Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky listener Discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: Years ago, I was walking toward a cliff in Hawaii
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. The cliff was on
Speaker 1: the island of Oahu and was rumored to be haunted.
Speaker 1: The road we were hiking up was very wooded, empty,
Speaker 1: and we could barely see our hands in front of
Speaker 1: our faces. We were being led by local tour guide
Speaker 1: and cultural practitioner Joe Espinda, or as we know him,
Speaker 1: Uncle Joe. As our small group walked in the darkness,
Speaker 1: Uncle Joe explained that some believed the night marchers would
Speaker 1: sometimes traverse this same path. In Hawaiian mythology, night marchers
Speaker 1: are the deadly ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors. They march
Speaker 1: in darkness after sunset and march as a group continuously
Speaker 1: until just before sunrise. Anyone living along their path may
Speaker 1: hear chanting sounds of blown conk shell tones and marching
Speaker 1: noises in the night. The following signs are a foul
Speaker 1: and musky, deathlike odor and torches getting brighter and brighter
Speaker 1: as the night marchers get closer ancient Hawaiian beliefs state
Speaker 1: that any mortal looking upon or being seen in defiance
Speaker 1: toward the marchers will die violently. As we stood, completely
Speaker 1: enamored by the legend of the night Marchers, something happened.
Speaker 1: We all heard steps on the road ahead. Everyone, including
Speaker 1: Uncle Joe, froze and went instantly silent. We listened as
Speaker 1: the wind picked up, and we could hear the soft
Speaker 1: scratch of leaves tumbling across the road. But there was
Speaker 1: something else, something ahead was moving, moving toward us. My
Speaker 1: entire body froze, and I was all at once strongly terrified,
Speaker 1: but also yearsly curious. What were we about to see?
Speaker 1: The air changed, it became almost static, and every hair
Speaker 1: on the back of my neck raised. Just then, out
Speaker 1: of the darkness trotted a dog, a large black dog.
Speaker 1: He stood before us for a moment before walking up
Speaker 1: to each of us. We pet him and let him
Speaker 1: lick our hands, and then he ran back into the woods.
Speaker 1: Uncle Joe told us that was a sign we were
Speaker 1: allowed to move forward. The dog had been sent to
Speaker 1: give us permission, so we followed his Uncle Joe chanted
Speaker 1: and saying, and we made our way to the cliff.
Speaker 1: It was In that moment, I knew and felt that
Speaker 1: hauntings of Hawaii are very different. They are looked at
Speaker 1: with respect and intense spirituality. I felt it to my
Speaker 1: bones that night. So with respect, let's visit one of
Speaker 1: the few places I've been able to investigate in Hawaii,
Speaker 1: the historic and very haunt did Hawaii's Plantation Village. I'm
Speaker 1: Amy Brunei, and welcome to Haunted Road. Captain James Cook,
Speaker 1: an Englishman with the British Royal Navy, came across the
Speaker 1: Hawaiian Islands on his third voyage into the Pacific and
Speaker 1: seventy eight. It seems like he was the first white
Speaker 1: person to really take note of sugarcane, and he spread
Speaker 1: the word throughout America and Europe. From this point onward,
Speaker 1: Westerners poured into the islands. They brought many new things
Speaker 1: with them, but unfortunately, one of those was disease. Although
Speaker 1: sugarcane has been present in Hawaii since its introduction in
Speaker 1: six d, it wasn't dominated by industrial processes until eighteen too,
Speaker 1: when an unknown man established the first sugar mill in
Speaker 1: the islands. About thirty years later, the first export was
Speaker 1: delivered to the US, and within a decade, sugarcane was
Speaker 1: a staple of Hawaiian agricultural production. A further catalyst for
Speaker 1: this intensive, protracted, and demanding production of sugarcane can be
Speaker 1: traced to the Great Mahela of eighty eight. This active
Speaker 1: governance opened the doors of Hawaii to foreigners who wanted
Speaker 1: to own land in the islands. Amplified by an ever
Speaker 1: increasing demand from the US for more sugar, and bolstered
Speaker 1: by the Pacific trade routes and settlements related to the
Speaker 1: gold rushing California, Hawaii sugarcane was a top priority. Sugarcane
Speaker 1: cultivation required a pool of cheap labor, and with native
Speaker 1: Hawaiians dying from measles, mumps, whooping cough, and other contagious
Speaker 1: diseases for which they lacked immunity, sugar planters searched worldwide
Speaker 1: for other workers. Within a hundred years, labors had arrived
Speaker 1: from mostly Asian countries China, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan,
Speaker 1: some European ones Germany, Norway, Portugal, Russia and Spain, and
Speaker 1: folks from the South Pacific islands in Puerto Rico, as
Speaker 1: well as African Americans all were called there to work sugarcane,
Speaker 1: and about half of them remained in Hawaii. Growing exceedingly
Speaker 1: powerful and influential plantation owners lobbied for and won the
Speaker 1: eventual passage of the Masters and Servants Act of eighteen fifty.
