Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me for the season three premiere
Speaker 1: of Haunted Road. We have some incredible episodes coming up,
Speaker 1: and I just need to say thank you for making
Speaker 1: this podcast the spooky success it is. If you'd like
Speaker 1: to meet me in person, I am doing a fall
Speaker 1: tour where I will be visiting and speaking in multiple
Speaker 1: cities around the country. You can find out if I'll
Speaker 1: be in your neck of the woods by visiting Amy
Speaker 1: dash Brunei dot net. And if you're in the mood
Speaker 1: for a spooky vacation, who isn't. My company, Strange Escapes
Speaker 1: is planning retreats in Gettysburg, St. Augustine, Mount, Washington, Hawaii,
Speaker 1: and more. Check that out at strange dash escapes dot com.
Speaker 1: Sixteen years ago, I had made a pilgrimage to what
Speaker 1: I considered to be one of the most haunted places
Speaker 1: in America. Back then, I was still looking for ghosts
Speaker 1: for the novelty of it. I hung onto each whisper
Speaker 1: of an e v P or shadow on film like
Speaker 1: some sort of trophy. I think many of us start
Speaker 1: that way. This building was massive, five floors of walls
Speaker 1: and ceilings that were crumbling, wide open windows, vines, and
Speaker 1: trees invading rooms and threatening to take the building back
Speaker 1: down with them. When you walked, the constant crunch of
Speaker 1: tiles that had fallen from the ceiling and exploded across
Speaker 1: the floor was all you could hear, though sometimes you'd
Speaker 1: swear another set of crunching footsteps was right behind you.
Speaker 1: As I split from my friends who had traveled with me,
Speaker 1: I walked down a corridor on my own. It was
Speaker 1: then that I tried a little experiment. I decided to
Speaker 1: walk down this long hallway, and as I passed by
Speaker 1: each door, I would wait to see if one room
Speaker 1: in particular called to me, if I felt as though
Speaker 1: something unseen was inside. After walking by one, two, three rooms,
Speaker 1: I settled on the fourth door to my left. I
Speaker 1: walked in and felt a chill down my back and
Speaker 1: had a distinct feeling that I was, in fact not alone.
Speaker 1: Then I turned on my digital voice recorder and began
Speaker 1: quietly asking questions, who is here, what is your name?
Speaker 1: What can I do for you? After a few minutes
Speaker 1: of recording, I clicked off my recorder, said thank you
Speaker 1: and left. After a full night of investigating, I headed
Speaker 1: back to my hotel and retired for the evening or
Speaker 1: morning at that point. Later that day, I hopped a
Speaker 1: plane and headed to what was then home, California. It
Speaker 1: wasn't until days later, when I had some free time,
Speaker 1: that I was able to review my recordings. As I
Speaker 1: sat with my headphones intently listening, I reached the e
Speaker 1: v P session I took alone in that room, and
Speaker 1: then I heard it, an e v P that, even
Speaker 1: until this day causes me extreme guilt and forever changed
Speaker 1: the path and the way I investigate altogether. What can
Speaker 1: I do for you, I asked? A soft female voice replied,
Speaker 1: Where did I go? How could I? How could I
Speaker 1: have struck up this conversation? Popped a plane and waited
Speaker 1: until now to hear this forlorn voice. Forever changed. I
Speaker 1: knew this would definitely not be my last visit to
Speaker 1: Waverley Hills in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm Amy Brunei, and welcome
Speaker 1: to Haunted Road. In the early nineteenth century, the spread
Speaker 1: of tuberculosis was at epidemic. Proportions called captain among these
Speaker 1: men of death. The airborne disease was highly transmissible. It
Speaker 1: attacked a person's lungs, eating away at healthy lung tissue.
Speaker 1: Because some of the infected were asymptomatic, tuberculosis was easily
Speaker 1: spread within those holds. By the end of the eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: tuberculosis was responsible for about twenty five of the deaths
Speaker 1: in America. Encompassing the city of Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky
Speaker 1: was hit especially hard. It's hot, humid conditions were a
Speaker 1: perfect breeding ground for the bacterial disease. Hospitals needed to
Speaker 1: isolate their tuberculosis patients to prevent them from spreading the
Speaker 1: disease to the uninfected, and the county's little tuberculosis clinic
Speaker 1: was overrun, stressing the scant resources. Even more was the
Speaker 1: fact that those in need of treatment couldn't remain at
Speaker 1: home because they would risk infecting their loved ones. A
Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen article in the Louisville Courier Journal quoted a
Speaker 1: doctor Wilson who said Kentucky has the highest death rate
Speaker 1: from tuberculosis of any state in the Union, and Louisville
Speaker 1: and Jefferson County regularly do their part in maintaining this
Speaker 1: dreadful record. Before the development of drugs that could control tuberculosis,
Speaker 1: which wouldn't come until nineteen, doctors struggled to treat the disease.
Speaker 1: Their advice usually consisted of some kind of restriction on
Speaker 1: breathing to allow the lung to rest and recover, the
Speaker 1: idea being that if the lung was less stressed, it
Speaker 1: would have a better chance of fighting off the invasive bacteria.
Speaker 1: Some of these rest treatments were truly brutal. In some cases,
Speaker 1: patients would have a section of lung removed or would
Speaker 1: have a lung surgically collapsed to allow the organ to rest.
