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Investigation #1 - Burlington County Prison Museum,
(Mt. Holly, NJ)
July 9, 2016
Burlington County Prison, built in 1811 and housing inmates until 1965, was one location in New Jersey that I had always wanted to investigate. Lots of great claims and stories ranging from the museum staff, visitors and other paranormal investigators. Of course it is the type of location I would have loved to investigate by myself, but I felt this time around it would be fun to invite a group of folks to join me.
So besides myself, my great friends and fellow investigators Ian & Gabby, Suzanne from Jersey Paranormal Spirit Society, Amy from Reiki Hands of Hope and friends and paranormal enthusiasts - Kristen and Brian would be along to also investigate the prison. Suzanne had investigated the prison a few years earlier with her team and said the prison was highly active, so we were expecting a great night ahead. For a fee of $250, a group of up to 10 people can investigate the prison from 7PM till Midnight, so this was a very reasonable price for the nights investigation. Some places run upwards of $1000 for a night, so you can see this was a great deal.
Before investigating (a Saturday night), I drove down to the Prison as they do have self guided tours at the prison during the week. All for a very reasonable $5! I wanted to get a feel for the place, take some day time photos, see how parking was. Very easy to get to, parking was no problem either.
The front of Burlington County
Prison Museum.
The prison looks small from the main road, it was only designed to hold roughly 40 prisoners at one time. By the time it closed, the ranks of prisoners had swelled to over 100. Though once you got inside and walked around, you can see there is some considerable size to it. Two upper floors, a basement level and the court yard in the back.
Courtyard behind the prison with
huge walls to help prevent escape. An infamous inmate, Joel
Clough who is said to be one of the spirits who haunts here, is buried
near a tree in the back of the prison.
They had a wing for males, a wing for females and at one point at a room for debtors who had to work at the prison to pay off their debts. That only lasted a short while before that was phased out in the 1800's.
Workshop room where debtors
worked off their debts. In the basement level.
As I walked around the prison, there were some areas that you could definitely feel something odd in the air. One place in particular was a stairwell leading into the basement where I had trouble taking photographs with my smart phone, digital camera and full spectrum. Okay one camera might hiccup every now and then, but all three?
The staircase I had trouble
taking photographs on. The passageway to the left leads to the debtors
workshop area, down the hall to the kitchen area where Warden William
Harry King and another prisoner were murdered during a riot. We would
find out later how very active this part of the prison was! Plus
it was by this staircase I would have a chance encounter at the end of the
investigation.
I took about 45 minutes to roughly tour the floors and make note of areas that I wanted to set up equipment at. The laser trip wires, the Kinetic camera and a static camcorder position. It would be a great night to deploy my equipment and try out some new items that I had recently acquired.
The gallows in the back!
Executions took place by hanging. I had hoped to set up equipment to
monitor this are during the investigation, but because of rain this
night we had to forgo it.
So on Saturday night, we all met down at the prison and a staff member (Barbara) would let us in, open up a few areas to look into that were locked off (cells, kitchen supply room) and sat by the front entrance to the prison in case we needed anything. Other than that, we had the entire prison ,except the Warden's house, to explore and investigate in. We were able to turn off fans and dehumidifiers for the course of the investigation so they would not contaminate our audio recordings. Though it was hot, the prison has no air conditioning, so for the first few hours, we would have to sweat it out. Even in the basement where it was slightly cooler.
Later on it did rain for a little while and that did cool things off a bit as the evening went on.
As everybody took the opportunity to walk around and check the place out, I took the time to set up laser trip wires, a metal file on a pad that sounds an alarm when moved. The file was a trigger object as a tool to use to escape with. The Paramid was set up in one room and the camcorders..
One static camera was set up on
the 2nd floor covering the hall way in front of the maximum security cell.
There is a large chain in this room that tied the prisoner to the floor.
Claims made that the chain moves on its own and can be heard doing so.
Here Ian is getting ready to walk into the cell where Gabby is already
inside.
