March 14, 2009
GH: Betsy Ross House
The Betsy Ross house in Philadelphia was once home to a woman famous for sewing the stars and stripes into the archetypal United States flag — at least according to Jay & Grant. Tango seemed unsure; at least according to Steve. I'm just not sure who to believe anymore!
Just kidding. I believe Kris. At least, I believe that she believes what she says is… you know what? Forget it.
The most hilarious thing about this case isn't that Betsy Ross' home was reduced to a 2nd-halfer, forced to take a back seat to a blinking K-II meter and a vibrating (allegedly) bed. The real humor is in the anti-climactic reports of activity. Tour guide pushed down stairs? Disembodied screams? Apparitions wearing period clothing that vanish into thin air? No. We're told TAPS is heading there because some reports of "voices" and "being touched". Conclusion? TAPS is heading there because it was the easiest place to find within an hour's drive of their previous investigation.
Am I cynical? I want to say no, but the philosopher Jagger says "You can't always get what you want".
The stories got slightly more interesting as some of the people on-site were interviewed. The "touch" was apparently the director of the museum, who was alone in her office when she felt someone put a hand on her shoulder. One woman also reported seeing two dark shadows move through a room right past her and vanish. There is still humor though, because the most exciting reports came not from Betsy Ross' house itself, but from the Gift Shop next door. Apparently during the 1980's two security guards got into an argument in the basement and one shot the other, leaving him to die overnight. Since then there have been reports of voices in the basement. There was also one report where an employee heard boxes being moved around in the storage room overhead, despite no one being in there.
When Jay & Grant began their investigation it was about three hours in before anything started to happen, and what occurred was the sound of the floor creaking overhead. Jay & Grant insisted it was footsteps — but that seemed unlikely to me given that it's an old building and the sounds were not loud enough to be caught on audio recording. Still, Grant went upstairs and moved around in what I could only describe as a deliberately stealthy manner, and Jay said that's exactly the sound he'd heard a moment before.
Grant's conclusion was that he "can't imagine" anyone escaping in the amount of time it took him to go up the stairs and poke his head in the hallway. I didn't see him doing anything resembling a full check of the floor to make sure someone wasn't hiding in a closet or behind a door though — and what I "can't imagine" is why a ghost would be trying to sneak around the house. There have been plenty of times the team has captured sounds that seem to be loud footsteps, usually sounds that seem to be boots-on-wood despite carpeted floors. In this case we have a slight creaking that Jay agrees sounds like Grant tip-toeing around in sneakers on carpeting. I don't know if this will make Stephen's list, but this was one of those things that definitely didn't impress me.
The investigation as a whole wasn't terribly interesting. At one point Jay & Grant came up with a "fear cage" idea because the K-II meter lit up near some electrical wires. I noted during the Hannum House write-up that the K-II actually lit up steady — it did not blink as it normally does when Jay & Grant get responses they consider paranormal. If you want to join the dicussion on whether or not that fact might be relevant to determining what's actually making the K-II meter light up during those sessions, head over to the Hannum House page.
I've gotten spoiled by the progressive attitudes we see in Ghost Hunters International; now that we're back with TAPS the evidence review is just Steve & Tango. Why Kris & Amy can't pitch in, I have no idea — especially since TAPS seems to have dropped the whole "head to the library for research" and "conduct interviews at the local historical society" thing. Steve & Dave did manage to come up with a couple of pieces of evidence, but I found it less compelling than usual.
First up was an EVP sold to the client as a "man's voice" perhaps saying two words or one two-syllable word. I don't want to go out on a limb and put ideas in anyone's head here but it sounded to me like a dog barking outside. The second was also an audio clip, Jay & Grant were walking through part of the building when they (and we) heard a sound they described as "moaning" coming from overhead. To me this was an interesting sound, but it didn't sound like moaning. It sounded like the resonant frequency you can sometimes get if you ding an empty pipe with another piece of metal (like a wedding ring). Surprisingly, that thought popping into my head had nothing to do with anything suspicious regarding Jay & Grant. I just have a propensity for thinking I'm a bongos player, happen to wear a ring, and sometimes my victims are tubular metal railings (and the people forced to listen to the racket I make).