Speaker 1: The new law legalized in dentured service, the contract labor system,
Speaker 1: and the importation of foreign workers. The law also outlawed
Speaker 1: labor unions and workers strikes. In the following decades, tariffs
Speaker 1: on Hawaiian sugar were done away with In five years
Speaker 1: from eighteen seventy five to eighteen eighty, Hawaii went from
Speaker 1: having twenty sugar plantations to sixty three. Sugarcane has a
Speaker 1: history throughout the Hawaiian Islands, but the town of pa
Speaker 1: Who on owah Who was dedicated to sugarcane plantations from
Speaker 1: the late nineteenth century to nineteen forty. From eighteen fifty
Speaker 1: two until nineteen forty six, three hundred fifty five thousand
Speaker 1: immigrants came from China, Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines, Korea, Portugal,
Speaker 1: and Puerto Rico to work in the sugarcane fields and
Speaker 1: sugar plantations that occupied most of the leeward side of Oahu.
Speaker 1: The different cultures lived side by side in plantation housing
Speaker 1: in this valley. In eighteen ninety seven, the ohah Who
Speaker 1: Sugar Company was officially founded. The majority of the first
Speaker 1: workers were from Japan and China and somewhere from Portugal,
Speaker 1: and others were native Hawaiians. Ten of the latter were children.
Speaker 1: Employees apparently received a house equipped with domestic necessities. Garbage collection,
Speaker 1: street cleaning, and sewage disposal were also provided. There was
Speaker 1: a selection of stores from which employees could purchase a
Speaker 1: variety of goods, and as time wore on, more stores
Speaker 1: popped up that catered to nationality groups. There were also
Speaker 1: designated spaces for leisure and baseball numbered at the top
Speaker 1: of that activity list. But it most certainly wasn't all
Speaker 1: work fun in games. Bongo is a Japanese word for number,
Speaker 1: and in the heyday of sugar plantations, workers from numerous
Speaker 1: countries had their names replaced with bengo tags. The tags
Speaker 1: originated in the eighteen nineties as a pragmatic way to
Speaker 1: i d individuals. The shapes of bengo tags represented a
Speaker 1: different ethnic group. The numbers and tags were used to
Speaker 1: pay for goods, briefly illustrate who someone was, and keep
Speaker 1: track of goods, services, and transgressions. These tags dehumanized workers
Speaker 1: and reinforced the experience of indentured servitude. On pay days,
Speaker 1: no bongo tag, no pay was the policy. One worker
Speaker 1: was quoted in part as saying I wanted my name,
Speaker 1: not the number. In nineteen twenty, a hospital was erected
Speaker 1: on the grounds and it offered free services to the
Speaker 1: plethora of unskilled laborers employed by OSC. Over the years,
Speaker 1: o SC saw their share of tragedies. While I'm sure
Speaker 1: there were others, here's a small sampling of what I
Speaker 1: was able to find an old newspapers. I found one
Speaker 1: newspaper article from nineteen o two that indicated a man
Speaker 1: had taken his own life and his hanging body was
Speaker 1: found by a child who ventured into a storage shed.
Speaker 1: In the article, it also mentioned he was the fifth
Speaker 1: suicide there in that month alone. In nineteen sixteen, two
Speaker 1: workers were killed in an on site train accident, and
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty five, a seven year old boy drowned
Speaker 1: in one of the streams that ran through the plantation.