This is the Kinect camera, set
up by the staircase where I had camera problems during my day time tour.
The many little lights you see on the floor and wall are IR lights the
Kinect uses to map figures and detect movement. This picture was
taken earlier in the evening as Amy is walking in front of me.
The dots of IR light are invisible to the human eye. This photo is a
screen shot taken from video footage using my Sony Night Shot camcorder.
The laser trip wires were set up in the hallways where the camcorders were set up too. While the trip wires did sound off several times during the night, it was because of us walking around in the dark and not realizing it until we tripped it! The alarm sounds, somebody would yell "ESCAPE", LOL, but the alarm would reset by itself after about 15 seconds.
Before we even began, Gabby's K-2 meter started going off for no reason. She was standing along side a cell near one of the cell blocks, but there were no noticeable power sources nearby that might cause the K2 to light up. It would flicker to various levels and then came to a complete stop. We also started getting chills, even though the prison had to be around 80F+ on the upper floors. So we knew the spirits of the prison were already taking an interest in us.
After setting up the various equipment around the prison, we started off in the workshop room where Suzanne said they had activity on her previous visit. While basically forming a circle along the inside of the room, a K2 meter that Kristen was hold would start lighting up on its own. A Mel-Meter that Suzanne was holding gave us a 0.3mg reading too.
While we were using the Paranormal Puck 2 (by Bill Chappell of Digital Dowsing), I asked a question if they could tell us their name. This is said verbally as well as typing it into the app. We got a reply of 6 words, two of which said "Kill" and "Double". Interestingly there was a double killing. After an accidental tripping of the laser alarm on the second floor by Amy, we went back to asking who was there with us and started us off on what would be the first of many EVPs we captured this night.
(As always, each EVP is played in its original format, then replayed twice afterward by itself. Each replayed EVP is audio enhanced through either amplification, noise reduction or both. Headsets and a quiet room are highly recommended to hear EVPs the best way)
Burlington County EVP #1 - You hear me ask for a name. At the 6 second mark of the clip you can hear a male voice reply. On reply, you can clearly make out the spirit responding to me "Never". Clearly intelligent and clearly defiant!
A few minutes later, Suzanne is reminding the spirits that she was there a few years ago and gets a faint response!
Burlington County EVP #2 - For the first 12 seconds, Suzanne is talking to the spirit and asking if they were the one that responded a "Thank you" she gave. About 7 seconds later, there is a faint voice. On the replay and amplified, you can clearly make out what sounds like a female saying "Not me"! Another intelligent response to a question.
Burlington County EVP #3 - About 2 minutes later, I am knocking on a wall and asking if they can do it. Just before Amy asks about Shave and a Haircut (the knock), there is another faint voice. On the reply it sounds like a young boy. I'm not sure what he is saying, I can hear 3 different things.
We then tried to get it to respond to us and got a knock back!
Burlington County Unexplained Nose - I am explaining how I want them to respond back to Shave and a Haircut knock. Around the 18 second mark you hear a knock that sounds like it is coming from the basement area. But only one. Replayed twice to hear it louder. Clearly not in the room with us.
After a few more minutes and not much else in the way or responses or activity with the instruments, we decided to leave the workshop area and head down to the kitchen area where the Warden and the inmate were murdered.
As we were walking down the hall, I mentioned the idea of role playing a prison escape later. As I am finishing talking and Suzanne speaks, we get a double EVP from the female and male.
Burlington County EVP #4 - You hear me finish up and at the 6 second mark, the female spirit says "Hello" to us. At the 9 second mark, Suzanne is asking a question about it when you hear the male sprit firmly reply to her "No!". Sounding as defiant as he did when he refused to give me his name!
We spent another 20 minutes in the workshop area, but it felt like the area had gone dead. The Mel-meter and K2 readings went down. So we left and started to proceed down the hallway towards the kitchen area and the bathrooms which were in a separate hall. Barb told us that ladies room had issues and noted to us some hooks in the ceiling that they were not sure what they were used for.
