Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Minkie. Listener Discretion is advised. Three
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty one years ago, nineteen people were executed
Speaker 1: in Salem, Massachusetts. Eighteen of them were hanged in front
Speaker 1: of hordes of enthralled onlookers. One unfortunate soul was crushed
Speaker 1: to death after being pinned under boulders for three long
Speaker 1: days in an effort to extract a plea from the
Speaker 1: accused man. Their crime witchcraft, or so their accusers said.
Speaker 1: Among those hanged was John Procter, a local farmer and
Speaker 1: tavern owner. Procter and his wife Elizabeth, were both accused
Speaker 1: of witchcraft. Today, a house bearing his name stands just
Speaker 1: outside the modern borders of Salem. It may technically be
Speaker 1: in the next town over, but the John Procter House
Speaker 1: looms large over the darkest parts of Salem's history, and
Speaker 1: it is absolutely full of ghosts, not only of those
Speaker 1: who were touched by the witch trials, but by generations
Speaker 1: of spirits who are there for a reason you might
Speaker 1: not expect. I'm Amy Bruney, and this is Haunted Road.
Speaker 1: Born in England in sixteen thirty one, John Procter Junior
Speaker 1: emigrated to America when he was just three years old
Speaker 1: with his parents, John Senior and Martha Proctor. The family
Speaker 1: settled in Ipswich, a town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Speaker 1: about twelve miles north of Salem. The elder Procter was
Speaker 1: well respected in Ipswich. He owned many properties and was
Speaker 1: one of the town's wealthiest residence. Despite a life of prosperity,
Speaker 1: the younger John Proctor's life was marked by loss. He
Speaker 1: married his first wife, Martha, in Ipswich in sixteen fifty two.
Speaker 1: They had four children together, but in sixteen fifty nine,
Speaker 1: Martha died in childbirth. Only one of their kids, Benjamin,
Speaker 1: survived into adulthood. After Martha's death, Proctor married Elizabeth Thorndyke
Speaker 1: in sixteen sixty two, with whom he had seven more children.
Speaker 1: Two of those kids also passed away in their youth.
Speaker 1: In sixteen sixty six, the family relocated to Salem. The
Speaker 1: Proctor's leased a large farm on the outskirts of Salemtown,
Speaker 1: which today is Peebody, mass Back then, it was referred
Speaker 1: to as Salem Fields. To give you an idea of
Speaker 1: the level of respect the Procter family had. John leased
Speaker 1: a three hundred acre farm from one of the most
Speaker 1: prominent figures in Massachusetts Bay Colony, Emmanuel Downing, who was
Speaker 1: one of the earliest New England settlers. His son, George Downing,
Speaker 1: had Downing Street in London, where the Prime Minister lives,
Speaker 1: named after him. The property included a home located on
Speaker 1: a main road through Salemtown. Two years after settling in Salem,
Speaker 1: Procter obtained a license to run a tavern. While he
Speaker 1: and his sons farmed the land, the women ran the tavern.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth died in sixteen seventy two. Two years later, Procter
Speaker 1: married for a third time to Elizabeth Bassett. Between sixteen
Speaker 1: seventy four and sixteen ninety two, they had six children.
Speaker 1: At the time of the trials, Elizabeth was pregnant with
Speaker 1: their seventh. If you're counting, that's a total of seventeen
Speaker 1: kids for John Procter. According to the Salem Witch Museum,
Speaker 1: When the first witchcraft accusations began in the winter of
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety two, Procter's reaction was skeptical. From what we
Speaker 1: can see in the records, he appears to have been
Speaker 1: a practical and forward thinking man, successful in business and
Speaker 1: hard working. He was sixty, had sired seventeen children, not
Speaker 1: all of whom lived to adulthood, by three different wives,
Speaker 1: and was outspoken about his feelings against the witchcraft hysteria.
Speaker 1: The accusations first came from two very young girls, Elizabeth Paris,
Speaker 1: the nine year old daughter of Salem's minister Samuel Paris,
Speaker 1: and Abigail Williams, the eleven year old niece of Samuel Paris.
Speaker 1: Though many people joined in on the accusations of witchcraft
Speaker 1: as time progressed, Paris and William's remain into the main
Speaker 1: accusers throughout the trials. Motivations for the accusations were varied,
Speaker 1: and for some onlookers suspicious. From the start. Procter was
Speaker 1: critical of the accusers. According to Salem Ghost City Tours,
Speaker 1: he did not agree with the witch hunt and was
Speaker 1: very vocal about his opinion. He would mention his disbelief
Speaker 1: in the witchcraft accusations to anyone who would listen. In
Speaker 1: her book titled Hunting for Witches, Francis Hill mentions that
Speaker 1: Proctor publicly demanded the accusers be hanged for their deceit
Speaker 1: instead of the other way around. In Procter's case, he
Speaker 1: and his wife were first accused by their servant, Mary Warren.