Speaker 1: In other instances, a patient would have weighted bags pressing
Speaker 1: on their lungs to restrict the extent to which a
Speaker 1: lung could expand during inhalation. But other treatments were much
Speaker 1: more gentle. Many doctors prescribed sunlight, fresh air, and rest
Speaker 1: to allow people to remain as calm as possible and
Speaker 1: give their system a chance to recover. Heliotherapy, also known
Speaker 1: as sun bathing, was a popular option, the idea being
Speaker 1: that the sun would kill the tuberculosis bacteria. Sanatoriums usually
Speaker 1: built high on hills surrounded by peaceful woods became an
Speaker 1: increasingly popular option. Patients could rest, stay calm, and have
Speaker 1: dedicated medical staff focused on the exclusive treatment of tuberculosis.
Speaker 1: Because of the enormous stress on the medical resources in
Speaker 1: Jefferson County, it was clear that the area needed a
Speaker 1: tuberculosis sanatorium of its own. In nineteen o eight, workers
Speaker 1: broke ground on construction of Jefferson County's new treatment facility
Speaker 1: in a place called Waverly Hills. Waverly Hills Sanatorium would
Speaker 1: eventually become an enormous hospital with four hundred beds, but
Speaker 1: when it opened its doors to patients on July nineteen ten,
Speaker 1: it was a humble, two story structure that could house
Speaker 1: about fifty patients. Being at Waverly Hills was referred to
Speaker 1: by locals as being on the hill, and everyone who
Speaker 1: went there was required to stay there as a permanent resident,
Speaker 1: and that meant everyone doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff
Speaker 1: lived on the property and remained there subject to the
Speaker 1: same extreme quarantine measures as patients and separate from the
Speaker 1: general population in the outside world. The sanatorium was so
Speaker 1: isolated that it even had its own post office to
Speaker 1: limit the spread of the bacteria. As much as possible.
Speaker 1: The sanitary requirements at Waverly Hills were strict. That same
Speaker 1: article from the Louisville Courier Journal described the facilities procedures
Speaker 1: at Waverly Hills. The reporter wrote, the floors are scrubbed
Speaker 1: every day. The garbage is burned. The patients cover their
Speaker 1: mouths and noses while coughing and sneezing, and their sputa
Speaker 1: is deposited in cups and burned. The sunshine strikes the
Speaker 1: buildings at all hours of the day. At the time
Speaker 1: that article was published, the sanatorium had grown to have
Speaker 1: one hundred seventy eight beds. Twenty five of them were
Speaker 1: for children and the rest were four adults. But there
Speaker 1: was an entire children's pavilion that sat empty and unused
Speaker 1: because Waverly Hills didn't have enough funding to outfit the space.
Speaker 1: Using photos of sickly children for emphasis, the article illustrated
Speaker 1: that the infected young ones must continue to live in
Speaker 1: Louisville and infect other children until the disease consumes so
Speaker 1: much of their little bodies that, through sheer weakness, they
Speaker 1: will take to their beds for the rests of their lives.
Speaker 1: By nineteen twenty four, construction began on an expansion that
Speaker 1: would grow Waverley Hills from its original two story facility
Speaker 1: to a sprawling campus with a five story sanatorium in
Speaker 1: order to meet increased demand. By nineteen twenty six, the
Speaker 1: hospital had four hundred beds, most of which were consistently
Speaker 1: in use. Full Recovery from tuberculosis before antibiotics was very rare.
Speaker 1: Even if a person could self cure, the disease almost
Speaker 1: always came back and was fatal in most instances. About
Speaker 1: half of the patients admitted to Waverley Hills were in
Speaker 1: the beginning or mid stages of TV and had a
Speaker 1: chance of being released and going home. The others were
Speaker 1: in advanced stages of tuberculosis and had essentially no chance
Speaker 1: of recovery. An important feature of the hospital was a
Speaker 1: five hundred twenty five foot tunnel that connected the basement
Speaker 1: of the original hospital with the first floor of the
Speaker 1: new building and extended to the bottom of the hill below.
Speaker 1: It served several functions, including delivering supplies and coal to
Speaker 1: the hospital and serving as a warmer way to ascend
Speaker 1: the hill to the hospital during the winter. It was
Speaker 1: also a discrete way to remove the remains of patients
Speaker 1: who had passed away. Although the tunnel is nicknamed the
Speaker 1: Body Shoot, that's not actually true. There was no actual
Speaker 1: underground slide. Rather, the tunnel was outfitted with a rail
Speaker 1: car system. According to the Waverly Hills Memorial Research Group,
Speaker 1: this tunnel became an effective tool for removing corpses off
Speaker 1: the hill in a way that the patients would not
Speaker 1: see the dead taken away in hearses. Directors of the
Speaker 1: sanatorium decided this was the best way to keep morale up.