Gabby's head started to feel pressure and asked who was giving it to her. Then Brian, who walked over to take a look at the Kinect screen, called out that it was picking up a figure. We rushed back down the hall to see, but it fled as we had arrived. I started to get that chill feeling where the hair on my arms started standing up, Suzanne noticed the Mel-meter readings started spiking upwards, towards a 0.6 to 0.7mg.
I decided to check the camcorder to see if we could see the footage of the Kinect camera, but I noticed the camcorder was off. Upon turning it back on, the battery was completely dead. Fully charged battery that should have lasted 90 minutes was knocked out after 30 minutes. I close the view finder to save battery charge. Initially I thought I had no footage, but it turned out there was, but before Brian noticed the figure. So even though we didn't catch the evidence, I'm glad Brian got to see the Kinect actually map a figure when he was the only one there. I put in another battery and motioned for whomever was there with us to come check it out. The the next EVP
Burlington County EVP #5 - You hear me say I'll move away so they can check out the cool things (camcorder, Kinect, laptop). A couple of seconds later you hear a faint reply. On the playback it sounds like it is the male spirit again saying "Remove it".
Interesting that Brian said he saw the stick figure on the screen hugging a wall, like it was trying to sneak past him. I guess the spirit did not like being caught like that, hence if it was a prisoner, he would want us to remove it so he could walk around unnoticed!
We then walked down and spent a little time in the kitchen area. We did pick up a high EMF reading by a couple of cots in the back of the room, but upon further inspection we determined they were coming from a couple of pipes just over the bed.
The kitchen area.
This was the room the Warden was hit with an iron pipe in and later died
from his head injury. The double bed in the back had the high EMF
readings, but we determined they were given off from the pipes
directly over head.
Gabby and Brian in the Kitchen
room over by the double bed.
After this room, Ian and Gabby decided to go up and check out the 2nd floor. The rest of us then walked down and looked into the hallway with the bathrooms, asking about the hooks in the ceiling and if anybody wanted to communicate with us. Suzanne was asking questions when we caught our next EVP.
Burlington County EVP #6 - You hear Suzanne asking one of the group if they are turning around (Ian & Gabby have gone up to the 2nd floor at this point). At the 9 second mark you hear a faint voice. On replay it is a female and it sounds like she is saying "Go Back". Does she not want us down in this area for some reason?
The hooks hanging from the
ceiling in the women's bathroom on the basement level.
A couple of minutes later we decided to leave and head back out. As we were walking down the hall, I noticed a distinct odor in the air and the group immediately picked up on it. Here is the audio of what happened!
Burlington Prison Personal Experience - Here is the audio of what we smelled! This was an amazing experience to detect the odor of perfume come up out of the blue. It was between the kitchen and the bathroom hallway. We had walked down and did not smell anything. In fact on the way back, Brian and Kristen were walking ahead of us and did not notice it, but Suzanne, Amy and myself caught it. Then a few minutes later the smell of perfume was replaced by a strong cigarette smell! There had been reports from other folks of phantoms cigarette smells, but nothing about perfume.
Since at one point the Warden and his wife lived in the prison, was this them trying to communicate with us?
We sat down in a circle and tried to communicate with whomever was with us. The K2 that Kristen was holding started to light up when it had not done so in a while.
Kristen and Amy. Amy
had just felt like somebody had brushed the side of her face softly.
As we were sitting there, Amy felt like somebody had brushed the side of her face, which was a great personal experience.
While we didn't get much at first other than the touch and the K2 activity, I decided to go down the hallway and double check on the Kinect set up. While Suzanne was asking questions, another EVP is captured and you hear me bitch about something.
Burlington County EVP #7 - Suzanne asks if they can tell us about themselves. This is followed by a faint voice that at first glance sounds like "No". But amplified, it doesn't sound like no. Could be very subjective about what is being asked. At the end of the clip though you hear me in the distance say "Oh come on."