Speaker 1: He and his nine year old sister had been visiting
Speaker 1: an aunt on the property. In addition to this, with
Speaker 1: the closure of o Wahu Sugar Company in nineteen tragedy
Speaker 1: was felt in an economic sense, a financial and cultural mainstay,
Speaker 1: even unintroduced by problematic figures out for money was replaced
Speaker 1: with tourism and other mass market entities. Many who were
Speaker 1: employed by the company were left in the lurch. For
Speaker 1: its part, Oahu Sugar Company took out an ad in
Speaker 1: the Honolulu Advertiser on April saying, the last farewell the
Speaker 1: people of Hawaii and our ancestors who have come and
Speaker 1: gone before us, salute you and send you countless mahallows
Speaker 1: to all of the hundreds of thousands of men, women
Speaker 1: and children who labored in the sugar plantation field and
Speaker 1: the sugar mills on the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Oahu
Speaker 1: and Kauai. The need for laborers brought you from all
Speaker 1: over the world, your purpose to seek a better life
Speaker 1: and a strange and unheard of place called Hawaii. Through
Speaker 1: the years, you have managed to endure the many hardships
Speaker 1: and struggles, and in times some of you brought your
Speaker 1: families from your respective homelands, and some of you started
Speaker 1: a family here in the islands. It goes on to say,
Speaker 1: the legacy of King sugar has breathed its last breath
Speaker 1: of life for the Oahu Sugar Company, and now your
Speaker 1: role with respect to sugar is no longer a part
Speaker 1: of your life, but a bitter sweet memory. You, as
Speaker 1: former sugar plantation workers and your families will now see
Speaker 1: your destinies going through a metamorphosis. God only knows what
Speaker 1: lies ahead for you and your families. Please understand that
Speaker 1: our prayers are with you and we wish the very
Speaker 1: best for you and your loved ones. So what exactly
Speaker 1: is Hawaii's Plantation Village? Set amid palms in a lush
Speaker 1: mountain side park and busy Waipahu and not far from
Speaker 1: the former site of the Oahu Sugar Company. Hawaii's Plantation
Speaker 1: Village covers about a century along period of Hawaiian history
Speaker 1: and seeks to represent the experiences of those four hundred
Speaker 1: thousand sugarcane workers throughout that time. As we've noted, they've
Speaker 1: performed backbreaking labor and lived regimented lives on the plantations.
Speaker 1: Among the buildings are camp homes, including a Hawaiian house,
Speaker 1: Japanese house, Okinawan House, Portuguese House, Puerto Rican House, Korean house,
Speaker 1: and Filipino house. It represents how plantations homes were organized
Speaker 1: and divided in such a way that each ethnic group
Speaker 1: was housed separately from others, which allowed plantation managers to
Speaker 1: control each immigrant group more effectively and help prevent inter
Speaker 1: ethnic cooperation and strikes. The museum has been in operation
Speaker 1: since nine and while it contains a mixture of original, refurbished,
Speaker 1: and replicated structures, it aims to provide a tangible glimpse
Speaker 1: of early twentieth century Hawaii and what that experience was
Speaker 1: like for tens of thousands of people who worked in
Speaker 1: the fields. The houses are lined in order of the
Speaker 1: immigration timeline of these major ethnic groups. To enhance the
Speaker 1: community camp feel, other buildings have been added in a barbershop,
Speaker 1: a community bath, a plantation store, infirmary, and a social
Speaker 1: union hall. They also have an Innari shrine that was
Speaker 1: formerly located outside of the old Honolulu Stadium that was
Speaker 1: destined for demolition. So what about the hauntings? The Haunted
Speaker 1: Plantation exhibit, operated by Noah Laporga every Halloween season, clearly
Speaker 1: has a haunted foundation upon which to work, although apparently
Speaker 1: their actors have had enough experiences to mandate two persons
Speaker 1: shifts that doubling up also isn't limited to seasonal workers.
Speaker 1: In fact, during the year, as a safety precaution, people
Speaker 1: aren't allowed to work alone in any of the houses.
Speaker 1: They always work in pairs. There are about twenty five
Speaker 1: structures on the property, of which about half are associated
Speaker 1: with hauntings. The Portuguese house is the first structure besides
Speaker 1: the temple that you see upon entering the village. A
Speaker 1: young girl spirit is said to reside here, and apparently
Speaker 1: she's quite playful. She's also the most commonly reported spirit
Speaker 1: in the village. Reverend Caju Silva, a Hawaiian high priest
Speaker 1: and spiritual practitioner, visited the home in order to determine
Speaker 1: more about this spirit. After three visits, he concluded that
Speaker 1: the young girl was not at all evil, but was
Speaker 1: in fact protecting the home, and she was very interested
Speaker 1: in one woman docent, in particular because, according to the priest,
Speaker 1: she has never had a mother. The girl disappeared for
Speaker 1: a few years, but since two thousand and fifteen and sixteen,
Speaker 1: it seems she has once again sought out maternal figures.