Speaker 1: With the development of two potent tuberculosis antibiotics in nineteen
Speaker 1: and nineteen fifty one, respectively, the medical community finally started
Speaker 1: to get control of the disease. By nineteen fifty seven,
Speaker 1: the Courier Journal rep hoarded that the death rate at
Speaker 1: Waverly Hills had declined fifty seven percent in the previous
Speaker 1: ten years. In nineteen sixty one, a breakthrough in tuberculosis
Speaker 1: treatment emerged, an antibiotic that successfully cured the disease. While
Speaker 1: it was incredible news for those affected by tuberculosis, it
Speaker 1: also rendered Waverly Hills obsolete. That same year, the hospital
Speaker 1: closed its doors for good after a quarantine period renovations
Speaker 1: began that converted the facility into a nursing home, eventually
Speaker 1: known as wood Haven Medical Services. That facility was closed
Speaker 1: in nineteen one amid horrific allegations of elder abuse and neglect.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty, the Louisville Courier Journal reported that wood Haven,
Speaker 1: one of the state's largest homes, got into trouble after
Speaker 1: a scathing report by state licensing Director Sharon Ware. An
Speaker 1: inspection found patients kept behind locked doors and generally neglected.
Speaker 1: She reported an intense state investigation found malnourished, dehydrated patients,
Speaker 1: shoddy care, and sloppy medical records that, in some instances
Speaker 1: mistakenly labeled patients as diabetic. Waverly Hills remained closed for
Speaker 1: the next twenty years. The Waverly Hills Historical Society describes
Speaker 1: that period as one of pitiful abandonment, writing over the
Speaker 1: next few decades, Waverly Hills would fall into more dark times,
Speaker 1: vandalized damage, nearly condemned. Previous property owners had no desire
Speaker 1: to maintain the luster of the building and did little
Speaker 1: to stop from slowly destroying her. It is sad that
Speaker 1: a place that played such a vital role during this
Speaker 1: period of history and medical discovery was not only over,
Speaker 1: but now disrespected. In two thousand one, current owners, Charlie
Speaker 1: and Tina Mattingly, purchased Waverly Hills and shortly afterward founded
Speaker 1: the Waverly Hills Historical Society, working to restore the buildings.
Speaker 1: By that point, the hospital had acquired quite the reputation
Speaker 1: as a haunted location, and with all those deaths and
Speaker 1: all the suffering that happened inside, it was a reputation
Speaker 1: the place had earned. In addition to an estimated six
Speaker 1: thousand deaths from tuberculosis and disease that happened at Waverly Hills,
Speaker 1: there were several other untimely deaths inside the hospital. In
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four, orderly John Lewis Griggs attacked co worker
Speaker 1: Edwin a Bris, kicking and stamping him to death. Griggs
Speaker 1: was acquitted of his murder charges because, by his account,
Speaker 1: Briss had threatened him with a knife. There are also
Speaker 1: reports of a nurse hanging herself in Room five oh
Speaker 1: two after becoming pregnant out of wedlock, and another nurse
Speaker 1: jumping off the roof to her death after being diagnosed
Speaker 1: with tuberculosis, herself. Waverly Hills has since opened to tours
Speaker 1: and is a popular site for paranormal investigation. Visitors report
Speaker 1: seeing countless shadow people and ghostly children, including a mysterious
Speaker 1: man in white drifting through corridors, and a spectral boy
Speaker 1: named Timmy who roams the halls and likes to play ball.
Speaker 1: Also frequently reported are light anomalies and apparitions in the
Speaker 1: body shoot wave. Really Hills has such a reputation for
Speaker 1: being haunted, it's often referred to by paranormal researchers as
Speaker 1: the most haunted location in the United States, if not
Speaker 1: the world. Over the years, I've investigated Waverly Hills many times,
Speaker 1: including a few times with my bff Adam Bury. Adam
Speaker 1: and I share the screen on Discovery Plus and Travel
Speaker 1: channels show Kindred Spirits, which we filmed an episode of
Speaker 1: at Waverley, and before that we were paired up on
Speaker 1: Ghost Hunters, where we also filmed multiple episodes at Waverley.
Speaker 1: We've had some wild experiences there over the years, so
Speaker 1: I figured it would be fun to chat with him
Speaker 1: about our experiences there and our theories as to why
Speaker 1: Waverley is just so darn haunted. So that is coming
Speaker 1: up after the break. So, since we have been chatting
Speaker 1: about Waverly Hills, I thought there was no one better
Speaker 1: to join me in the second half of the podcast
Speaker 1: than Mr Adam Berry himself. Hello Adam Berry, Hello Amy Bruneing. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many people out there know this,
Speaker 1: but Waverly Hills is really kind of responsible for the
Speaker 1: show Kindred Spirits coming about in a way. That was
Speaker 1: a case that we did on Ghost Hunters, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't the first time, but it was one of the
Speaker 1: most profound times where we left the case feeling kind
Speaker 1: of guilty, like we had unfinished business there. And so
Speaker 1: I don't know, can you kind of tell the story
Speaker 1: of what happened to us at Waverly Hills and why
Speaker 1: that inspired the show. Yes, So at this point in
Speaker 1: our relationship when we did that case, we've been working
Speaker 1: together for many, multiple years, and we had got at
Speaker 1: that point. We had the same investigation style, we had
Speaker 1: the same sort of belief system about what we were
Speaker 1: trying to do as you and I right in this team.
Speaker 1: And when we got to Waverley, they had opened up
Speaker 1: a brand new corridor or a new wing, and they
Speaker 1: called it the nurses wing. And so I remember you
Speaker 1: and I really wanted to get in there, and everybody
Speaker 1: went before us. That's the way it was back then.
Speaker 1: Everybody had already investigated, you know, got in there before us.