Speaker 1: Mary began to display fits of demonic possession in March
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety two. Salem Ghost City Tours wrote that Proctor
Speaker 1: beat Mary to correct her behavior, which of course led
Speaker 1: to a miraculous recovery. It seems like Mary was acting
Speaker 1: normally until Procter went on a business trip. While he
Speaker 1: was away, her strange symptoms returned, and she decided to
Speaker 1: join the trials. Naturally, other young girls in the village
Speaker 1: immediately followed. Some accounts suggest that Abigail Williams joined in
Speaker 1: on those accusations because Proctor had been calling for her hanging,
Speaker 1: and she retaliated against him to divert attention from herself.
Speaker 1: According to the Assalem Witch Museum, Proctor would say publicly
Speaker 1: that he felt all of the accusers would come to
Speaker 1: their senses if they were thrashed. His words would come
Speaker 1: back to haunt him. Elizabeth was arrested on April tenth
Speaker 1: and questioned on April eleventh, sixteen ninety two. By the
Speaker 1: end of Elizabeth's examination, John was also accused of witchcraft
Speaker 1: and arrested. Proctor's sons Benjamin and William, and daughter Sarah
Speaker 1: were also accused later in the year, as more and
Speaker 1: more people were named in the complaints leveled against them.
Speaker 1: They are accused of sundry acts of witchcraft. Benjamin's complaint
Speaker 1: breaths that he is wanted on high suspicion of several
Speaker 1: acts of witchcraft against several people, whereby great hurt and
Speaker 1: damage hath been done to the bodies of said persons,
Speaker 1: and therefore create justice. The biggest reason that the accused
Speaker 1: were unable to successfully clear their names is that the
Speaker 1: religious hysteria of the time dictated that they were guilty
Speaker 1: in the court of public opinion as soon as they
Speaker 1: were accused. Another reason is because the judges, likely acting
Speaker 1: on their own bias, allowed spectral evidence in the court proceedings.
Speaker 1: According to the Library of Congress, spectral evidence was testimony
Speaker 1: in which witnesses claimed that the accused appeared to them
Speaker 1: and did them harm in a dream or a vision.
Speaker 1: Contemporary witch lore held that witches could project themselves spiritually,
Speaker 1: either directly or with the aid of Satan, in order
Speaker 1: to harm their victims from afar. The witches victims might
Speaker 1: then see a spectral image of the witch approached them.
Speaker 1: As an apparition, the specter of the witch could pinch, bite,
Speaker 1: or choke its victims, or otherwise harass them. While the
Speaker 1: witch remained in a remote location, its appearance might be
Speaker 1: that of the witch or of an animal acting asked
Speaker 1: the witches familiar. The court could then use the witnesses
Speaker 1: testimony of these events to support a conviction for witchcraft
Speaker 1: in the majority of the allegations against them. More than
Speaker 1: two hundred people accused during the Salem witch hysteria. Accusers
Speaker 1: reported spectral evidence in their claims, so essentially, a nine
Speaker 1: year old kid could have a nightmare about a scary
Speaker 1: dog and an innocent person could be accused of using
Speaker 1: black magic against them. According to the Library of Congress,
Speaker 1: the accusers called out in fright and spoke wildly during
Speaker 1: the questioning of the accused, as though they were witnessing
Speaker 1: spectral goings on that were invisible to other people in
Speaker 1: the courtroom. When John Proctor was being investigated for witchcraft,
Speaker 1: his accusers submitted spectral evidence against him. Samuel Paris, again
Speaker 1: the father and uncle of the accusers, kept notes throughout
Speaker 1: the trials which are now called the Salem Witchcraft Papers
Speaker 1: and were transcribed by the University of Virginia. According to
Speaker 1: the testimony Paris recorded on April fourth, sixteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: Abigail Williams accused Proctor and his wife of harassing her
Speaker 1: in the night. As Paris wrote, Abigail Williams complained of
Speaker 1: Goodman Proctor and cried out, what are you come to?
Speaker 1: You can pinch as well as your wife. At night
Speaker 1: she complained of Goodman Proctor again and beat upon her
Speaker 1: breast and cried he pinched her. In the courtroom, Abigail
Speaker 1: and Mary Warren repeatedly accused Proctor of appearing spectrally, including
Speaker 1: on the lap of the magistrate. Paris wrote that Abigail
Speaker 1: was seized with fits and had to pause her testimony.
Speaker 1: At the same time, Mary was unresponsive. Paris described her
Speaker 1: as deaf and dumb, but still continuing her knitting when
Speaker 1: she came to. She agreed with Abigail that Proctor was
Speaker 1: appearing spectrally in the courtroom, and later claimed that she
Speaker 1: was being choked by him. It's also worth noting that
Speaker 1: at the time of the witch hysteria, Harris was wildly
Speaker 1: unpopular as the town's minister, a massive public scandal involving
Speaker 1: accusations of the devil's work. A foot in the salem
Speaker 1: would have been a perfect an extremely convenient way to
Speaker 1: redirect the town's disapproval and reaffirm his position in the community,
Speaker 1: just saying, Both Procters were convicted in August sixteen ninety two.