Speaker 1: The associated story claims that her father raised her after
Speaker 1: the mother took one look at the child and disowned her.
Speaker 1: Without daycare, the man tied his daughter to a table
Speaker 1: or chair when he went to work in the plantation field.
Speaker 1: There was supposedly a fire in the village one day
Speaker 1: and the house where the little girl was tied up
Speaker 1: hot on fire. Bitter and ashamed, the man went inside
Speaker 1: the house and realized he could either rescue his daughter
Speaker 1: or get rid of his problem. He decided on the ladder,
Speaker 1: and she died in the house. Of course, there is
Speaker 1: nothing his storyly to back up the story at all.
Speaker 1: I was able to find record of one fire in
Speaker 1: the nearby village, but no one was killed or injured.
Speaker 1: That's not to say it didn't happen, but like I said,
Speaker 1: I cannot verify it. Clearly, there is activity reported in
Speaker 1: the house, though I'd be hesitant to assign an identity
Speaker 1: to it. In addition to the little girl's spirit in
Speaker 1: the Portuguese house, there was also evidence of a heavy
Speaker 1: male spirit, although it too is considered benevolent. In the
Speaker 1: Okinawan house, people note feeling choked by an invisible presence.
Speaker 1: An actor in the haunted plantation exhibit once ran out
Speaker 1: of that structure with watery eyes, and she was gasping
Speaker 1: and holding her neck. She claimed that she couldn't breathe
Speaker 1: and then quit the job on the spot. I think
Speaker 1: we need to get to the bottom of these reports,
Speaker 1: so we will be talking to Noah Laporga, who heads
Speaker 1: up the on site haunted attraction at the village, and
Speaker 1: he's got some very real ghost stories to tell. That's
Speaker 1: coming up after the break. I am now joined by
Speaker 1: Noah Laporga, who is the organizer of a thing called
Speaker 1: the Haunted Plantation, which is a haunted attraction that takes
Speaker 1: place at the Plantation Village every October or Fall, I'm assuming,
Speaker 1: and what's interesting is that he's not the first person
Speaker 1: I've spoken with who has had paranormal activity happen around
Speaker 1: a haunted type attraction. And we can get into that
Speaker 1: a little bit further, but I definitely think it has
Speaker 1: something to do with the energy of people going into
Speaker 1: a place night after night and being completely terrified. So Noah,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining me. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Now I have investigated the village now, well, we investigated
Speaker 1: for ghost Hunters years ago, and it was actually during
Speaker 1: that earthquake in Japan where there was a massive like
Speaker 1: tsunami warning on the island that happened while we were investigating.
Speaker 1: That was my first experience with the tsunami. We had
Speaker 1: a lot of really interesting experiences and it's just such
Speaker 1: an interesting layout there. Now. Can you just kind of
Speaker 1: explain what your capacity is at the village and how
Speaker 1: that came to be sure, So let's go back a
Speaker 1: little bit. Was raised in White pa Who where Hawai's
Speaker 1: plantation village is located right across the sugar mill well.
Speaker 1: On my mom's side, my grandma used to work up
Speaker 1: in the doul Canary on Maui, and then on my
Speaker 1: father's side, grew up in White pa Who his uncle's
Speaker 1: and I found on that side we're working on a
Speaker 1: sugar plantation fields. So we're all like we grew up
Speaker 1: in that area of White pa Who just growing up there,
Speaker 1: driving past the village and just always thinking wow, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just the s road. Stories of that road, whitepa street.
Speaker 1: Hearing stories from family people or just friends, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this road is haunted. They see all these things, you
Speaker 1: know at night, or stories from plantation time too, would
Speaker 1: always stick to my mind and my mind, you know,
Speaker 1: as a kid, like a sponge just so get up
Speaker 1: just driving down past, you know, through that road, and
Speaker 1: I was just like, man, I just didn't like looking
Speaker 1: into the windows of this place of the village. It's
Speaker 1: just a fence and you can kind of see some
Speaker 1: of the houses and stuff. But that was, you know,
Speaker 1: as a kid, and so fast forward. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I was like a promoter for certain things, and at
Speaker 1: that time, I was promoting a lot of different events
Speaker 1: and I wanted to take a crack at trying to
Speaker 1: find a location for what we do, which is a
Speaker 1: haunted plantation, and I got rejected multiple times by the board.