Speaker 1: But so we were the last to go, and I
Speaker 1: think it, I think we saved the best for last
Speaker 1: in my opinion. Right, we got into this this hallway,
Speaker 1: and the weirdest part about it as we started hearing
Speaker 1: these knocks, or we had asked for these knocks to happen,
Speaker 1: because it was just an easy way for us to
Speaker 1: just see if any you know, anybody was there, any
Speaker 1: spirits were there. And I remember we asked for someone
Speaker 1: to knock and it happened, and we both were like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's very strange. And then we'd asked them to do
Speaker 1: it again, and it would do it again, like immediately after.
Speaker 1: And so we started playing around with this because you
Speaker 1: and I had never experienced something so immediate. I would say,
Speaker 1: like that would just continuously happen over and over again.
Speaker 1: So like I put my hand on the window frame, uh,
Speaker 1: and I said, can you knock on the wood beside
Speaker 1: my hand? And then it would knock on the wood
Speaker 1: beside my hand, which was bizarre, and I think we
Speaker 1: were able to you know, we said everyone, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're a nurse in here and you want to
Speaker 1: talk to us and reach out to us, if you
Speaker 1: could each knock individually so we could count how many
Speaker 1: there are of you, and I think we got to
Speaker 1: twelve or thirteen at this point. You and I wanted
Speaker 1: to help somehow, right, like, we don't know who they are,
Speaker 1: we don't know why they're there, but this is the
Speaker 1: direction we were leaning towards as investigators, Like we were
Speaker 1: done verifying that they exist. We wanted to help them.
Speaker 1: But the only thing that we could do, you know,
Speaker 1: we asked if they wanted prayer, and there was like
Speaker 1: a bunch of knocks, and so we said, in our
Speaker 1: own way, a little prayer. And what was insane is
Speaker 1: like during this prayer, which probably lasted, you know, forty
Speaker 1: five seconds to a minute, there was no knocks, no sounds, nothing,
Speaker 1: And then as soon as we said I'm in, knock,
Speaker 1: knock as if they were saying thank you. And you know,
Speaker 1: as investigators, you think about what that is like. It's
Speaker 1: when there was nothing happening during the prayer. Obviously it
Speaker 1: wasn't naturally happening. It wasn't rain, it wasn't a motor
Speaker 1: or something mechanical. They were legit listening. And then you
Speaker 1: and I sad to say, at like three or four am,
Speaker 1: we're going into overtime. Our camera crew has been working
Speaker 1: all day long. We have to go. And as we're
Speaker 1: leaving the nurse's wing, we just hear knocks knocks, and
Speaker 1: they're just following us down the hallway like almost to
Speaker 1: say like please don't go, like we're making progress, and
Speaker 1: we we had to leave, and that was the catalyst
Speaker 1: for Kindred Spirits because we were like, we no longer
Speaker 1: want to leave a location without doing something to help
Speaker 1: or to get a message across, Like we wanted to
Speaker 1: do more than just verified. And that literally was it.
Speaker 1: We were like, we're, yeah, we're done just saying there's
Speaker 1: a spooky ghost here. We're gonna find out who they are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is exactly right. And I felt like I remember
Speaker 1: being in that area and just feeling this very heavy
Speaker 1: guilty feeling because I think you and I could just
Speaker 1: sense that whoever was there was so desperately trying to
Speaker 1: communicate with us for whatever reason. We didn't know why,
Speaker 1: like why they were so intent on it, and it
Speaker 1: went on for so long, and then we still had
Speaker 1: to leave, and I remember walking down that hallway as
Speaker 1: those knocks continued next to us, and like just tears
Speaker 1: running down my face because I was like, I never
Speaker 1: you put your arm around me. That's the second wait. Wait,
Speaker 1: that was the first of two times that that would
Speaker 1: happen at Waverly exactly, and so I just remember thinking like,
Speaker 1: this can't be it. We can't keep doing this. When
Speaker 1: I got back to the hotel, the sun is rising,
Speaker 1: like I can hear the birds starting to sing outside,
Speaker 1: and I swear as soon as my head hit the pillow,
Speaker 1: I heard on my wall this knock knock, Like I
Speaker 1: was like, I remember saying out loud, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: We will be back. We will be back and we
Speaker 1: will do something more. And so whenever people ask like
Speaker 1: how did Kindred come about, I'm like, well, let me
Speaker 1: tell you a story about Waverly Hills. So just now
Speaker 1: my my my wall cracked. They know, they know, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it is a special place for us. I had
Speaker 1: gone to Waverly Hills so before I was ever on TV,
Speaker 1: I had been on a few paranormal teams, and one
Speaker 1: of the teams I was on, we actually kind of
Speaker 1: I lived in California at the time, and we made
Speaker 1: the trip to Waverley for an organized paranormal experience, right
Speaker 1: like an investigation. And I think they were probably twenty
Speaker 1: of us total, which Waverly is more than capable of
Speaker 1: handling twenty people. It's massive, and I will never forget,
Speaker 1: like this was the first time I had ever done
Speaker 1: one of these kind of larger scale investigations, and I
Speaker 1: will never forget, like the time you could only go
Speaker 1: in one way, and so I remember Tina maddingly then
Speaker 1: opening the door for us to that hallway, the one
Speaker 1: where you go down and there's that kind of that
Speaker 1: pellet stove that was the only way in. Like once
Speaker 1: that door closed, everything else was boarded shut. And so
Speaker 1: I remember making that walk and as I was walking,
Speaker 1: like seriously having a panic attack because I was like,
Speaker 1: I know something is going to happen here. I am
Speaker 1: one going to have some sort of experience in this place.