In neither this nor the previous investigation do I recall Jay & Grant definitively stating they thought the place was haunted (or not haunted), and I actually kind of like that. They just presented the evidence and left it at that. I hope that's a trend they've been working on for the new season. It should definitely cut back on some folks' instinct to say "it can't be a dog barking, Jay & Grant said it was haunted!" — and to be quite frank it actually grated on me more when they declared a place "not haunted" because they always say "ghosts don't perform on command" so it's impossible by any standards, including their own, to reasonably claim a place isn't haunted after a single night's investigation.
Anyway, we shall see how it goes as this season progresses. On to the next!
Filed under Ghost Hunters, Posts by Logisti
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Comments on GH: Betsy Ross House »
The Doctor @ 7:27 pm
G in the basement – "Whatever's above this is really gonna blow people's minds"
J to Client – " I don't think there's anything to fear …"
???
Nope, nothing to fear, except when your employees and customers of the Gift Shop start getting nauseated and halucinating.
Since the production video is now part of their investigation, who is tasked to go over all that media searching for EVP's and shadows ?
Liz M @ 8:39 pm
That sound that they heard in the basement sounded to me a lot like microphone feedback. It didn't sound human to me at all (and I'm including dearly departed humans in that category). And didn't they find it odd that the production crew caught the sound as well? Their EVP's usually don't find their ways to two different recording devices.
I was really expecting a flag to be involved in the investigation. Maybe taunt the ghosts saying that they didn't think Betsy Ross had anything to do with the flag? Or maybe I'm starting to confuse all these shows – there really isn't much difference between any of them anymore. It's a shame, really.
Stephen @ 1:06 am
Liz– On the Sci Fi website, there's a cut scene where they get excited about visiting the room where Betsy Ross met with the flag committee. And of course there was the story about the previous director who climbed onto the flagpole outside. (I would say that it sounded like a bad acid trip, but I don't think it was the sixties.)
Anyway, a return to form for TAPS. Not GOOD form, of course, but it was their classic season opener– they find nothing and declare the place haunted.
To me, the man's voice sounded like the kind of audio glitch I got from my small EVP experiment– a random noise turned vaguely voicelike by the voice compression.
I poked around a bit, and apparently there's some debate as to whether Betsy Ross actually sewed the first US flag, and even more as to whether or not the Betsy Ross House was even her house. Thus the occasional equivocal comments in this episode.
All in all, our old friends in TAPS are back. OK, so they're the kind of friends where you wouldn't lend 'em any money or believe anything they said, but hey…
Hal @ 3:25 pm
Here's something for everyone to ponder, which I suddenly became aware of while watching Jason explain the theory of "fear cages" to the Betsy Ross House hostess. If constant exposure to electrical or electro-magnetic fields is supposed to make people feel nauseated, have hallucinations and so forth (as the theory says), then why do the millions of people employed in electrical-related career fields, from common electricians to high voltage line repairmen, not seem affected in the same way? At least, I am not aware of any reports stating such.
If this theory were true then when Glen Campbell first recorded "Wichita Lineman" his first lines should have said, "I am a lineman for the county and I . . . whoa! What the hell was that?!"
John Galt @ 3:28 pm
I'm just not sure what to make of GH (or me, for that matter, for continuing to watch it). I watch the new episodes, look forward to them actually. But why? It's like being in a relationship that not's "bad", but not "good" either – but once, in the beginning, had promise. Now it's just vanilla.
Going back to the history of GH, have they EVER seen a full body aparition? Has there ever been a really amazing EVP find? Everything that I've seen is always just sort of "there". The K2 readings are highly suspect – and all the interesting stories you get when the case is first described never materialize.
The Betsy Ross house had a former director who was so freaked that she scooted out the the flag pole? WTF? If I'm checking the place, I make it a point of finding that person and interviewing her/him for myself to verify that claim. Same for the employee who saw the "ghost". Ask them tough questions, check their motives, don't just accept every claim as "truth".
Too bad. The GH are likeable enough on camera, even seem to be sincere (well, at least Jayson), yet it's all a lot of sizzle and, regretably, no steak.