Speaker 1: John was sentenced to death, but Elizabeth received a stay
Speaker 1: of execution because she was pregnant. John Procter was hanged
Speaker 1: on August sixteenth, sixteen ninety two, at Gallows Hill. On
Speaker 1: the same day, Reverend George Burrows, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs,
Speaker 1: and John Willard were also executed. It's not known definitively
Speaker 1: what happened to Procter's remains, but historians suspect family members
Speaker 1: may have retrieved his body from Gallows Hill in the night.
Speaker 1: On the History of Massachusetts blog Rebecca Brooks speculates that
Speaker 1: his body was buried near where the present day John
Speaker 1: Procter House stands. When the wife of Massachusetts Bay Colony
Speaker 1: Governor Phipps was accused of witchcraft, he issued a general
Speaker 1: order of dissolve the remaining one hundred and fifty three
Speaker 1: people who had been arrested or convicted of witchcraft. Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Proctor was exonerated in May sixteen ninety three. When all
Speaker 1: was said and done, nineteen people and bizarrely, two dogs
Speaker 1: accused of witchcraft had been executed. Elizabeth remarried in sixteen
Speaker 1: ninety nine. After Procter's death, the land he at least
Speaker 1: went to another tenant, but two of John's sons fought
Speaker 1: to regain the land. Benjamin leased the land from a tenant,
Speaker 1: and in seventeen hundred Thorndyke Proctor purchased the farm outright.
Speaker 1: Rebecca Brooks suggests that the location of Procter's remains might
Speaker 1: have been a motivating factor in the family reclaiming the land.
Speaker 1: As she wrote, it makes one wonder why Proctor's sons
Speaker 1: went to such great lengths to occupy and buy the land.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it was just a good investment, seeing that farm
Speaker 1: land was so valuable at the time, or maybe it
Speaker 1: was so the family could continue to farm the land
Speaker 1: and they had worked on for so long. It is
Speaker 1: also entirely possible, though, that the reason Thorndyke wanted the
Speaker 1: land was because Procter was in fact secretly buried somewhere
Speaker 1: on the Downing Farm, and Thorndyke wanted to keep that
Speaker 1: secret gray from being discovered. Despite its name, the John
Speaker 1: Procter House was never actually lived in by John Procter.
Speaker 1: In fact, the house didn't even exist in his lifetime.
Speaker 1: A study by an archeological conservator dated construction to about
Speaker 1: seventeen twenty seven, thirty years after Procter was hanged, and
Speaker 1: records in the Peabody Historical Society confirmed that construction date.
Speaker 1: In Thorndyke Procter's accounting book, there are entries for a
Speaker 1: significant amount of construction supplies. The only building still standing
Speaker 1: in Salem today that has any connections to the witch
Speaker 1: trials is the Jonathan Corwyn House today also called the
Speaker 1: Salem Witch House. Along with Judge John Hawthorne, Judge Corwyn
Speaker 1: presided over the trials, hearing the testimony of those leveling
Speaker 1: accusations at their fellow townsfolk, and the testimony of the
Speaker 1: accused who were desperate to clear their names and avoid
Speaker 1: being put to death for supernatural crimes. Now the house
Speaker 1: is part of the Salem Witch Museum and is open
Speaker 1: for tours. The John Procter House remained in the Procter
Speaker 1: family for about one hundred and fifty years until it
Speaker 1: was sold to someone outside the family. After that, Rebecca
Speaker 1: Brooks wrote, the house changed owners only a number of times.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty eight, the Rapponi family purchased the home
Speaker 1: and owned it until Marion Rapponi died in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: In December twenty eighteen, Barbara Bridgewater and her husband, Christopher
Speaker 1: Mendes of Huntington Beach, California, bought the house. Unlike other
Speaker 1: notorious and well known landmarks in Salem that are now
Speaker 1: open to the public, the Procter House is a private residence.
Speaker 1: It has been modified over the years. Now, the thirty
Speaker 1: nine hundred square foot house has two stories with six bedrooms,
Speaker 1: seven fireplaces, a swimming pool, and only two bathrooms. Although
Speaker 1: you can't visit the house now, the owners are crowdsourcing
Speaker 1: enough funds to be able to open the Proctor House
Speaker 1: for tours. Barbara and her family don't spend as much
Speaker 1: time at the house as they want to because of
Speaker 1: the paranormal activity they report experiencing there. Unhaunted Salem Live
Speaker 1: Adam and I investigated the home with Chip Coffee and
Speaker 1: Dana and Greg Newkirk. On the show, Barbara described some
Speaker 1: of the activities she's witnessed, saying, I've heard footsteps above
Speaker 1: and a piano playing which is downstairs, but it's just
Speaker 1: sitting there. They've also heard voices and seen shadows in
Speaker 1: the house. Her daughter, Katherine Mendez, has experienced recurring nosebleeds
Speaker 1: in the home and has even been pushed down the stairs.