That's because the battery in the laptop had been drained. A 3 hour battery was knocked out. Fortunately there was an active outlet there, so I just plugged the laptop into the outlet to stop that Tom Foolery! So in that short span, something drained the camcorder battery, then the laptop battery. Checking the footage from the camcorder did not reveal any stick figures at the time of the 2nd draining. Though the spirit could have come up from behind the Kinect and laptop and did its dirty work there!
Then after I am finished resetting up the Kinect set up and coming back, the group gets a 3 sentence warning EVP from an angry spirit. No words, full sentences!
Burlington County EVP #8 - Amy is telling the spirits to join us, like we are sitting in a campfire setting with light. When I first heard this, I though for sure it was Brian whispering as it is a male voice. But then amplifying it, it is not Brian. The spirit sounds like it is saying "We're not friends. Please stop????" You're in my business!" I cannot make out the word after "stop". But it sounds like we are disturbing a male prisoner with whatever he is up to. So is this the spirit that is sabotaging the Kinect set up?
Burlington County EVP #9 - A few minutes later I am encouraging the spirits to communicate and not be afraid of us. Right after I finish saying don't be afraid, there is a quick EVP, then followed by me explaining they are the technology of our time. On reply the response sounds like "We're responding." Clearly intelligent communication and not residual.
Right after this there was a very faint EVP captured, too faint to replay, but at the same moment Kristen heard something directly above her head. Another interesting personal experience!
We spent another 10 minutes trying to get some response or interaction, but the odors had long dissipated and we were not feeling much, so we decided to head back to our base camp, the Warden's office for some water and regroup before moving over to the women's wing.
The Warden's office.
This room served as our base camp. It was roomy enough to put out all
my equipment boxes, coolers and personal items for safe keeping.
A few of the group had already made there way over to the women's area, while I grabbed my PhonoPod and 4 headsets to us and some other equipment. The PhonoPod (made by Paranologies) is a unit that amplifies sound and sends out a wireless infrared signal to headsets. Thus if any EVPs are captured, the user should be able to hear the sound in real time. The PhonoPod is ideal for small rooms where the wireless signals can bounce off the walls for crystal clear sound.
As I got into the first cell where everybody was sitting, Suzanne noted that she and Amy got nauseas. This usually indicates the possible presence of a sprit. Suzanne noticed the Mel Meter she was using was beginning to spike over a 1.0 milligauss (mg), so we anticipated some activity. For the first 5 minutes there were a couple of faint EVPs and then we picked up this rock solid Class A EVP. One of the clearest I have ever heard.
Burlington County EVP #10 - Gabby is asking what they did to get locked up into prison. There is a very faint EVP around 6 seconds to faint to pick up. Then you hear a male voice say "Now Kathy is dying." which we all heard right away, well those of us wearing the PhonoPod headsets. Clearly not me, Brian or Ian speaking and of course, why would any of the group just blurt that out?
About 3 minutes later, Amy is asking the spirits to muster their energy to manipulate any of the equipment in the room when a disembodied voice is captured!
Burlington County EVP #11 - Everyone heard this with either the PhonoPod or their own ears. This is clearly a female who is crying. Amazing capture!
While trying to make contact with the female spirit that had just cried, we reached out asking if she was in pain or was she sad. Then those of us wearing the PhonoPod headsets heard another EVP
Burlington County EVP #12 - This is a male voice and sounds like it is saying "No one." in response to us, though it could also be "Go on" as if we should move on out of the cell.
For the next 5 minutes, other than spiking EMF readings on the Mel Meter, it was fairly quiet. Then another totally bizarre EVP is captured. Not just the EVP itself, but how my audio recorder picked up the sound while it was sitting on the floor by itself.
Burlington County EVP #13 - At first you hear the background noise of the cell and the group. Then the audio recorder almost sounds like it is being turned off around 5 second mark. Right after that the background noise completely vanishes and what sounds like an Oriental female says "I miss Tokyo." In between there is a faint EVP captured but what is astonishing is that there is no background noise picked up from the room. None. Then the female says 'It's okay" and then the recorder makes an odd noise and all is normal again.