Speaker 1: I guess I had no experience with promoting any kind
Speaker 1: of events of that scale. I was like, don't worry,
Speaker 1: it'll be big and popular whatever, and they finally agreed
Speaker 1: and I me do it. So in twenty sixteen was
Speaker 1: the first year. But I had a lot of hoops
Speaker 1: and hurdles, so I guess they threw that in my way,
Speaker 1: hoping that I wouldn't be able to do it. Actually
Speaker 1: surprised them and I've got all the stuff that they required, permitting,
Speaker 1: insurance and all that stuff, and yeah, they let me
Speaker 1: do it for just one night. So it was like
Speaker 1: a lot of guerilla marketing posters and just flyers and
Speaker 1: creating certain things like stories just build the hype and
Speaker 1: draw people out coming to find out that there was
Speaker 1: some stuff that did happen, but not as malicious as
Speaker 1: what some of the stories that are going around. But
Speaker 1: then there's the real stories that we have, because there
Speaker 1: were many ghost stories before we started moving in and
Speaker 1: creating these things. You know, always Plantation Village as a
Speaker 1: museum was built. People things like, oh it's so old,
Speaker 1: how good he is? You know, do stuff in that place?
Speaker 1: And replicas the Chinese house however, was there. There was
Speaker 1: a house there before. It's not what it is now,
Speaker 1: but used to be owned by the Pang family, and
Speaker 1: Stephen Pang still works there. I guess he's like the
Speaker 1: great godson of the people that used to own that area.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, a lot of people don't know the
Speaker 1: history about that. We filmed for Ghost Hunters there and
Speaker 1: I think it was eleven, and so at that point
Speaker 1: there are already stories. But I think it is important
Speaker 1: to note, like what you're saying, and this happens a lot,
Speaker 1: is that there becomes this kind of game of telephone
Speaker 1: and this happens a lot in many haunted locations where
Speaker 1: it's hard to kind of separate fact from fiction, where
Speaker 1: you have stories that were created through your haunt, but
Speaker 1: then you find out later like, oh, it's actually haunted,
Speaker 1: you know, and so and and it happens. But what
Speaker 1: I also find fascinating kind of what I was leading
Speaker 1: with in the beginning, is when we tried to instigate there,
Speaker 1: and then also when I went back and did a
Speaker 1: strange escape there, they were very protective as far as
Speaker 1: what they would do, and so I totally understand that,
Speaker 1: you know, you had to jump through some hoops and things.
Speaker 1: But a lot of these historical locations, having either a
Speaker 1: haunted attraction there or just like a ghost tour, you know,
Speaker 1: providing that it is actually haunted, ends up being a
Speaker 1: really great revenue source for them, and sometimes it is
Speaker 1: hard to convince them of that, and you kind of
Speaker 1: have to demonstrate like you did, and you have a
Speaker 1: whole new demographic visiting suddenly to people who probably would
Speaker 1: never have gone there. So I think overall it's a
Speaker 1: good thing. There was a lot of you know, from
Speaker 1: the board and stuff like that, like this concerns and
Speaker 1: after the first or second year, they needed us to
Speaker 1: be there. That's my home and you know the history
Speaker 1: of that place, and to keep that place around so
Speaker 1: people learn and learn about the culture and the history
Speaker 1: of the Share plantation and what my family went through
Speaker 1: doing that time, and to keep that place alive is
Speaker 1: what's driving me to continue. You to try and create
Speaker 1: something for everyone. And yeah, it's a very different time,
Speaker 1: and like you kind of touched on, and just the
Speaker 1: fact that there were all of these different cultures kind
Speaker 1: of in one place, brought in to do this, and
Speaker 1: so I love the representation of that in the village.
Speaker 1: Now you running a hunt there, though when did you
Speaker 1: realize that it was actually haunted? So there was like
Speaker 1: this small stuff and then there's, as I said before,
Speaker 1: the fabricated stories, but then the real stories that happened,
Speaker 1: you know, of course all started the first year actually,
Speaker 1: but it was like really like small and minor things
Speaker 1: where my mom actually she was in this area which
Speaker 1: is in front of the Portuguese house. She put some
Speaker 1: of the setting up level and then she left and
Speaker 1: she came back. Then it was placed somewhere else and
Speaker 1: she always thought that was strange, which was really small,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, she felt something in
Speaker 1: her pocket. You know, she thought it was like a
Speaker 1: gecko or like some sort of bug that went into
Speaker 1: her front pocket. And then she was like, oh, that's weird.