Revenant @ 5:34 pm
Hal- The "fear cage" has been a hotly debated topic for quite some time. Stephen wrote an excellent piece on electromagnetic sensitivity a while ago. It can be found here:
http://www.skepticalviewer.com/forums/ghost-hunters/electromagnetic-sensitivity/page-1
John- Totally with you on the "flag pole" story. Jason and Grant just sort of nodded after the story and they moved on. Um…what? Someone sees something so frightening that they literally go out the window and climb out on a flag pole and you don't ask any follow up questions? Whether you believe the story or not, how can you not ask any questions about it? It just doesn't make sense.
bullerspoke @ 5:42 pm
Vanilla is the word.
J & G claimed to have seen a FBA at Ok Carroll, I believe it was. Of course we never saw it, all we saw was J & G looking round a corner exclaiming to each other : "Did you see that!"
The fact that they did not scrutinize the story of the flagpole, or any other story, is very telling. And when they hear noises from a locked room, how do they react? Do they throw it out, question the validity? No, they tell the client they heard voices and leave it ambiguous for them as well as us viewers.
Personally I was struck by their low-key appearance, quite somber actually, J&G was strangely short in tone to each other. No drive, no geist, no fun. A bad day at the office more than enthusiasts doing what they supposedly love and "devoted their life" to.
blinddog50 @ 6:26 pm
As the saying goes, "Just mail'n it in."
CrowTRobot @ 7:12 pm
@ John Galt: 'Vanilla' – excellent call. And I'm just like you, I look forward to GH/GHI every Wednesday; but when it gets here………nothing. I also have wondered why they don't verify some of these claims such as the flagpole incident. A year or two ago at Ft Mifflin(sp) their guide said that an elementary class on a field trip had seen some lady fall out a window, or some similarly ghastly event. Supposedly it was the ghost of a general's wife (I suppose I could do a little research to get the facts straight, but…). I'd liked to have seen TAPS check THAT story out. To be fair, maybe these stories ARE checked out; we just don't see it on the show. But I have my doubts.
@ bullerspoke: J&G do really seem to be going through the motions, and that's unfortunate since we know the girls aren't going to find anything (and if they do, it'll take a mop and a bucket of pine sol to clean the mess up). Who knows about the guys anymore. But what I have trouble understanding is this: you're on tv; doing what you love – hunting freakin' ghosts, for crying out loud; getting paid………..and you're bored?
The 'moaning' sound in the basement sounded like some sort of feedback. Or it might have been the collective groan of all of us here at Skeptical Viewer agonizing over another disappointing episode.
But the spookiest part of this whole experience is that I'll be back next Wednesday ready for more of the same.
Lar @ 8:55 pm
Absurd. Awful investigation. Steve tells everyone Tango wants to know who Betsy Ross is. Tango denies he says it, but it's too late as Steve kills the walkie. If you recall Steve is the MORON who in a previous season thought the underground railroad was REALLY a railroad with UNDERGROUND trains.
50 katrillion soldiers have died for our flag, yet these knuckleheads investigate the home of the flag, instead of the many battlegrounds where it was defended.
Skylar @ 2:51 am
Hi. Just wanted to say that the "moan" sounded exactly like what it sounds like in my bedroom when the wind is blowing really hard outside. I mean to a T. Wonder if it was windy that night?
Lar @ 6:58 am
Why is it security cameras never catch anything?
Did you notice in the museum manager's office there is a flat screen monitor with 4 split screens. You can clearly see this during the reveal. It shows 8 different screen shots. It flashes 4 from one area then 4 in another room or maybe from within the same area but from a second angle.
Usually these cameras are on 24/7 especially at historic locales. It doesn't make sense to employ them during normal business hours & not after hours when vandalism would be more likely.
The cameras may only be in the gift shop, or pointed towards museum artifacts. But if you already have the system available, and you fear Betsy & her girlfriends may needle point you to death, why wouldn't you install another camera or cameras to capture it?
Why is the attic above her office locked? Just an oversight? I cannot believe TAPS & Pilgrim are allowed to wander about aimlessly in a national monument without a curator or representative on hand. Tons of equipment & hot lights,staff going in & out, & no one from the location is going to monitor the investigation?
I suspect they could've had access to the attic if they needed it. The voices which WE did not hear played back must've been insignificant or exterior noise, i.e. crew, walkies, etc..
If they can't enter an area or room, they cannot claim paranormal.
Oubliette @ 9:45 am
Every time someone mentions the flagpole I can't help thinking about the 3 Stooges short where they crawl out on a flagpole, dangle for a short bit and end up being dumped into an awning on the first floor. Maybe that's what happened in this case but we'll never know because they didn't bother to check the story out.
