November 13, 2009
GH: Amos Blake House
by Logisti
The Amos Blake house dates back to the early 1800's and predates ownership by it's namesake by thirty years or so. Terri, the museum curator, is convinced the location is haunted and told TAPS about a number of sightings involving the ghost of a child, including one with three witnesses, and several other apparitions and events experienced by people in the building.
Of course Jay & Grant started out the evening with some obligatory K-II blips they couldn't explain (but yet somehow decided to associate with the ghost-child they'd been told about), but the real magic started when Steve & Tango were making their way around one of the rooms and a door popped open right behind Steve, seemingly all by itself. In fact, Steve was absolutely sure he didn't touch the door or bump into the latch. After all, he'd had his back to it and had been facing (and leaning) away. Dave asked him to just reenact where he'd been standing and what he'd been doing and lo and behold the door popped open again!
As it turned out, by Steve shifting his weight onto a particular floorboard it leveraged the door just enough to pop the latch — and it looked like it happened spontaneously all by itself until they reproduced the result. This was a stellar piece of debunking, but also cautionary tale about how some evidence may seem to defy scientific explanation, yet end up having a very simple one that just needed to be found.
Back in less-impressive-land, Jay & Grant decided to go for the old "turn on my flashlight, it's really easy" test. And wow, the flashlight turned on. I… am… so… [yawn] excited. Those who follow these reviews and the podcast doubtless know why this doesn't impress us so I won't bore everyone by rehashing but what was very impressive was the double-talk. First Jay tells the alleged spirit how easy it is to turn the flashlight on (and in the past they've even acknowledged unscrewing the battery casing slightly it so the flashlight will respond to even a small vibration) and then after the light goes on Grant tells the camera that "those flashlights don't just turn on". He also hit us with this gem: "It could be coincidental, but it's pretty impressive". Attempt to keep the skeptics satisfied by acknowledging that the evidence doesn't necessarily mean anything at all, while simultaneously telling the true-believers other trusting fans of the show how impressed they should be. Have you ever thought about running for office, Grant?
For their next trick they put a tiny, wooden toy tractor that seemed to roll easily right on the floor near the flashlight and asked the spirit (who had allegedly been pushing the flashlight button and was also allegedly a little boy from the 1800's who would be more familar with a toy tractor than a battery-powered, button-operated electrical device) to push the tractor a little bit, but it didn't move at all. Personally, I would suggest Jay & Grant attempt this test again in a room where the floors are severely not-level — just to give the "spirit" a better chance at making the tractor roll.
Kris & Amy had a little more luck — quite a bit of luck actually. Just as they decided to set up a Mini-DV camera in one particular room, moments after starting the tape rolling they heard a noise and caught the object moving on video. The object in question appeared to be some sort of farm implement (like a small pitch fork) which had been leaning against the nearby wall. As the cameraman followed Amy out of the room (we see this on the Mini-DV) the object slides to the left. Interesting as it is, I have to say it looked to me like the people walking through the room just created enough vibration to make the object slide and fall over. I've leaned my (beat-up old acoustic) guitar against enough walls to know it doesn't take much for it to slide to one side and fall, and that's exactly what this looked like — until the zoomed-in, slow-motion replay during the evidence analysis.
In fact, that is actually what happened to the pitch fork with one exception: what caused it to slide and fall was not unseen vibrations of people walking in the room but a steel chain hanging nearby that bumped into it, knocking it loose. What caused the chain to move is now the real question, and a much less straightforward one. It didn't look very lightweight, but it swings significantly just as the Amy walks out of the room through a doorway about six feet down along that same wall. Even if she slammed her fist into the wall as she left the room I'm not sure it would cause the chain to move like that, but that's the closest I can come to approaching a reasonable explanation. It was more interesting than I originally gave it credit for, to be sure, but the fact that this happens just as people are walking through and then leaving the room (as opposed to five minutes later) still leads me to suspect this was inadvertently caused by their presence. Especially coming on the heels of what happened with Steve and the nearby door unlatching, I'd be very cautious about drawing paranormal conclusions here.
In the basement Jay & Grant reported smelling cat urine, which led them to believe there was an actual (living) cat in the house — which would tie in with several reports Terri mentioned about a cat being sighted (that was believed to be a ghost because it seems "fuzzy" and also no cat is known to live in the house) — so J&G quickly thought they were going to discover a living, breathing feline had been secretly living in the basement but they couldn't find it on the thermal (maybe they should have tried turning the lights on?), yet Jay reported feeling something like a cat brushing up against his ankle and the teams captured some cat-like sounds (meow/purring) on audio.
Considering all the evidence, I suspect the Amos Blake House may be "haunted" by a living feline presence who avoided, for one night, being caught on camera. As for anything else, I'm still doubtful.
Filed under Ghost Hunters, Posts by Logisti
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Comments on GH: Amos Blake House »
CrowTRobot @ 8:52 am
The 'ghost cat' was a bit of a stretch. Particularly if it's wild, a cat can/will avoid people…and urinate in the basement…and purr….and even brush against a leg as it's darting past someone named Jay.
The pitch-fork/chain incident: Even for TAPS, I just couldn't believe how they simply ignored the sound/camera guy walking past that area (and momentarily out of view – though I'm not accusing him) as a possible cause.
alicat @ 9:48 am
If anyone doesn't think this episode wasn't done to boost the income of yet another commercial location, please check their website and then look at their "Wish List". I know that sounds cynical but this is a long standing problem I've had with GH zeroing in on these types of "needy" commercial locations. One hand merely washes the other.