Speaker 1: She was like kind of hitting it because she thought
Speaker 1: it was like like a bug or something, but there
Speaker 1: was nothing in it. Then all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: keys kind of got tugged out of her pocket, and
Speaker 1: what was pulled out from the key chain was just
Speaker 1: like this little Hello Kitty toy and that thing was
Speaker 1: yanked out out of her pocket and that was the
Speaker 1: only thing that was explosions. She was kind of like
Speaker 1: what we found out later that people see a young
Speaker 1: girl around that area. Yeah, I mean, and that's in
Speaker 1: that area. I mean, we weren't able to verify any
Speaker 1: stories of a little girl, you know, but people have
Speaker 1: seen her and there's definitely stories around it. And I've
Speaker 1: had experiences in that house as well, so that's really interesting.
Speaker 1: So that's probably one of the first clues. So that's
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, her first year. And then she
Speaker 1: started getting I felt like somebody like tugging out her
Speaker 1: dress kind of times, you know, when she's in that area.
Speaker 1: She says, she's seen that like the next year, like
Speaker 1: just a little girl by the window and that's it.
Speaker 1: But it was always like more of a motherly kind
Speaker 1: of I guess the women that would experience stuff like that,
Speaker 1: even my workers too. It's usually just me and a
Speaker 1: couple of people, and sometimes I'm by myself in that
Speaker 1: village at night, you know, prepping throughout the week, and
Speaker 1: then weird things would happen, and I remember seeing faces
Speaker 1: in the window by the Union Hall. It's just weird.
Speaker 1: I remember just um in the Union Hall than a
Speaker 1: hear tapping on the window. I just remember saying, like
Speaker 1: a pale face like on the other side, but it
Speaker 1: was like on the top right corner of the window.
Speaker 1: It was just like looking at me. And then I
Speaker 1: ran out just to see. And the back of the
Speaker 1: Union Hall window is really high, you know, it's not
Speaker 1: like someone can just stand there and then their faces
Speaker 1: in the window. I just freaked out and I just
Speaker 1: bound stout. I was like, there is something really eerie
Speaker 1: there at night, because I've been there at night with
Speaker 1: very few people before, because I've had to kind of
Speaker 1: do the same thing where we lead a group investigation
Speaker 1: and then have to kind of close it down and
Speaker 1: make sure everybody's gone. And I just remember just walking
Speaker 1: through there and just always feeling like I was being watched,
Speaker 1: like I never felt like it was completely empty. And
Speaker 1: there's also you we walk through, there's like frogs everywhere.
Speaker 1: I remember that distinct. That's what scares me the most.
Speaker 1: Jump on my feet. There's so many of them and
Speaker 1: their big frogs, and they also make very strange noises,
Speaker 1: so that scares me, and you know, more than the ghost,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Yeah, so that was a
Speaker 1: new one. So ghosts are scary, but strange creatures are
Speaker 1: also very scary. So there's like a hundred from me more.
Speaker 1: I mean that kind of stop people seeing a man
Speaker 1: I've seen them to. Also, in the middle part of
Speaker 1: the village, by the shrine, there's a bath house. I
Speaker 1: remember this one night, which was really weird. At the
Speaker 1: end of the hunt, we asked some of the customers
Speaker 1: and patrons I walked through. It's like, oh, what was
Speaker 1: your best house? You know, what was the scariest house?
Speaker 1: And throughout the night, which was super weird, they are like, oh,
Speaker 1: the bath house and there was a bunch of scary
Speaker 1: children in it. Interesting, but they were like five people
Speaker 1: from different throughout that night that was telling me about
Speaker 1: those kids, and I was like, oh, you know, we
Speaker 1: don't have any kid actors. Yeah, that's really strange. That's
Speaker 1: a whole complete manifestation. You know, it's funny. I don't
Speaker 1: know what your belief system is and all of this,
Speaker 1: but you know, one of the things we found is
Speaker 1: that energy and attitude, those kinds of things have sometimes
Speaker 1: a lot to do with a haunt of whether someone
Speaker 1: experiences paranormal activity or not. And so I have found
Speaker 1: that in many of these places where people are coming
Speaker 1: in expecting to be scared. Probably most famously, I investigated
Speaker 1: a place in Pittsburgh called the Scare House and they've
Speaker 1: moved now, but their original building was super old, and
Speaker 1: so they would have their haunt every night, and then
Speaker 1: the people closing up would just constantly here like knocks
Speaker 1: and banging and voices, and it was almost like they
Speaker 1: charged the building up with everyone that was, you know,
Speaker 1: coming through scared and screaming. And I think that could
Speaker 1: definitely have an effect on the village, Like do you
Speaker 1: feel different when you guys were done than when you
Speaker 1: got there? Oh? Yeah, I guess you could say that,
Speaker 1: But people are telling me what I noticed. Where the
Speaker 1: the spirits that are there, they're kind of like more
Speaker 1: playful as far as like the kids or whatever. You know.