Speaker 1: As she said, it's just kind of scary thinking that
Speaker 1: there's something else that's in the house with us. During
Speaker 1: the investigation, we collected multiple EVPs, some unintelligible, but all
Speaker 1: clearly the voice of a gruff male. Dana, who often
Speaker 1: uses tarot cards as an investigative tool, repeatedly pulled the
Speaker 1: devil card, which could mean the literal devil, but also
Speaker 1: could indicate a person with bad intentions present. We sensed
Speaker 1: a menacing present and the name we kept coming back
Speaker 1: to was Giles Corey. Corey was the man executed during
Speaker 1: the witch trials by being pressed to death. He refused
Speaker 1: to enter a plea In an attempt to coerce one
Speaker 1: out of him. Authorities tortured him by placing heavy stones
Speaker 1: on his prone body. They added more and more weight
Speaker 1: for three days until Corey eventually died. Some historic accounts
Speaker 1: have his last words as more weight in defiance of
Speaker 1: those who tortured him. Other accounts have Corey uttering a
Speaker 1: much darker final thought, damn you, I curse you and Salem.
Speaker 1: Because that investigation was on a live television show, we
Speaker 1: couldn't investigate as thoroughly as we wanted, So Adam and I,
Speaker 1: along with Gregg, Dana, and Chip, went back the next
Speaker 1: year for an episode of Kindred Spirits. What happened seems unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Dana did another terror reading and again she kept pulling
Speaker 1: the devil card sooom. It indicated the presence of a
Speaker 1: dark entity in the house, but as we investigated, we
Speaker 1: couldn't make contact with anything that seemed to have ill intent.
Speaker 1: Eventually we realized that it was generations of Procter's relatives
Speaker 1: who had lived in the house for more than a
Speaker 1: century we were contacting. They saw us come in with
Speaker 1: our tarot cards and our rituals and our investigative equipment,
Speaker 1: talking loudly about witchcraft, and what we realized astonished us.
Speaker 1: The spirits in the house, having lived with the burden
Speaker 1: of a legacy of witchcraft, accusations for their whole lives.
Speaker 1: Were scared of us. They thought we were coming in
Speaker 1: and doing the devil's work, and they were protecting the
Speaker 1: home as best they could. Once we explained to them
Speaker 1: that we were there with good intentions and we're trying
Speaker 1: to help, the conversation completely changed, but that does not
Speaker 1: mean the activity has ceased. And so to talk more
Speaker 1: about that, I had to bring on my bff once again,
Speaker 1: mister Adambury. He's been investigating the Procter House outside of
Speaker 1: television for quite a while and he's got some really
Speaker 1: interesting stories and theories to tell, So that's coming up
Speaker 1: after the break. It would not be a Proctor House
Speaker 1: chat if I did not bring on mister Adam Berry,
Speaker 1: who has spent a lot of time at the Proctor
Speaker 1: House investigating. I have been there for a lot of it,
Speaker 1: but he's also been investigating it on his own quite
Speaker 1: a bit, and not a lot of people get to
Speaker 1: go in there and do those things. So welcome to
Speaker 1: the program, mister Barry, thank you, thank you. I'm a
Speaker 1: very lucky bird. I think it's to go in there
Speaker 1: and hang out with all these ghosts. It's funny because
Speaker 1: since we did the Proctor House. I have moved into
Speaker 1: a house that was built right around the same time
Speaker 1: as the Proctor House in seventeen thirty, and whenever I
Speaker 1: post photos or videos, people are always like, it looks
Speaker 1: like the Proctor House and I'm like, yes, except it's
Speaker 1: not haunted, unfortunately, but it's got really history. It's funny
Speaker 1: because it does remind me a lot of the Proctor House,
Speaker 1: minus the ghost. I wish my house was haunted, but
Speaker 1: no Proctor House has it going on. So we've had
Speaker 1: some pretty wild experiences there over the years. Let's get
Speaker 1: right down to it. Most unnerving thing that has ever
Speaker 1: happened is, you know, when Dana Knew Kirk, who is
Speaker 1: helping us on those investigations, like it's doing her taro
Speaker 1: spread just to like, you know, we want to feel
Speaker 1: the vibe. You and I are like up for a
Speaker 1: lot of different ideas, and he flips the devil card
Speaker 1: how many times? Like five times over the course of
Speaker 1: two investigations. Yes, and the crazy thing. So we investigated
Speaker 1: the Proctor House on live television like one does. Yes,
Speaker 1: it was the Haunted Salem Live special that Travel Channel
Speaker 1: did a few years back, and it was a really
Speaker 1: cool idea. So basically, the the concept was that we
Speaker 1: were investigating the Proctor House. It was me Adam, Chip
Speaker 1: and Greg and Dana were there, and then there was
Speaker 1: the jail nearby, which I believe the Ghost brothers were in,
Speaker 1: and then Jack and Katrie, Jack Osborne and Katrina Wide
Speaker 1: Men they were in another location. I can't remember where
Speaker 1: they were exactly Rockefellers. Oh right, it's like a restaurant.
Speaker 1: So we were all investigating simultaneously around Salem and it
Speaker 1: was a really cool special But what we did created
Speaker 1: a sigil on live television to kind of create like
Speaker 1: more activity. I think what was the sigil? What did
Speaker 1: it stand for? Like open a door? Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a doorway. First and foremost, we fought for that location.