Speaker 1: And it was just quiet, and then that door just
Speaker 1: slams behind you, and Tina's like, I'll get you at
Speaker 1: two I am or whatever it was that remember what
Speaker 1: time door slam shut, and so it actually that night
Speaker 1: I was there for hours and that was one of
Speaker 1: the first really strong e v P s I got.
Speaker 1: I mean maybe not the first, but it was a
Speaker 1: very pelling one. I actually played it on a radio
Speaker 1: program a few months later. So the e v P
Speaker 1: that I got, I was on the first floor and
Speaker 1: I was walking along. There were just a few of
Speaker 1: us down there, and just kind of walking by these
Speaker 1: old rooms. Now, back then, Waverley was a lot like
Speaker 1: they've done a lot of work there over the years,
Speaker 1: and that time it kind of reminded me of like
Speaker 1: what Belvoir Winery is like, like what the Odd Fellows
Speaker 1: is very overgrown, not trash, but just debris everywhere, like
Speaker 1: you couldn't walk anywhere without making huge crunch crunch noises.
Speaker 1: And so I was walking down that first floor and
Speaker 1: some of the people I was with they kind of
Speaker 1: took off, and so I was literally like by myself,
Speaker 1: and I kind of did something that you and I
Speaker 1: have done in recent years, where I decided I was
Speaker 1: going to walk by these rooms, and the room that
Speaker 1: called out to me or that felt like I should
Speaker 1: go into, I would go into that room and do
Speaker 1: an e v P session. So I did that and
Speaker 1: I felt I walked by this room and it just
Speaker 1: something about it drew me to it, and I went
Speaker 1: in and I did an e VP session and asked
Speaker 1: a bunch of questions and then stop my recorder and
Speaker 1: left and did not listen to that recording until I
Speaker 1: was back in California. And when I got back to California,
Speaker 1: I was like reviewing all my evidence, which is also
Speaker 1: why we do real time e v P listening now,
Speaker 1: where we listen back right away. I can't remember what
Speaker 1: the question was that I asked. I said something along
Speaker 1: the lines of, you know, is someone here? Who are you?
Speaker 1: And all I got was this really strong female whisper
Speaker 1: in the room with me. I was by myself, and
Speaker 1: she just said where did I go? And I was like,
Speaker 1: I heard that back home in California, and I was thinking,
Speaker 1: oh my god, who is this poor woman who asked
Speaker 1: me this very profound question. And then I was like,
Speaker 1: piece up, see you. You know, so you had another
Speaker 1: But apparently I wasn't far along enough in my paranormal
Speaker 1: career to have be a moment that maybe kind of
Speaker 1: rethink what I was doing. But so bizarre totally, But
Speaker 1: didn't you have that in the back of your mind
Speaker 1: every time you go there afterwards? Like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like that's just always sort of like sitting yes, yes,
Speaker 1: absolutely the way, and I think you agree. The way
Speaker 1: I always view Waverley is that there are so many
Speaker 1: spirits there and sometimes it's hard to kind of break
Speaker 1: through individually, to get their individual stories. And it's kind
Speaker 1: of like our work there is never finished, And so
Speaker 1: is that woman still there? Has someone since gone there
Speaker 1: and helped her? Did she figure out where she went?
Speaker 1: Did she go where she was supposed to go? You know,
Speaker 1: so many questions, so you and also invove, did you
Speaker 1: do Waverley with Ghost Hunter's Academy to girl? Let me
Speaker 1: just say so, I knew about Waverley right. The thing
Speaker 1: about academy Ghostner's Academy, which we're gonna bring it if
Speaker 1: anyone doesn't know what this is. It was a spin
Speaker 1: off show of ghost Centers called ghost Unders Academy where
Speaker 1: they would take quote unquote cadets. That's the cutest thing
Speaker 1: I've ever been called ever. It's like a boy scout um.
Speaker 1: They would take cadets and put them in like really
Speaker 1: haunted places and then they you know, they would educate
Speaker 1: Stephen Dave would educate the TAPS way of investigating, and
Speaker 1: then they would observe and and somebody would be eliminated.
Speaker 1: But the main thing was you did not know where
Speaker 1: you were going, Like they would keep the locations from us,
Speaker 1: and so we would like drive up and we'd be
Speaker 1: like at Waverley or trans Alleghany or the Stanley Hotel,
Speaker 1: which by the way, are like the most badass locations. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 1: So the my first the first episode that I was
Speaker 1: on was Waverly Hills and we all drove up and
Speaker 1: there I was standing in front of this massive location
Speaker 1: that I had known about. And so that was my
Speaker 1: not only my first experience investigating a location like that,
Speaker 1: like huge. Usually I was in like old houses and stuff.
Speaker 1: But like, first off that too. I had left my
Speaker 1: house at two am. It was now two m and
Speaker 1: I was filming a TV show. So I had been
Speaker 1: up since two am. It's now two PM, and we
Speaker 1: didn't stop filming until four AM. So let's let's do that.
