We start out again with the gang sitting around the Situation Room going over more videos in order to single out a pair to go after this week. Revenant had earlier pointed out their clothing being the same in this scene in the previous two weeks, so I paid attention to their garb. Once again, they were wearing familiar attire. Very likely that the “pick a pair of videos” scenes were all filmed at the same time.

After they each throw out a candidate and either ooh and aah or quickly shoot it down, they decide upon the Paulding Lights and the San Antonio train crossing videos. So, with no further ado, let’s see what happens when they go to Michigan to investigate the Paulding Lights.

More on FoF: Blazing Horizon (Paulding Lights)

The second half of this set of episodes revolves around the story of a bus-train crash that killed a number of school children.  Ever after, the ghosts of the children would push cars uphill and over train tracks to safety.  And even more mysterious was that small fingerprints could then be found on the rear portions of the car.  Ben, Chi-Lan, and Larry check this one out.

More on FoF: Rollover (San Antonio Train Crossing)

Stephen interviews Hayley Stevens, a skeptical paranormal investigator in Wiltshire, UK. Hayley is one of the founders of Wiltshire Phenomena Research and is a co-host of the Righteous Indignation Podcast. He also reviews the GHI episodes "Sweeney Todd" and "The Wolf's Lair". Logisti joins in the discussion.

Links:

• Wiltshire Phenomena Research
• Righteous Indignation
• The Seven Stars - Barrels (YouTube)
• Recchiuti Confections

Ads:

• Skeptically Pwnd

Download the podcast here.

This Beast of Dartmoor portion was a much anticipated episode on my part and probably on the parts of a few others here. This was because we had already had quite a bit of discussion and had reviewed the video many times, and done a fairly thorough analysis, probably more thorough than FoF did. I don’t know about anyone else but, having flown around the area in Google Earth from many angles and levels and having watched the video several dozen times before the show, it all had a very familiar sense for some reason.

The episode starts out in a now familiar fashion with the six investigators sitting around the ‘Situation Room’ reviewing videos to tackle for this week’s episode. The team goes through several videos, debunking a few of them in rapid-fire succession which is probably to instill a sense of “these guys know what they’re doing” in the viewing audience. While discussing the Beast of Dartmoor, it is mentioned that a Dr C J Farmer at the University of Utah (a vertebrate specialist and biologist) thinks that the legs of the creature in the video are too long and slender for a boar and was thinking possibly a pony except that the tail does not match. One thing I must point out is that the person’s name is actually C G Farmer, not C J! Strike one for accuracy. The team does bring up the possibility of a lion and also the rare (but unlikely) black lion which I mentioned above.

More on FoF: Predator (The Beast of Dartmoor)

After taking over administration of the web site, I discovered that one of our former contributors, Harry Helms (known here simply as Harry) had died last year after a long illness. Harry contributed several essays about Ghost Adventures episodes to this site.

Harry was the author of many books, including "All About Ham Radio", "Shortwave Listening Guidebook", "Computer Language Reference Guide", and "Top Secret Tourism: Your Travel Guide to Germ Warfare Laboratories, Clandestine Aircraft Bases and Other Places in the United States You're Not Supposed to Know About". He maintained the topsecrettourism.com web site, and had appeared on Coast to Coast AM three times. He also maintained his own blog.

He died in November 2009 in Fort Mill, South Carolina. He was 57.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I fear that what I am going to say will spoil your appetites; but the truth is beautiful at all times, and I have to state that Mrs. Lovett's pies are made of HUMAN FLESH!" –The String of Pearls by James Malcolm Rymer, source of the story of Sweeney Todd

When I learned that this episode was called "Sweeney Todd", I had some… fears? hopes? …that GHI was searching for the ghost of yet another fictional character like Robin Hood. When I heard that they were instead going to be investigating an inn which was the location of murders which might have inspired the tales of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, I was relieved/disappointed.

According to the episode, John Jarman was the innkeeper of the Ostrich Inn, and like many innkeepers, he had developed a few minor quirks over the years. His most amusing habit was boiling his guests alive for the following night's supper. I can see how that might be pretty impressive cost savings in the short term, but that's not a good strategy for gathering repeat business. Jarman accomplished this by means of a trapdoor and specially hinged bed located directly over the kitchen, which allowed him to send the guests into a pot of boiling water. Had the GHI team found the ghost of a real person to hunt this time?

More on GHI: Ostrich Inn

Margam Castle, a Victorian "mock" castle built in 1830, is no stranger to paranormal TV, since Most Haunted visited it in their 2006 series. From the pictures available on the Wikipedia entry, Margam is a subtly gorgeous site, with an astonishing color palette. Appropriately, it was the site of one of the first photographs taken in Wales, although that probably didn't do the colors much justice, much like the black-and-white shots we're going to see.

The guide for the walkthrough is a smiling bald man named Geraint Hopkins, founder of Ghost Watch Wales, who has been visiting Margam for years and is firmly convinced that the place is haunted. All of Hopkins' dialogue is subtitled, even though he is certainly as easy to understand as Barry. A search on Hopkins' name shows that he is an ophidiological, as well as paranormal, enthusiast: he owns an African rock python named Socrates. It's too bad that Hopkins didn't bring Socrates to assist the GHI team in their investigation. I'm sure they would have benefited from its wisdom.

The haunting symptoms are the usual mixed bag, with an unusual addition– red and green flashing lights in the tapestry room, plus bright white lights that leave trails. Yolande Rees-Hopkins, Geraint's wife, saw an apparition that she recognized as that of the original owner, Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, and another eyewitness heard (and felt) a "white lady" in the Yellow Room. Ghostly monks have been seen outside, and during World War II, US troops under Eisenhower's command were stationed at the house, and complained of seeing phantoms.

More on GHI: Margam Castle