Speaker 1: When this idea came up and was pitched to us,
Speaker 1: we were like, this sounds awesome. We love Salem. But
Speaker 1: they told us three locations and you and I both
Speaker 1: immediately were like, no, we have to do the Proctor House.
Speaker 1: Not only did it fit our vibe like it fits
Speaker 1: the Kindred Spirits vibe, but me personally, I think the
Speaker 1: history and that location and on that land is like
Speaker 1: way more interesting than you know an old restaurant right,
Speaker 1: so that out of the way, we knew that we
Speaker 1: had to do something special. We got Greg and Data involved,
Speaker 1: and I think Greg said something like, you know, why
Speaker 1: don't we make a sigil that is a doorway to
Speaker 1: the other side, and we're gonna put it on live television.
Speaker 1: We'll tell everybody to kind of focus and concentrate on
Speaker 1: this sigil and we will see what happens in the
Speaker 1: investigation because we only had what three hours three and
Speaker 1: a half hours to investigate on live television, so we
Speaker 1: needed something that would charge the environment immediately and be
Speaker 1: careful what you wish for, as they say, you know, seriously,
Speaker 1: I think we work a lot with the idea of
Speaker 1: intention and energy and kind of bringing things about, and
Speaker 1: that was an ultimate experiment for us. We were like,
Speaker 1: this could go a couple of ways, and hopefully we're
Speaker 1: entertaining enough that if it doesn't work, we'll just keep
Speaker 1: people happy on live TV. But I think it did
Speaker 1: raise the activity in the house quite a bit, and
Speaker 1: also we had people complaining at home that the sigil
Speaker 1: was causing activity in their houses, Like, don't know that
Speaker 1: that's ever happened before. People come to us all the
Speaker 1: time and they're like, I think somebody tweeted us the
Speaker 1: other day because our episodes are airing, and they were like,
Speaker 1: be careful watching these ghost shows. A ghost will come
Speaker 1: through your television and get you. And I was like, look,
Speaker 1: that's never happened. And then I was thinking, but on
Speaker 1: live television, when there's an actual live investigation. There were
Speaker 1: I think there were about a million people online looking
Speaker 1: at that sigil at one point, and people were saying
Speaker 1: their lights were flickering, static was going off, weird feelings,
Speaker 1: had to like get out of their living room and
Speaker 1: come back. And I remember toward the end of that investigation,
Speaker 1: because we could hear the live feed from the truck,
Speaker 1: like the producers talking and they were really adamant. They
Speaker 1: were like they were like, Okay, we're gonna film you
Speaker 1: guys closing the sigul, but we're gonna show it during
Speaker 1: the credits. And we were like no, no, no no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you have to show it live on TV. Everyone has
Speaker 1: to see that we've closed the sigil, that everything is fine,
Speaker 1: that you are fine, otherwise the world may explode. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember like the host Dave Schrader was hosting, and
Speaker 1: they had they sent him like a last minute like
Speaker 1: script where they were like talk about closing the sigel,
Speaker 1: show them closing the sigel, Like to close it, we
Speaker 1: had to turn it upside down and then fun fact,
Speaker 1: Adam stole the sigil after that and took it home.
Speaker 1: I think I had it for a while and then
Speaker 1: it just never made it back to Greg and Dana
Speaker 1: for a period of time, and I can't what's weird
Speaker 1: is I don't know if that was just like me
Speaker 1: being lazy, probably or if there was something about it
Speaker 1: that I was drawn to and I kind of wanted
Speaker 1: to keep it for a little bit because that thing
Speaker 1: is literally charged by millions of people and the intention
Speaker 1: behind it. But it was good that I had it
Speaker 1: because when we went back to the Proctor House on
Speaker 1: our own to kind of figure out what was going
Speaker 1: on from our point of view, because we only had
Speaker 1: three hours on live television, and I know that Barbara,
Speaker 1: who owns the property, was adamant about getting us in
Speaker 1: there for a real investigation, and so we went back.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I had it because we were able to
Speaker 1: utilize that sigil again on the second investigation. Yeah, so basically,
Speaker 1: once she kind of got to know us and saw
Speaker 1: how we investigated. She really wanted us to come back
Speaker 1: and give the Proctor House the full Kindred Spirits treatment,
Speaker 1: as they say, And so we did. And now I'll
Speaker 1: have you speak to this more just because I feel
Speaker 1: like you kind of are more familiar with the activity
Speaker 1: because you do go there like at least every six months.
Speaker 1: At this point, Adam runs like private investigations there, So
Speaker 1: if anybody's interested, we'll find out about that at the
Speaker 1: end here. But just tell me, like, what kind of
Speaker 1: activity do you remember was she experiencing that made her
Speaker 1: think like, okay, we need to get Kindred involved here.