Here is a picture of the sound recording to show this oddity.
You can see in the screen shot of the sound file, from 0.0 to roughly 5.0 and from 10.5 to 13.5 seconds, that is what a sound file will typically look like. That flat line with the tiny bumps is background nose, the occasional blips show louder sounds. Then you see from 5.5 seconds to almost 10.4 seconds the bizarre lines and then flat line sound. At 6 seconds is when you hear the female say 'I miss Tokyo", yet there is no jump off the line to show the loud sound of her voice. This happens again at 9 seconds when she says 'It's okay". Voice that loud should have a mark on the timeline similar to what you see at the 0.5 mark. I've have listened to watched 100's of sound files and never seen this happen. The recorder sat perfectly still on the floor and was not touched. Also, nobody who was wearing the PhonoPod headphones heard these voices. We should have, but we did not.
How this could have happened is a big mystery to me. I later asked if there were any Oriental female prisoners, but it could be said for sure if there were any that stayed there because of crimes or paying off debt.
Roughly another 10 minutes went by and the cell felt lighter, so we packed up to move out to a different area. Suzanne, Amy, Brian and myself had walked into the next cell to the right and right away Suzanne got chills from head to toe. Again, the temp on the floor was still easily 80F and there was no air conditioning or open windows to get a cold chill like that. We picked up on it and sat down to communicate, when we caught this female voice.
Burlington County EVP #14 - You hear a bag I was using to carry the headsets in. The female is asking, "Who is this?". I guess since she had never seen us before, wanted to know who we were.
A few minutes later, Kristen, who was down the hall way a bit, felt the chill and like something had brushed her hair lightly.
As Kristen was telling us about her personal experience, we caught this creepy EVP in the new cell.
Burlington County EVP #15 - You first hear me saying "Cool" in acknowledging Kristen's personal experience. Then there is a female voice that is hard to make out, but she is saying something about "get out of the way". Is she telling Kristen to get out of the way as she was standing in the doorway to the cell at that moment? At the end of the main clip, you hear Suzanne note how the Mel Meter is bouncing from a 3.0mg to a 7.0mg, indicating a strong electromagnetic energy present.
We stayed another 15 minutes in the next cell, but captured no further EVPs. We did leave and get ready to go up to the 2nd floor when my recorder caught the next EVP
Burlington County EVP #16 - You first hear me say "up to the 2nd floor" followed by an older ladies voice who asks "How many children?". At first I thought this might have been one of the group until realizing there is nobody answering back to the question. Plus it is an out of the blue question because nobody was talking about children or a need to ask how many here.
As everybody moved up to the 2nd floor, I went to get my Shack Hack, wanted to use that since it had been a while. Also had to use the bathroom on the basement level. As I was walking alone on the basement level, I had that chill hit me and the feeling like somebody was walking with me. I said I was going to the bathroom and didn't need anybody following me. After I did my business and was getting ready to wash my hands, I picked up this Class A EVP.
Burlington County EVP #17 - You hear me walk over to the sink. At just past the 2 second mark, you can hear what sounds like a young boy (10ish?) ask me, "Where are......the horses?" Amazing EVP! If he is asking where are the horses, perhaps a child from the 1800's where the horse was the only mode of transportation on land besides train. A car would be completely foreign to him. Then we must also ask why the spirit of a young boy is roaming around the basement level of a prison?
Also, since a female EVP had asked a few minutes earlier where the children were, might this be one of them she was asking about?
There were 2 more faint EVPs as I left the bathroom area. One sounded like the boy saying "bye" and a male voice saying my name. but very faint.
As I got up to the main security room, everybody was already in a circle around the room and Ian & Gabby were conducting a P-SB7 spirit box session. Here are some of the best responses.
The group sitting around in the
maximum security cell on the 2nd floor. Note the heavy chain on the
floor just to the left of the REM-POD. This was used to keep a
prisoner secure in the cell. Many reports of hearing this chain moving
on its own, with nobody nearby.