Speaker 1: And three, it's like you're sort of like thrust into
Speaker 1: this environment where you're like, okay, I've always wanted to
Speaker 1: be here. This is really weird now I'm being filmed
Speaker 1: being here. Plus I have to focus on everything else.
Speaker 1: So that first day it was an absolute whirlwind. And
Speaker 1: it was January, so you know it was it was freezing.
Speaker 1: Oh that place gets so cold that you you don't
Speaker 1: expect it, but there is nothing colder than Waverley Hills
Speaker 1: in the winter because it's just cement all around you.
Speaker 1: It's dangerously cold, I would say freezing frigid. And so
Speaker 1: it's it's been so I spent twelve years, but like
Speaker 1: I do remember, we had really crazy experiences. I think
Speaker 1: we heard footsteps at one point that we couldn't identify.
Speaker 1: And it was one of those places that you obviously
Speaker 1: never forget. I mean, your first time at Waverley you
Speaker 1: never we get. So that I did it on Academy,
Speaker 1: and then you and I got to do it on
Speaker 1: Ghost Tuners, and then you and I got to go
Speaker 1: back for a candred you know, three times at least
Speaker 1: at least three times, and I've been there at least
Speaker 1: two or three times outside of filming. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just one of those places I feel like we get,
Speaker 1: you know, it is the paranormal investigators, like, what would
Speaker 1: that be to other people like that? I mean, it's
Speaker 1: like it is, it is the holy Grail. And speaking
Speaker 1: of I had like the holy Grail of experiences there
Speaker 1: with you when we were filming Expirits, which to this
Speaker 1: day is probably one of the most scared moments I've
Speaker 1: ever had investigating. And so we clearly we had made
Speaker 1: contact with this angry man. He had had a lot
Speaker 1: of issues in life and just some terrible things that
Speaker 1: happened to him. And we first like, this guy was
Speaker 1: just that the problem was that, and Tina brought him
Speaker 1: up to us at the time where she was saying
Speaker 1: that at people kept getting this man screaming on the
Speaker 1: fourth floor and she even said she heard him scream
Speaker 1: in her ear and he was coming through the spirit box.
Speaker 1: And then I remember we did an e VP session
Speaker 1: and we played it back and there was just this
Speaker 1: man's screaming, and so we kind of brought up these
Speaker 1: different stories that we had found in newspapers and he
Speaker 1: seemed to be this man named John Mitchell. So anyway,
Speaker 1: you and I were trying to reach out to this guy,
Speaker 1: and he clearly wanted no part of any of this,
Speaker 1: and so we're standing. So much happened at once. This
Speaker 1: is one of those moments in paranormal investigating where like
Speaker 1: it's really important when multiple things happened together. And so
Speaker 1: in this case, you and I are standing on the
Speaker 1: fourth floor. We're looking kind of down this hallway. We
Speaker 1: feel a breeze, which on its own is not a
Speaker 1: big deal. There's some windows missing whatever. We hear these
Speaker 1: leaves kind of blowing down the corridor, which again like
Speaker 1: they make kind of a scratching sound, but we're like, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe that could be just the breeze. But with that breeze,
Speaker 1: we start hearing footsteps like this, click click, click, and
Speaker 1: you and I are like, what the heck? And so
Speaker 1: we're staring in that direction, waiting to say, like, what
Speaker 1: is happening here? Everyone the whole crew, and everyone's just
Speaker 1: looking at each other like what the heck is going on?
Speaker 1: And suddenly this man just appears in front of us.
Speaker 1: And I'm staring right at this guy, like he just
Speaker 1: flashes out of nowhere, and he looks so angry, and
Speaker 1: he's just staring at us, and I see he's wearing
Speaker 1: some sort of like kind of brownish canvasy looking maybe
Speaker 1: almost jumpsuit thing, and then he disappears, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Adam, did you see that? And I
Speaker 1: think you saw like kind of the tail end of it,
Speaker 1: but you saw something, and then I was just like,
Speaker 1: what the heck. So we go down at the same
Speaker 1: time this is happening. Our poor producer Brian. He's like
Speaker 1: he had had a coughing attack that he was trying
Speaker 1: to kind of silence is very dusty in there, and
Speaker 1: he kept feeling someone pushing on his back the whole time,
Speaker 1: like wow, like, and so he finally backed himself against
Speaker 1: a wall because something wouldn't stop pushing him. At the
Speaker 1: same time, and then you and I stand in the
Speaker 1: hallway and we try to continue our e v P moment.
Speaker 1: We're listening to it back and something grabs my arm
Speaker 1: so much that I just jump and I think I
Speaker 1: let out the longest stream of f bombs I have
Speaker 1: ever Blame me for doing it. You're like you grabbed me.
Speaker 1: You're like, you did it. Don't do that. And then
Speaker 1: I did not do it, and we looked back at
Speaker 1: the footage you didn't do it. So it was just
Speaker 1: like this whole crazy moment where all of these things
Speaker 1: kept happening, and I remember, I'll never forget. I think
Speaker 1: they played it in on one of the bonus episodes,
Speaker 1: but as we were leaving, I remember just covering my
Speaker 1: eyes and holding on to you because I was like,
Speaker 1: I just don't want to see that man again. I
Speaker 1: just I mean it, I don't want to see him again.