Speaker 1: It's the same sort of activity that she had talked
Speaker 1: about when we were there for four hours. But as
Speaker 1: you know, in a four hour investigation, we can only
Speaker 1: do so much. And the activity that we had was
Speaker 1: rather intense. We thought at that point Giles Corey was
Speaker 1: there or his ghost was there, and he was manipulating
Speaker 1: the situation. He was lying to us, taking advantage, and
Speaker 1: I think, you know, Barbara really appreciated us getting those
Speaker 1: kind of answers. But when you're left with like that
Speaker 1: on the table, it's almost a bit more frightening because
Speaker 1: you're like, wait, there's this ghost in this house that's
Speaker 1: like being manipulative and mean, and so for her, she
Speaker 1: wanted us to come back and finish the job, and
Speaker 1: so did we. I mean, I felt like we had
Speaker 1: unfinished business with that location. And so we all got
Speaker 1: back together and it was you, me, Greg, and Dana
Speaker 1: came again, and sure enough, we started with those tarot
Speaker 1: cards and she split that double card two more times,
Speaker 1: and we were very concerned about I mean, god, we
Speaker 1: were just concerned about the whole situation. And spoiler alert,
Speaker 1: obviously we're going to talk about the end of that investigation.
Speaker 1: It turned out that the spirits there were concerned about
Speaker 1: what we were doing because what we are doing gave
Speaker 1: them the impression of witchcraft and the occults and things
Speaker 1: like using tarot cards, and they were just afraid that
Speaker 1: they were going to get caught again and be brought
Speaker 1: up to trial. I mean, it was it was literally
Speaker 1: this weird memory that they could not shake, and rightly so,
Speaker 1: and we were the problem, like you know, they were
Speaker 1: not the problem. It was us. People ask us about
Speaker 1: tarot cards all the time, like why are you bringing
Speaker 1: tarot cards into investigations? And we obviously you and I
Speaker 1: will try anything at this point when it comes to investigating, Like,
Speaker 1: we really like to experiment. And you know, the idea
Speaker 1: behind tarot cards is that they are kind of a
Speaker 1: divination type tool and like some people look at them
Speaker 1: as ways to provide insight into their lives. So maybe
Speaker 1: you're just trying to get a little guidance on an investigation,
Speaker 1: you know, why not bring a tarot reading into the mix.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's kind of what our intention was
Speaker 1: with that to begin with, and it just really resonated
Speaker 1: with that location in particular. So yeah, and I think
Speaker 1: what's interesting is, you know, we figured out what it
Speaker 1: was right and we had a heart to heart with
Speaker 1: them and the act. By the end, the activity had
Speaker 1: changed because we let them know that it is a
Speaker 1: different year, is a different time period. We respect their boundaries,
Speaker 1: we understand where they're coming from. We obviously don't mean
Speaker 1: any harm, but they're safe. Like that was the key.
Speaker 1: I think, you know you're safe. And since going back there,
Speaker 1: like I I was there in October, So Salem in
Speaker 1: October is like so charged with all kinds of really
Speaker 1: wonderful things. And if you've never been to Salem in October.
Speaker 1: You've got to get there, just because the feeling of
Speaker 1: the location is so powerful. And what's interesting is the
Speaker 1: first two nights, so we did a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Speaker 1: The first two nights it was the same sort of activity.
Speaker 1: We were using the paranormal trip wires and we had
Speaker 1: our little lanterns out and there was so much activity
Speaker 1: and they understood what we were doing at that time.
Speaker 1: They weren't afraid of us. And I actually have that
Speaker 1: Salem Witch Trials document from sixteen ninety four signed by
Speaker 1: Samuel Parris, who was the you know, the gentleman that
Speaker 1: kicked off the whole fury of the witches. And so
Speaker 1: I brought that book and I brought that document and
Speaker 1: what's interesting is they didn't care about it. They did
Speaker 1: not care for it. They did not react to it.
Speaker 1: We got we were getting activity, and then as soon
Speaker 1: as I brought that document out, it almost like stopped.
Speaker 1: So maybe they did care and they were like, nope,
Speaker 1: they didn't want to touch it, they didn't want to
Speaker 1: interact with it. But on Sunday, the activity was a
Speaker 1: one eighty Sunday it was quieter, it seemed a little
Speaker 1: more peaceful. Less talkative, less activity with the lights, and
Speaker 1: I was like, this is so weird. I don't understand
Speaker 1: why this is happening. And then I realized that it
Speaker 1: was the Sabbath, right, I was going to say, because
Speaker 1: it was Sunday, right, And so it's like they're they're
Speaker 1: occupied with other things and maybe you know they don't
Speaker 1: they don't have time to mess with us, lay this
Speaker 1: their day of rest, and so I thought that was
Speaker 1: really strange. But it seems now that you know they
Speaker 1: are interacting, they do want to speak with us. I
Speaker 1: think a couple of times whatever was in the attic
Speaker 1: that we did not get to touch on, there's like
Speaker 1: this weird male energy in the attic. He started making
Speaker 1: himself known a bit more. And I don't think he's
Speaker 1: connected to the Procter family at all. I think he's,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody who existed at some point and just
Speaker 1: is a bit angry and aggressive. But he started coming
Speaker 1: out of the woodworks. So you know, there's always there's
Speaker 1: things changing constantly there and I can't wait to go back,
Speaker 1: going back at the end of April of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: and then again probably in the fall. So I think
Speaker 1: that it's really easy to forget that. You know, the
Speaker 1: Proctor House has three hundred years of history to it
Speaker 1: and so a lot of people have lived there. And
Speaker 1: then I also wonder too, and what I wonder what
Speaker 1: you think about this just kind of that they're not
Speaker 1: there all the time, Like, obviously the place is very secured,
Speaker 1: so please nobody go try to break in there or anything.