Burlington County GB #1 - Ian is asking if they can touch the stick on the REM-POD. A male voice replies "(WHO) we talking to today?" Wanting to know who we are.
Burlington County GB #2 - I am asking if Rufus or Joel are there with us. Immediate reply of "No".
Burlington County GB #3 - Suzanne is holding the Mel-Rem and notes the EMF is up to a 1.4mg. She asks if they can light up the Mel-Rem she is holding. There is a very faint voice that sounds like it is saying "We're coming", followed by a louder voice that says "Here" . Suzanne hears the voice and says "Here?". At the end a male voice replies - "No"! Guess they don't want to touch the antennas and make em light up! LOL
Burlington County GB #4 - Ian is saying that we will be soon shutting down the box and do they have any messages for us. There is a loud reply we first thought said "come on", but on replay it sounds like "small'. Right afterward Suzanne announces the Mel-Rem has gone to a 3.1mg. Afterward a voice says, "A beeper". Is the spirit making note the Mel-Rem Suzanne is holding will also beep if the antenna is touched. We accidentally set it off once in a while as we positioned ourselves.
Burlington County GB #5 - The next one about a minute later just screams prison inmate. You first hear Suzanne saying the Mel-Rem is up to a 4.4mg. Amy asks if there is anything we can do to help them. A few seconds later, the male voice replies...."Blow job". It is said fast, but upon slowing down the clip it is even more clear that is what is being said. Smart ass male prisoner for sure!
Burlington County GB #6 - This clip there is nothing from the spirit box, but our reaction when Suzanne announces the Mel-Rem has just spiked to 19.8mg! We could all feel the energy in the room it was strong, but 19.8 was just crazy. Suzanne also notes that during our time in the basement, the Mel-Rem never went above a 1.0mg reading.
Shortly afterward, the reading fell to a 14.0 and the Temp was showing 141F. It was hot in there but not that hot. For anybody questioning the battery, I had opened up a pack and placed a brand new battery in the Mel-Rem maybe about 30 minutes earlier and would still have had an excellent charge on it.
We then shut down the P-SB7 and went to the Shack Hack (FM mode) to see how that would work.
This is a daytime photo of
the cell was located on the 2nd floor near the maximum security cell.
At night, when walking past it in the dark, it gave Kristen a brief
scare as it did have the look of a ghost sitting on the bed!
Burlington County GB #6 - You'll note a completely different sound to the Shack Hack vs the P-SB7. In this clip you hear me note the Shack Hack is old school, maybe the spirits there have seen it before. You'll hear a very clear male voice say "Hello". At the end of the clip you hear a voice we could not make out at the time, but it is a male saying very fast, "Save the chef". One of the inmates who was killed in the riot that killed the warden, worked in the kitchen. Is this spirit asking us to save that same person?
Burlington County GB #7 - At the 3 second mark of the clip you hear a male voice say very fast, "Brian's dead.", though we did hear Brian's name being said. Was this a warning to Brian from the spirit or was he telling us that somebody else named Brian was dead?
The Mel-Rem that Suzanne had dropped back down to 0.0mg and seemed flat, so we started offering money to the spirits if they would manipulate any of the equipment. One of the group threw a dollar bill on the floor to show we were being sincere with our request. Even though nothing was manipulated other than the energy reading on the Mel-Rem, we did get an acknowledgement of the money!
Burlington County GB #8 - You first hear Suzanne say the Meter is back up to a 12.2mg. Then you hear the female voice clearly say "Dollar"! We all laugh because its an amazing response! About 20 seconds after this was heard, the meter dropped back down to 0.0mg.
Burlington County GB #9 - Switching to AM scan, this male voice calls for "Help", but it was too low so we did not hear it at the time.
Burlington County GB #10 - Approximately 9 seconds after the call for help, a voice says very fast, "Help somebody out of it." Is there a spirit still attached to that massive chain in the room? That might explain why people have heard it over the years or people have found it had moved over time.
Burlington County GB #11 - There were some more little blurbs, but this one takes place as I am doing my count down to closing out the session. As I start to count "One", there is a male voice in the background saying what sounds like "Take me out of it now." Then at the 7 second mark at the end of the clip, you hear the male saying "Rick....help me." Is the reference "take me out of it now" asking us to unchain him from the floor? Though nobody named Rick with us, again the call for help!
At this point we all took a moment to go back to our "base camp" to refresh and discuss our experiences. I went back down to the basement to take some full spectrum photos, again feeling that chill that a spirit was nearby. There were 2 faint EVPs captured down here with the same voice saying "Let's go", but too faint to upload.
We then made our way into the 1st floor cell block area for the men where we were noting the graffiti that was drawn on the walls over the years and well preserved behind plexiglas. The vibe in here was not good.
A lot of graffiti had to do with
prisoners finding God and religion.
"""Thou
Shalt Not Steal!" Ya think??????
In this series of cell blocks, there was a passage way between all the cells in the back, so one could walk between cells back here.
Full spectrum photo of the small
openings one could walk through from cell to cell. The last room was a
bathroom.
As we were walking around, looking at the graffiti and the rooms, we caught another EVP.
Burlington County EVP #18 - You hear Brian and I discussing these openings. At the end of the clip there is a faint EVP from a male talking over me. Subjective, but it sounds like he is saying, "Please don't go."
We then picked a cell to sit in. Suzanne, Kristen, Brian and myself were going to sit in the cell. Amy and Gabby did not like the feel of the cell and decided to sit on a bench outside the cell. Ian stayed with them.
I left to go get a piece of equipment and a female spirit called out for me.
Burlington County EVP #19 - Sounds like she is calling out "Chuck"! Guess she didn't want me to leave the cell area.
After I came back with a piece of equipment I wanted, we sat down quietly for a bit just to feel the area. We then engaged in asking some questions, but no responses. So Ian suggested we try a spirit box session when we caught this amazing Class A EVP.
Burlington County EVP #20 - This clip is 14 seconds long and you don't hear the two word EVP until the 8 second mark. The reason is so you can hear the minor talking going on as Ian is getting his P-SB7 ready and what little is said after the EVP. It is so loud it echoes, but nobody heard it. Hence why nobody is questioning why anybody would say "5 years". Plus, this voice has an accent to it and is clearly not myself, Brian or Ian.
So is this spirit telling us how many years he was sentenced to or how many he had left before he died in prison? Though about 6 minutes later, we were asking if they confessed to us, we would ask the Warden to take 5 years off their sentence. Which makes you wonder, did the spirit plant the thought into our heads he wanted 5 years off or did he already know what we were going to say 6 minutes before we said it???
That's a noodle twister for sure thinking about that!
Ian then fired up his P-SB7 spirit box and here are some of the more interesting responses from that session.
Burlington County GB #12 - Suzanne is asking how old the spirit is. A male voice responds "Come Here"
Burlington County GB #13 - I am asking if they are willing to cooperate now. Male voice responds, "No"! A defiant bunch they are!
Burlington County GB #14 - This clips is where I tell them we'll tell the warden to take 5 years off their sentence. Right after I say this, you hear somebody sound excited by saying "Yoo hoo!". After some chatter we can't make out, at the end of the clip you hear a male voice say "Ok.....okay!. Now I can't say for sure, but this voice sounds very similar to the guy who said "5 years", though this time its coming through the spirit box.
So again did this spirit tell us how long he was in for? Did he manipulate our thoughts to say we'd get him 5 years off his sentence or did he know what we were going to offer before we said it 6 minutes later????
Burlington County GB #15 - About a minute later, Suzanne is trying to coax the spirits with the offer of special privileges for cooperating. We then get a double response, back to back. At around 4.5 seconds a male voice says very faint & fast "See I need to break through." followed by a clear male saying "Chucky". Breaking through makes sense if you are a prisoner trying to escape. Chucky is what I was called when I was a little boy and if Chuck wasn't uncommon enough to hear on the radio, then "Chucky" most certainly is rare!
Burlington County GB #16 - Ten seconds later, they call out my name again.
Burlington County GB #17 - 45 seconds later, "Hey Chuck". I guess they did not like me, kept calling me out and my presence might have been key there as we found out a bit later.
Burlington County GB #18 - About two minutes later, this creepy bit comes across. "Warden, you're done."!!!!!
Warden William Harry King was murdered November 5, 1920 during a riot. A prisoner in the cell (kitchen area), pretended to be sick. When the Warden went in to give him medicine, the prisoner struck him several times with an iron bar and killed him.
Is this the spirit of the prisoner, telling us that he was the one who killed the warden by saying "Warden, you're done."?
Burlington County GB #19 - Not heard on this clip, Suzanne had asked the spirits if they wanted something. There was a long spell of just typical spirit box white noise (left out of the clip), but then at two seconds you hear a male voice say "I love you.". Also significant to me being called out as I will explain in just a moment.
Burlington County Ovilus 4 - After the spirit box session was over, Kristen, Brian and myself had on the headsets used with the Phonopod to amplify sound and hear EVP live. I am telling any spirit there if they can speak to us loud and clear we will hear them. No sooner had I finished, the Ovilus 4 (which had been quiet for a while), says "Crossover"! No doubt some prisoner wanted to get out of there and cross into the light!
Now an interesting development took place. As it was 11:30pm at this point and our investigation had to end at midnight, I got up to leave and start breaking down the static cameras and put equipment away. Suzanne, Kristen, Brian and Amy stayed in the cell to communicate. All night long, Suzanne had been asking the spirits to touch the antenna on the Mel-Rem to make it light up and beep with no luck.
So Suzanne started to get more personal with the spirit. Asking about loved ones and if they missed them. Did they want to send a message or anything. Finally, the Mel-Rem went off through spirit manipulation. So once I cleared out of the area, I am guessing the spirit that said "I love you" was the one who set off the Mel-Rem. It's clear Suzanne's message of missing a loved one, girlfriend, wife, etc touched this spirit so he reached out to acknowledge her words. While I missed it, I am glad Suzanne finally had the Mel-Rem light up and buzz and that Amy, Kristen and Brian got to see it happen live. Another fantastic personal experience!
But I had one last of my own while this was going on. As I was at the bottom of the stairs near the workshop area, I was breaking down the Kinect camera and laptop (positioned to the right of the stairs), when I noticed out of the corner of my left eye, a white orb streak from the staircase past me down the hall!
I whipped my head to follow it, but it had vanished. It was at least the size of a baseball. I thought maybe my flashlight had reflected off the wall in a funny way, but I could not recreate what I had seen. We then said our goodbyes and headed back to home.
So in conclusion, the Burlington County Prison Museum certainly lived up to its billing as one of New Jersey's most haunted locations. I will def plan another trip back here in the future! It was great having Suzanne along, as her past experience investigating the prison was very helpful that night. Plus it was great finally getting to investigate with her finally! Ian & Gabby, no doubts left in their mind the place was haunted. Amy, who was worried at first about going to the prison to investigate, handled it like a trooper. Brian & Kristen wanted to have a great paranormal adventure and after their own personal experiences and what they will hear here on the blog will certainly have met their criteria for a good haunting!
My thanks again to Marisa Bozarth from the the Burlington County Prison Museum who helped set up our investigation and answered all my pre-investigation questions. Also thanks to Barb Johns, who came and let us in and was our caretaker for the evening. She gave us a quick tour, Q&A and even shut down the noisy dehumidifiers in the basement so they would not interfere with our audio work. (Yes I did turn them back on before we left! :-) )
If your a paranormal group in New Jersey looking for a great place to investigate, easy to get to and not that expensive ($250 for up to 10 folks when we booked), then I highly recommend investigating here.
More information can be found on their website - http://www.prisonmuseum.net/