Just as an FYI: another favorite snack on the TAPS board is candy, with popcorn and a big pickle thrown in. My stomach is starting to turn—
It also may be of interest that even the die-hard fans there are getting bored with the show. The "watch parties" they had used to produce upwards of 40 or so pages per show. This opener produced 20, the last time I looked, and half of them were written as soon as the show started. There is also a thread about how tired of the show one fan had gotten, and to my surprise not only was his (her?) post not removed but others started chiming in, admitting they too felt this way.
It sure does seem that nobody has any enthusiasm left, whether those in the show or the viewers. It's simply grown too old, and the two main characters look bored, bored, bored. Jay and Grant seem tired of each other. Heck, even the Beatles couldn't stand each other after a time.
And if the GH investigators can't get excited, why should the audience? Methinks any season starting in 2010 will be the last.
Regarding Betsy Ross–at least Most Haunted had a historian on board. Guess that's too intellectual for GH. And I have to agree with Logisti about GHI. At least they bear a semblance of doing real investigations with a seriousness that has become sadly lacking in their more famous counterparts.
blinddog50 @ 10:51 am
Oubliette,
I don't think Jay wants anyone from the investigation site with them after the woman (still think it was a man in drag) jumped on his butt for touching the cast iron stove in the episode filmed in NYC (the one with the faked robbery attempt).
It made the all-knowing, all-powerful Jay look bad.
Surprised it made it to the show and not the cutting room floor.
alicat @ 12:18 pm
I have to agree with CrowTRobot and Liz M on the "moaning" in the basement. My immediate reaction was that it was feedback as well.
As far as boxes being moved in the upper storage area, I think some of these "ghosts" have four legs which would not be surprising considering this is a 250+ year old building in a very old city. I use to work for a tv/movie/commercial production company on Church Street (a block or two away near Christ Church) and four-legged friends were not out of the ordinary.
Lar, I agree with your comment on the computer screen/security camera. You would think the cameras would be on 24/7 but, strangely enough when I worked on our first floor office on Church Street, both the office and doors were all windows with floor to ceiling shades as needed. And, for a very successful production company with cameras and video production equipment, etc. inside, we only kept our security cameras on the front door area during the work day with a very strong lock on the door 24/7. It does sound naive now that I look back on it but who knows if the cameras are not on 365 days 24/7 at this place – I don't think it was mentioned or did I miss that?
CrowTRobot @ 12:48 pm
@ alicat and Lar:
Regarding the security cameras, I don't think it would matter to TAPS. They've already shown their lack of interest or respect for any evidence presented by someone outside their team.
kevin @ 12:54 pm
Was this episode filmed post-collargate? Toward the end of last season we were getting all kinds of questionable "evidence". Clearly audible voices yelling "get out", flying coathangers and, of course, the infamous collar tugs on the Halloween special. Seems like maybe they realized they went too far with that lind of stuff and decided to play it straight.
alicat @ 3:09 pm
Hi Kevin – Yes, their "visit" was in December of 2008.
Hal @ 3:59 pm
Hal- The "fear cage" has been a hotly debated topic for quite some time. Stephen wrote an excellent piece on electromagnetic sensitivity a while ago. It can be found here:
http://www.skepticalviewer.com/forums/ghost-hunters/electromagnetic-sensitivity/page-
Revenant: Thanks for this link. I went there and read it thoroughly. Based on what the article says I believe I can rest my case on the matter; it's likely just BS!
Lar @ 4:54 pm
Security Cameras Part Two.
This isn't the first location where security cameras were visibile with nothing to show for it.But beyond that, lack of video evidence WORLD WIDE continually proves nothing is there.
There have never been more consumer digital cameras both still & video world wide than there are today. If entities exist why is it, no one has captured "credible," stills or video.
I don't mean orbs, fuzzy matter, FLIR images of a HUMAN walking down a hall, shadowy outlines, garbled audio…
Excluding Grant's FAKE collar tugs, what was the last definitive piece of VIDEO evidence we've seen on GH? I can't think of any, can you?
GHI totally relies on Barry's 38th inner dimensional camera of blurry dust as evidence, while GH can only videotape the K2 blinking as true visual evidence.