I guess what I really want is to see an investigation where one can actually use their brain to try to debunk something…. anything more exciting than what we've seen. I'd also like to see an episode where those of us here can dig in and enjoy the hunt. It's been way too long and I miss the challenge. Then again, maybe I'm wishing for too much. Now I have to go and edit my holiday wish list…. again.
alicat @ 10:04 am
Oops! Here's the website http://fitzhistoricalsociety.org/
One additional observation: I think that if you look to the right of your screen, you will notice that, at the moment, not one GH episode is presently being listed/discussed as a top thread "In The Forum". I think that proves my point.
antique dealer @ 1:14 pm
i live within 300 ft of the blake house and a neighbor that abuts the property owns 5 cats……i also understand that another neighbors cat was lost in the house for awhile……i am disappointed.
HollyDolly @ 10:39 am
I didn't know ghost kitties could pee.Wonder who cleans the cat box on the other side, haha. When they talked about the smell of cat urine, the first thing i thought of was a live cat, somewhere in the place.When I heard the cat noises of purring and meowing they caught, i thought how funny, and even kind of cute to have a ghost kitty.I'm sure a real live cat has probably gotten into the house somehow, even in some crack or whatever in the basement wall,an it comes and goes.
I'll have to watch this again.But i thought during the reveal, it looked like the one chain unwound itself from the other one, and then the garden or spading fork fell over.I assume these chains are not light weight.They looked like they may have been made of iron. What they were used for, I have no idea.
Good debunk by Steve and Tango. Funny how the ghost child did nothing with the toy tractor, but can sure play with the flashlight They could have set some mini dvd or what have you, left the room,and later come back to see if they toy moved.Maybe even drawn a chalk circle around the toy and check back later to see if it has moved from the circle.
I'll have to check out the Amos Blake House website.
And yes, so many of these places seem to be hungery to have themselves declared haunted.Nowadays, ghosts and the paranormal are big business.
Several times on the TAPS forum, have seen people mention the Alamo, here in downtown San Antonio, and wondering if TAPS ie Ghost Hunters would ever do an investigation. I recall replying that not unless the Daughters of the Republic of Texas invite them in, which will never happen.They have not let anyone do a ghost invesigation I am aware of. That's like the spanish missions here in town.No local paranormal group has done any investigations of them either.Since they are still active catholic parishes, it isn't likely.
It would be nice if they did some home investigations again.Though maybe there are some homeowners who don't want them too, because of all the publicity they might recieve. However,at least with the homeowners many really do need help, and aren't in it for the money.
Bobby Elgee @ 7:27 pm
I am the member of a team that has investigation the Amos J. Blake House on multiple occasions prior to the location appearing on Ghost Hunters. Interestingly enough I had suggested to Terri–the museum's curator and a former member of my team–that she contact T.A.P.S. to see if they would be interested in shooting an episode featuring the location. And, wow and behold, T.A.P.S. contacted her. Nothing unusual there…but the chicanery rapidly ensued shortly after their initial contact.
Terri subsequently quit the team I founded and rapidly formed her own group. Her team of ghost hunters began suddenly finding evidence of multiple intelligent spirits and other rather severe supposed paranormal phenomena that I had never experienced during my three or four investigations of the location. The "evidence" mounted rapidly in the run-up to the television episode, almost as if any "ghosts" associated with the locations were very excited that T.A.P.S. was coming for a visit. All of this information was rapidly removed from Terri's groups Web site shortly after an article came out in the local newspaper detailing a potential controversy indicating that the museums Board of Directors had no prior knowledge of the filming of the episode and did not know who granted permission for them to be there.
Having been intimately familiar with the location, it was obvious to me that the history of possible paranormal activity discussed by Ghost Hunters during the episode had been significantly exaggerated–by whom I'm unsure.
Overall, your analysis of the episode was spot on and I was pleased to see Steve and Tango debunk the door opening, as I had on multiple occasions previously. As far as the chain and the pitchfork, it certainly appeared staged to me–those specific objects were never there before, though all the other furniture and other belongings in the house were as I remembered. If you look closely on some of the video footage, after the pitchfork falls over, you can see a piece of tape on the wall that was apparently holding it up.
Finally, I suppose it bears mentioning that one of the "volunteers" interviewed for the episode is a member of Terri's team of ghost hunters.
Anyway, Ghost Hunters did a decent job debunking most of what occurred during the investigation and clearly stated that the "evidence" they caught wasn't strong enough to declare the place haunted. This coincides with my experiences at the location which included hearing/recording a disembodied voice and feeling a cold spot, as well as another investigator capturing photographs of some strange mist.
Personally, I've never been an avid fan of Ghost Hunters, but do watch it–and other similar shows–intermittently. I was happy that they visited the location as it is a wonderful example of a New England historical museum–I've investigated several–and I sincerely hope any publicity gained from the episode benefits the Fitzwilliam Historical Society, though, given my experiences I would question any future evidence that is reported at the location.
Bobby Elgee; Sights Unseen Paranormal
from Italia @ 12:13 pm
I'm from Italia and we have the pope here! But we had a tv program called "Presenze" a little better than GH, I think that nobody like Italians have a lot of parishes around towns, but I think that near Alamo the parishes are not the problem, maybe the direction of the place is not interested in doing this kind of programs…Seriously,I'm not religious but catholic church believe in Saints that see Satan and have stigmatas, do you really think thay have problems with paranormal investigation?