexplainable from the easily explained. A (former) hardcore skeptic (turned unbeliever) is certainly not helpful, but Jay & Grant of all people have no business acting that way.

Exactly