Speaker 1: But it's not their primary residence, so it's empty and
Speaker 1: like the ghosts kind of own it for a lot
Speaker 1: of the time. So do you get the vibe that
Speaker 1: when you go in there and you do your investigations,
Speaker 1: do you feel like they are like, hey, we like
Speaker 1: being alone, or do you think they kind of welcome
Speaker 1: the interaction. I think it's a mixed bag. I think
Speaker 1: there is an entity. I forgot to mention it. We
Speaker 1: didn't even go down into the second basement. So there's
Speaker 1: like that cellar area that we went to and investigate it,
Speaker 1: But then there's one that's right next to the main
Speaker 1: bathroom entrance that you sort of have to duck down
Speaker 1: and go under. There was something down there messing with
Speaker 1: everybody last time, and it was as if they enjoyed
Speaker 1: the idea that like, oh, look, I can do this.
Speaker 1: The guy in the attic does not want anything to
Speaker 1: do with us, makes himself known in that way, meaning
Speaker 1: that like he's saying, you know, okay, you're here, but
Speaker 1: I'm not going to tell you anything. I don't want
Speaker 1: to talk to you. I don't anything to do with you.
Speaker 1: And then I think the family we speak to that
Speaker 1: we've gone there. I think they are there and it
Speaker 1: is their house, and I don't necessarily believe that they're
Speaker 1: fully aware and active, but just like we did, we
Speaker 1: sort of conjured them into the space, you know, in
Speaker 1: a weird way. And I think they can be called
Speaker 1: to that house their energy or their their whatever that is.
Speaker 1: I think that they show up if they are asked
Speaker 1: to and if you ask them the right appropriate questions.
Speaker 1: We just need to say this here and now because
Speaker 1: people say to us all the time the John Procter
Speaker 1: House isn't in Salem. We're very aware of that. It's
Speaker 1: in Peabody, right, Peabody, Or if you don't live in
Speaker 1: New England, that's Peabody. It's so much easier to say
Speaker 1: Salem because people know where Salem is. I know, and
Speaker 1: it's very steeped in Salem history. And so there are
Speaker 1: people who come at us all the time about that,
Speaker 1: and like we're very aware. We're just trying to make
Speaker 1: it easier for you, dear listener. The connections are very big. Like,
Speaker 1: even though the Procter family lived as far as they
Speaker 1: did from Salem, they had to go into Salem for trial,
Speaker 1: Like they were connected to Salem no matter what. So
Speaker 1: even though it's been three hundred years and now it's
Speaker 1: Peabody and you know, things have changed in terms of
Speaker 1: like lines of cities, they still were extremely active in
Speaker 1: Salem and they were tried and prosecuted in Sale. Right,
Speaker 1: thinking to like what are the most common occurrences there,
Speaker 1: Like if someone's investigating, like I kind of envisioned that
Speaker 1: one day the Proctor House might even turn into like
Speaker 1: some sort of museum or something. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: that's kind of what I think will happen eventually. But
Speaker 1: if someone's visiting the Procter House, either with you or privately,
Speaker 1: what kind of activity can they expect to experience there?
Speaker 1: You're gonna get interaction. Spirits are going to interact with
Speaker 1: your equipment, but not as a as a circus trick,
Speaker 1: like you have to give them conversation. You have to
Speaker 1: spark conversation and give them something worth talking about. You
Speaker 1: have to know your history, you have to know you
Speaker 1: know who you're speaking to, because at this point, I
Speaker 1: think they are aware that we know that they are there.
Speaker 1: So if you go and saying, oh, what's your name,
Speaker 1: They're not going to answer you because you know it's
Speaker 1: to them. They're like, you should know my name. I've
Speaker 1: talked too many times. So that's the kind of activity
Speaker 1: you're going to get. Now. The new activity is strange.
Speaker 1: In the attic and we were doing the STS method
Speaker 1: where you wear the blindfold, the and the headphones, and
Speaker 1: our friend Amanda was there and she literally was getting
Speaker 1: hit on by this creepy dude in the attic because
Speaker 1: I was listening to the headphones and I kept saying,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you. I want you to
Speaker 1: do it. And then I took my headphones down. I
Speaker 1: was like, who, who's asking the questions? And they were
Speaker 1: like Amanda, and I was like, Amanda here, and so
Speaker 1: she like she was like okay, and she puts on
Speaker 1: the headphones and sits there for a minute and then
Speaker 1: she was like, yep, creepy dude. Oh that's so funny.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, so creepy dude in the attic. Check yeah, check,
Speaker 1: creepy dude in the attic. And also he doesn't mind
Speaker 1: being creepy to everybody. It's an equal opportunity. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: guy is an equal opportunist. I think he likes se
Speaker 1: mess with everybody. So the next time we go, when
Speaker 1: we get there in April, I think I'm going to
Speaker 1: focus a bit more in that attic space. We got
Speaker 1: a lot of activity down in the fireplace where you
Speaker 1: would just kind of sit and have a where you
Speaker 1: would commune. I guess that seemed to be a lot
Speaker 1: of the family, the families in the first floor and
Speaker 1: then the attic in the basement, people that really aren't
Speaker 1: the original family are kind of hanging out there. I
Speaker 1: do remember having We got a lot of EVP there.