Speaker 1: Having been there now a few times, it never felt negative.
Speaker 1: I Like I said, I felt like somebody's watching me,
Speaker 1: But it's kind of par for the course. When you're investigating,
Speaker 1: it feels like that a lot. But I never felt
Speaker 1: like in danger or like something was, you know, gonna
Speaker 1: get me. I just felt like I could just feel
Speaker 1: that kind of vibe, like it's just like there's a
Speaker 1: tall guy in a white shirt. But the Portuguese Puerto
Speaker 1: Rican house people stay here, babies crying over there, like
Speaker 1: a baby crying, and they'll see somebody on the porch,
Speaker 1: a tall guy. And even the older docents they would
Speaker 1: say they would hear stuff when they would have to
Speaker 1: close and they would see like a tall guy just
Speaker 1: sitting on the front porch, you know, from the distance,
Speaker 1: and when they would get close and just he would
Speaker 1: be on And then some of my actors seeing that
Speaker 1: guy too. We have this flickering light in there, which
Speaker 1: the lights dim and we have all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: The lamps are going out and then they go bright
Speaker 1: and they you know, they then but he was scaring
Speaker 1: and facing towards the door, are waiting for people to
Speaker 1: come in. Then when the light flashed, it was just
Speaker 1: a tall guy just staring at him and then it
Speaker 1: just flashed again. Gone. But people said that happened multiple times,
Speaker 1: different people, all of white, I mean, all of oag who.
Speaker 1: I think Hawaii is just haunted in general, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's being respectful to just the overall land, and the
Speaker 1: island is super important. I mean, there is one house
Speaker 1: in the village that I know has a malicious spirit.
Speaker 1: There's a choking ghost in that house. That's the only
Speaker 1: house where we kind of just stay away from or
Speaker 1: if we shut it down, if we you know, something
Speaker 1: happens and we just avoid that. Overall, it's the green house,
Speaker 1: the middle house. Oh right, okay, and so does it
Speaker 1: have a name or is it just okay now on house.
Speaker 1: So this is the story of the choking House. This
Speaker 1: is a true one, and this is what happened multiple
Speaker 1: times where the actors would just up and leave. M
Speaker 1: So I had my auntie in this house. She was scaring,
Speaker 1: and then my mom would float around again with my mom.
Speaker 1: It was a family affair. Yeah, I said no, no, no.
Speaker 1: But then there was this these two other girls there
Speaker 1: that we just cast it. So while they were scaring
Speaker 1: one of the actresses, her eyes started getting watery and
Speaker 1: she was like kind of pressed against the wall. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, some people thought it was part of the act.
Speaker 1: Then my family looked at her and noticed that her
Speaker 1: eyes was like getting really red and looked like she
Speaker 1: was getting choked or something. That she was like, I
Speaker 1: can't breathe, I can't breathe, you know, and she had
Speaker 1: her arms around her neck. Then she just dropped to
Speaker 1: the floor. I mean, she wasn't lifted up, but she
Speaker 1: was pinned against the wall. You know. We closed that
Speaker 1: house and we we routed everyone, and then we take
Speaker 1: her into the back room and she was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I just felt like somebody was choking me. Here. We
Speaker 1: noticed that her her neck there was like some marks.
Speaker 1: That was the first incident for that, and it happened again. Oh,
Speaker 1: happened a couple of times. And then this other girl
Speaker 1: that was working there, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: she was sitting outside in the back part of that
Speaker 1: house during the hot She didn't know what was going
Speaker 1: on or what happened to that other girl. This was
Speaker 1: a new person that came out. She was just sitting
Speaker 1: on the side and crying in the back was like,
Speaker 1: are you okay? I was like, oh, I just felt
Speaker 1: like I had pressure on my chest. Interesting. Then it
Speaker 1: happened again where we had this guy come the first day.