Speaker 1: And I even told Tina at the end of that,
Speaker 1: I said, I don't know that I'll be coming back
Speaker 1: to Waverly Hills anytime soon, Like it just really shook me.
Speaker 1: And I have not been back since, although I haven't
Speaker 1: had the opportunity. I'm working on it, but I mean,
Speaker 1: I do remember the whole experience seemed like a horror
Speaker 1: movie at a point, because with the wind and the footsteps,
Speaker 1: we acknowledge the wind, and I even think I said,
Speaker 1: that's free, Like that's like a horror movie. Like I say,
Speaker 1: I acknowledge the oddness of the wind, just all of
Speaker 1: a sudden picking up with the footsteps and the leaves,
Speaker 1: and then it happens, and I did see the tail end.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like he had like a brown
Speaker 1: bowl cut kind of situation going on. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just remember seeing his face. He has a very
Speaker 1: distinct look, but I got a very good look at him,
Speaker 1: and he did have brown hair. Yeah, and like he
Speaker 1: what's weird is like he's sort of manifested and then
Speaker 1: sucked back like like it went away. It's just the
Speaker 1: weirdest thing. It was very much him being like I
Speaker 1: don't want to talk to any Nothing you can say
Speaker 1: will make me feel better about what happened to me
Speaker 1: and my life, and I'm just going to stay here
Speaker 1: until I'm ready to go. Yeah. Also, well, and it
Speaker 1: was so sad. His whole his whole story is so sad.
Speaker 1: Someone's like a self imposed sentence of sorts, like where
Speaker 1: he's like I'm just still grieving or something. He didn't
Speaker 1: even die it way, really, he got moved. He did
Speaker 1: die of tuberculosis. He got moved to a different hospital
Speaker 1: because they moved a bunch of people I think when
Speaker 1: it closed. And but he spent I think twelve or
Speaker 1: thirteen years there. Yeah, I mean. And also before he
Speaker 1: appeared to us, before that happened, I was using the
Speaker 1: SLS camera and I remember it just kept getting shut
Speaker 1: off and it was like it was fully charged, and
Speaker 1: I would open it up and I would point it
Speaker 1: in that direction and it would shut off, and then
Speaker 1: I would do it again, and then it would shut off,
Speaker 1: and I remember getting so mad about it. I was like,
Speaker 1: I am so mad. Stopped messing with my equipment, and
Speaker 1: you were like, Okay, calm down, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fight. You know. It was just like it
Speaker 1: was as if this entity, this person had a plan,
Speaker 1: was like I'm going to show myself to you. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like it's like I don't want
Speaker 1: to be used in that manner or something. I will say.
Speaker 1: That was the one time, like when you were so mad,
Speaker 1: I was like, I think something here is affecting at them,
Speaker 1: like it really did. I was really for a moment,
Speaker 1: I was like, is this it is this when we
Speaker 1: finally get possessed. Is this time like like here goes
Speaker 1: everyone's waiting for it. I mean maybe, I mean the
Speaker 1: energy in that space is very, very strange, and you
Speaker 1: and I are really tuned in sometimes to the environment,
Speaker 1: and you know, sometimes we might not recognize it. And
Speaker 1: if fire temperament is going in a different direction, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe we are you know, maybe we are
Speaker 1: just being not possessed. But like affected by the energy
Speaker 1: around us, because when you and I investigate, I feel
Speaker 1: like there's an exchange of energy between the things that
Speaker 1: we're talking to people were trying to reach in the
Speaker 1: spirits that we're reaching out to end us. And I
Speaker 1: think in a way that's why we get such good
Speaker 1: evidence and good community patian because of our energy and
Speaker 1: collective whatever. So I think maybe it is maybe we
Speaker 1: do get slightly affected. Well, you know, it's it's like
Speaker 1: our version of reading the room, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like it happens with living people all the time.
Speaker 1: You and I talked about this. Whenever we do like
Speaker 1: meet and greets and things, sometimes people come up to
Speaker 1: us and we're just like that person is having a
Speaker 1: bad day, you know, or like like we or that
Speaker 1: person is just really lovely and bright, and like it's
Speaker 1: not what they're saying, it's just that energy that they're
Speaker 1: giving off. Like you just get a feeling from people
Speaker 1: standing in front of you and you feel that, and
Speaker 1: so what's to say that that kind of feeling is
Speaker 1: not there in the spirit world and we're not kind
Speaker 1: of picking up on that from the dead as well.
Speaker 1: And we've really just filled with so much that we've
Speaker 1: really filled with so many things. And like I said
Speaker 1: when we first started, like you will not walk into
Speaker 1: that place and not have an experience. I know, shadow
Speaker 1: figures are prevalent there. I've seen many. The footsteps are
Speaker 1: crazy and it is almost like they're messing with you.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've experienced that. There walk behind
Speaker 1: you and you stop and they stop. Yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things like I think I
Speaker 1: got an e v P my first time there of
Speaker 1: the footsteps and what I swear to God was like
Speaker 1: a rolling cart sound near the Death Tunnel or the
Speaker 1: Death Shoot, Like it literally sounded like a cart, you know,
Speaker 1: like they were rolling somebody like down into that Nobody
Speaker 1: was there. It's a it's a crazy it's a crazy,
Speaker 1: crazy location that like when you and I investigated Waverley
Speaker 1: for Kindred, there were times we had to go and
Speaker 1: get something by ourselves in that location with no one
Speaker 1: else because our crew is very small. We had left
Speaker 1: with you and I. It's less than its seven crew
Speaker 1: members and you and I, you know, there were times
Speaker 1: that we were alone alone, like walking all the way
Speaker 1: to the fourth floor to get a camera or to
Speaker 1: get a piece of equipment. I think we even left
Speaker 1: equipment there on accident. We were like, well left it
Speaker 1: waver please, you know, because you wouldn't find it. But
Speaker 1: it's it changes you every time that you go. It's
Speaker 1: always haunted. And I guess, you know, listeners want to know, Amy,
Speaker 1: are we going to go back, because if you recall,
Speaker 1: we went to Waverley for Kindred to go to the
Speaker 1: nurse's wing, right and to sort of close that chapter
Speaker 1: for us, But because Tina, she had an experience that
Speaker 1: was really frightening, and for Tina to have an experience
Speaker 1: that's frightening is saying something, and so our entire purpose
Speaker 1: I guess changed for that case. And so now we
Speaker 1: gotta we have to go back and close that nurse chapter,
Speaker 1: I hope. So you know, I mean, Waverley is there's
Speaker 1: a lot going on there right now, and I am
Speaker 1: sure that some listeners might know this, but Tina and Charlie,
Speaker 1: who ran it for a long time, I think they're
Speaker 1: still involved in some way. But then there's a historical
Speaker 1: society that's there, and there seems to be some sort
Speaker 1: of tension or legal thing going on, and it's really
Speaker 1: hard from the outside, because I have the utmost respect
Speaker 1: for Tina and Charlie, I have the utmost respect for
Speaker 1: the historical society, and so I just really hope that
Speaker 1: somehow it comes to kind of an amicable solution. So
Speaker 1: I just I wish everyone involved with that place the best,
Speaker 1: And you know, I think we're all kind of eagerly
Speaker 1: watching to see what happens. But at least there are
Speaker 1: people they're still tending to it. I know people can
Speaker 1: still investigate it. They can go to the Waverley Hills website,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you and I will be back there
Speaker 1: in some way, shape or form in the near future.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's, as so many of these kind
Speaker 1: of large historical places go, there's sometimes you know, just
Speaker 1: trying to to keep it running gets complicated, especially with
Speaker 1: like legal and tax issues. So hopefully they're able to
Speaker 1: get it all ironed out. For sure, we have to
Speaker 1: go back. We have to go back. We have to
Speaker 1: go back. I know they would love to have us back.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's made a profound impact on both
Speaker 1: of our lives and our paranormal careers, and it's probably
Speaker 1: done the same for so many people, paranormal and otherwise
Speaker 1: but like I said, I couldn't think of a better
Speaker 1: person to talk to about it because it means so
Speaker 1: much to us. What are you up to? Like once
Speaker 1: you do some, you know, shout out. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm not to nothing. But what is this airing? June?
Speaker 1: No July, July? Well, right now, if you're listening and
Speaker 1: it's mid July, Amy and I are both on a
Speaker 1: European cruise with Strange Escapes, that's true. We probably will
Speaker 1: be on the cruise when this comes out. No, actually, no, sorry,
Speaker 1: this is coming out June. This is a season premiere,
Speaker 1: so June, so we will be somewhere I don't know.
Speaker 1: We will have just finished if you're listening, we will
Speaker 1: have just finished the Strange Escapes event at the Belvoir Winery.
Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, and then we're about to go on
Speaker 1: a cruise, so hang out with us. We've got so
Speaker 1: many things going on. We've got all these talks coming up.
Speaker 1: Adam's got talks coming up, We've got events coming up.
Speaker 1: We're leading into the busy season. So if you're listening
Speaker 1: to this in the summer of fall of wo is
Speaker 1: going to be crazy. Yeah, catch us, catch us if
Speaker 1: you can yes, so well, hopefully I'll see you very soon.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen him forever, so oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll see you in a couple of weeks. Listeners, I
Speaker 1: just saw her, but that's right, I'll see you again.
Speaker 1: It's very confusing, okay, all right, well, thank you very much,
Speaker 1: Mr Barry. It's a lovely time anytime I get to
Speaker 1: speak with you, and I'll talk to you soon. You're welcome.
Speaker 1: Knock knock. Waverley Hills Sanatorium clearly changed the entire direction
Speaker 1: of my philosophy on ghosts and frankly, the trajectory of
Speaker 1: my career as an investigator and researcher. I'm thankful for that,
Speaker 1: but still have a lingering sense of longing and a
Speaker 1: touch of guilt because of the spirits there. In my heart,
Speaker 1: I know there are so many stories that remain untold
Speaker 1: inside that massive Gothic structure, and every time I go there,
Speaker 1: desperate voices begging to be heard. I implore you if
Speaker 1: you visit Waverley Hills, have fun, of course, but please
Speaker 1: remember the history there. Really ponder who could potentially be
Speaker 1: reaching out to you and why. Most importantly, just listen.
Speaker 1: I'm Amy Bruney, and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Mankey. Haunted Road is hosted and written
Speaker 1: by me Amy Bruney, additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn. The
Speaker 1: show is edited and produced by rema El Kali and
Speaker 1: supervising producer Josh Thing and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.