Speaker 1: We heard a disembodied voice at one point upstairs, and
Speaker 1: that was kind of when we first started investigating. Like
Speaker 1: what's interesting about that place is no one had really
Speaker 1: investigated it until we got there. And I always I'm
Speaker 1: always so interested in kind of like what the vibe
Speaker 1: is in a location, like when you come in as
Speaker 1: kind of the first time investigators acknowledging these spirits versus
Speaker 1: like coming in to a place that's been investigated regularly,
Speaker 1: and it really does kind of dictate how you approach
Speaker 1: the investigation and how you communicate with the spirits there.
Speaker 1: So I think that's really useful information for people who
Speaker 1: want to investigate. So if people do want to join you,
Speaker 1: you're going back in October, right, Yeah, We're going to
Speaker 1: do one other time closer to the spooky season. But
Speaker 1: if anybody wants any information, they can go to ghost
Speaker 1: hunt Salem dot com. I love those. I love that
Speaker 1: you do those. Those kind of intimate investigations. I think
Speaker 1: are really great because I think people I don't think
Speaker 1: they realize how approachable we are. It's so funny because
Speaker 1: sometimes we do these big, major events and these conventions
Speaker 1: where there's like hundreds of people there, and those are
Speaker 1: so much fun, like yeah, strange escapes, strange escapes, like
Speaker 1: you cannot be a Strange Escapes party on a Friday
Speaker 1: night in a lecture is an investigation, it's like so
Speaker 1: much fun. But when we get to do these more
Speaker 1: intimate moments, like there are twelve people at the Parker
Speaker 1: House with me and I'm going to be there with
Speaker 1: you the whole time and we're going to talk about ghosts.
Speaker 1: It's like it's it's a very unique experience. And the
Speaker 1: last time we were there the Peabody Police Department, they
Speaker 1: were like they kept being like, Okay, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: What's happening there? That called me to check in? And
Speaker 1: really I just think they wanted to like come and
Speaker 1: like hang out. So people don't realize how often like
Speaker 1: law enforcement shows up at our investigations and it's never
Speaker 1: because we're doing anything wrong. Especially in some of these
Speaker 1: more sleepy towns. They're just like, so we heard you
Speaker 1: guys are looking for ghosts here, and they're just they're
Speaker 1: asking questions like they just wanted to. I've been pulled
Speaker 1: over before and it was all because they just wanted
Speaker 1: to know how the investigation went. So I love that. Listen,
Speaker 1: if they're going to pull you over, they can have
Speaker 1: instant access to what has happened anyways. All right, So
Speaker 1: anything else on the horizon you want to tell people about.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously watch Kindred Spirits on Discovery Plus and
Speaker 1: Travel Channel even if new episodes aren't airing. Just keep
Speaker 1: watching over and over again. Please do Yeah, please watch
Speaker 1: Gary Spirits. Come see us at Strange Escapes, Come see
Speaker 1: us at another event. I know that you and I
Speaker 1: are working on a lot of really great projects. On
Speaker 1: the side, I have a book coming out in September
Speaker 1: that people can get excited about. I'll be posting, so
Speaker 1: follow me on the internet. All right, Well, thank you,
Speaker 1: mister Barry. It's been lovely as always. I miss you
Speaker 1: and we'll hang out soon. Yeah, thank you. Toxing the
Speaker 1: Propter House presents such a strange conundrum when it comes
Speaker 1: to paranormal cases. I don't truly feel like the spirits
Speaker 1: in the house are wholly conscious beings. I think it's
Speaker 1: that bit of their energy and stress of what they
Speaker 1: endured that was so reactionary to our investigative methods. It
Speaker 1: makes you wonder how many hauntings aren't necessarily a person
Speaker 1: regretful or not ready to move on, but just energy
Speaker 1: awakened by something we did that was completely unintentional. It
Speaker 1: just lends more and more to the mystery of all
Speaker 1: things ghostly and another prime example of why I do
Speaker 1: what I do. But it also makes me wonder how
Speaker 1: much energy we all put out there, and how much
Speaker 1: attention we should be paying to it. We have more
Speaker 1: power than we think, power that can apparently span centuries.
Speaker 1: I'm Amy Bruney and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road
Speaker 1: is hosted and written by me Amy Bruney, with additional
Speaker 1: research by Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassandra day Alba. This show
Speaker 1: is edited and produced by Rima l Kaali, with supervising
Speaker 1: producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. Haunted Road is a production of iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manke. Learn more about this
Speaker 1: show over at Grimm and Mild dot com, and for
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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.