Speaker 1: He was there, he was scaring. Then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: midway through, he just starts running to the parking lot,
Speaker 1: you know, past the terra pacts where everyone part. One
Speaker 1: of the staff members went over there and then the
Speaker 1: guy was like, oh, I'm out of here. Something happened.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was getting choked quit and he
Speaker 1: just left. I mean, that is a workplace hazard at
Speaker 1: this point. I feel like now that was the only
Speaker 1: time when we felt like it was dangerous, and that
Speaker 1: was that was a while ago, right, I mean, And yeah,
Speaker 1: that honestly could have been just in my experience, sometimes
Speaker 1: spirits wander in, especially if they know something interesting is
Speaker 1: going on or something different, if people are receptive to them,
Speaker 1: they'll kind of wander in. Because I know, we didn't
Speaker 1: encounter anything like that there, so it could have been
Speaker 1: something like that. Who knows, But yeah, it's interesting that
Speaker 1: it happened time and time again. So this is what
Speaker 1: I think personally, is that you know, the houses aren't haunted.
Speaker 1: I think there were things that aren't put in the
Speaker 1: houses that were passed on to have a lot of
Speaker 1: energy torment. I don't know, that's what I think. Well,
Speaker 1: we've seen that many times, so I think that that's
Speaker 1: a really fair assessment because we've encountered many haunted objects
Speaker 1: and things that just bring energy with them, So that
Speaker 1: makes complete sense to me. On that note, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for telling us all these stories. Hawaii's Plantation
Speaker 1: Village you can tour it if you happen to go
Speaker 1: to Oahu, but then you also have the haunt that
Speaker 1: you're doing, and that's coming back this year, I assume. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just an October Okay, great. Yeah, it's a very
Speaker 1: interesting place. Like I said, I've been there many times.
Speaker 1: There's so much to learn there, and it is a
Speaker 1: bit of a drive but not too crazy from you know,
Speaker 1: where everyone is staying, usually Honolulu or wherever. But it's
Speaker 1: worth it. During the day, it's really relaxing to kind
Speaker 1: of stroll through there and take a look at everything
Speaker 1: and really imagine what got back up the daytime tours
Speaker 1: again because of course during COVID now you can kind
Speaker 1: of just free rome if you don't want to go
Speaker 1: on a tour with a docent, some people prefer going
Speaker 1: just walking around by yourselves as like informative signs with information.
Speaker 1: But if you want to go on the four or
Speaker 1: five hour tour, go with the okay. But then also
Speaker 1: very important, you have a tiki bar which I am
Speaker 1: going to come visit when I come out. So what
Speaker 1: is the tiki bar called? Called Skull and Crown Trading
Speaker 1: Company located on sixty two North Hotel Street in Chinatown,
Speaker 1: which is another haunted place. If you guys want to
Speaker 1: walk around there. There's no shortage of ghosts and spirits
Speaker 1: in Hawaii. I've learned so well, great, well, I'm definitely
Speaker 1: gonna pop in. I really appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 1: It's just been fascinating listening to you and your stories.
Speaker 1: And like I said before, I encourage everyone to go
Speaker 1: pay a visit. Can go look for ghosts at Hawaiis
Speaker 1: Plantation Village, or you can go find spirits of another
Speaker 1: kind at the School and Ground Training Company. So thank
Speaker 1: you so much. No, I appreciate it. No, problem. Hawaii's
Speaker 1: Plantation Village doesn't fit the mold of most hauntings we
Speaker 1: in counter. It's not the original village, but it is
Speaker 1: very nearby to where the original village existed. So could
Speaker 1: spirits from the original days of sugarcane harvesting be attracted
Speaker 1: to the village because it looks familiar. Could the actual
Speaker 1: haunted attraction on site be generating enough energy to create
Speaker 1: a haunting? Or is the haunting completely unrelated to any
Speaker 1: of these things. I certainly have a lot of questions,
Speaker 1: as I'm sure you do as well, But that's why
Speaker 1: I keep doing what I do, hoping to eventually have answers.
Speaker 1: I mean, we all will one day in the meantime,
Speaker 1: completely by chance. I'm headed to Hawaii and just a
Speaker 1: couple of days, and I plan on taking a detour
Speaker 1: to Waipa who to pay my respects to whoever seems
Speaker 1: to be left presiding in the village. I recommend if
Speaker 1: you're in the area, you do the same. I'm Amy
Speaker 1: Bruney and this was Haunted Road. M Haunted Road is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and hosted by
Speaker 1: Amy Bruney. Executive producers include Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rema Ill Kali
Speaker 1: and Trevor Young. Research by Taylor Haggerdorn, Amy Bruney and
Speaker 1: Robin Miniter. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts