Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Minky.
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: The very first episode of this podcast covered a haunting
Speaker 1: that I find to be very emotional and traumatic. It's
Speaker 1: one I feel close to, even though there's absolutely nothing
Speaker 1: about it that connects me to it other than emotion.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the Veliska House where, in June of
Speaker 1: nineteen twelve, eight people were brutally killed with an axe
Speaker 1: as they slept, two parents, their four children, and two
Speaker 1: other children who had been sleeping over. I've investigated the
Speaker 1: house a few times, and it's incredibly hard to reconcile
Speaker 1: what happened there and the fact no one was ever
Speaker 1: held accountable for the crimes. But along with the haunting
Speaker 1: that exists there now and the fascination with the true
Speaker 1: crime element, there are many theories that the murder made
Speaker 1: a few stops on their journey to Veliska, and even
Speaker 1: some evidence suggesting it wasn't his only axe murder. That
Speaker 1: being said, there is a building also in Iowa that
Speaker 1: many feel has some sort of connection to the Velliska murders,
Speaker 1: though it has seen plenty of death in trauma and
Speaker 1: its own right. This large home, now called Malvern Manor,
Speaker 1: sits just thirty eight miles from Velliska and has some
Speaker 1: very interesting stories to tell. Let's pay a visit, shall we.
Speaker 1: I'm Amy Bruney and this is Haunted Road. The small
Speaker 1: town of Malvern, Iowa can seem like the embodiment of
Speaker 1: rural heartland life. In fact, in The Devil's Coming to
Speaker 1: Get Me The Haunting of Malvern Manor by Richard Estep,
Speaker 1: the community is described as a classic American small town.
Speaker 1: For the past one hundred and fifty years, its population
Speaker 1: had held fairly steady, around one thousand people or so,
Speaker 1: give or take a few hundred in either direction, and
Speaker 1: perched in the outskirts of Malvern's downtown neighborhood. One strange
Speaker 1: old home looks like a child took a bunch of
Speaker 1: pieces from different toy houses and wedged them together into one.
Speaker 1: The ten thousand square foot structure is two stories tall,
Speaker 1: not counting the basement in attic It has a peaked
Speaker 1: roof on one side, which abuts more industrial looking blocky
Speaker 1: wings on the other side. Its twenty eight interior rooms
Speaker 1: feature abandoned furniture before it grew worn and began peeling.
Speaker 1: The floral wallpaper may have once been cheerful, but it's
Speaker 1: hard to imagine the winding, narrow hallways and unfinished smokescuarred
Speaker 1: attic feeling anything but ominous. The reason the structure Malvern
Speaker 1: Manor looks so haphazard is because it has grown in
Speaker 1: fits and starts, with many new additions over the course
Speaker 1: of its existence. It was originally built in the nineteenth
Speaker 1: century as a home for lumber magnate Isaac b Ringland.
Speaker 1: He and his family lived there until their deaths, at
Speaker 1: which point it was sold to a hotel year named
Speaker 1: Julia Betts. After she acquired the home in eighteen ninety,
Speaker 1: she spent a year or so renovating and expanding the
Speaker 1: building to transform it into an inn. According to reporting
Speaker 1: in The Malvern Leader, at some point during this round
Speaker 1: of construction, workers unearthed a Bible inside a cornice molding.
Speaker 1: It's unclear how the book ended up there, but the
Speaker 1: Paranormal Warehouse website suggested this may have been evidence of
Speaker 1: an earlier Masonic ritual from the time the building was
Speaker 1: first erected. This didn't slow the renovations, and in eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety one, the business opened its doors, then called the
Speaker 1: Cottage Hotel. The inn didn't just host travelers for the night.
Speaker 1: It was also a social hub and the site of
Speaker 1: numerous weddings and funerals. Although Malvern was still a rural community,
Speaker 1: the Cottage Hotel was at least the town's fourth lodging house.
Speaker 1: This was because Malvern sat near a major railway, and
Speaker 1: travelers would stop there for the night during long train journeys.
Speaker 1: Nancy Hendrix wrote in Haunted Histories in America that the
Speaker 1: manner specifically courted traveling salesmen for their client base. We
Speaker 1: can only imagine how many people spent the night there
Speaker 1: over the years. According to some speculation, one particularly notorious
Speaker 1: individual stopped at the Cottage in for the night, the
Speaker 1: unidentified killer who committed the Veliska ex murders. The unsolved
Speaker 1: multiple homicide happened in June nineteen twelve when an unknown
Speaker 1: perpetrator slaughtered an entire family in Velliska, Iowa, which is
Speaker 1: about forty miles from Malvern. Now, as we don't even
Speaker 1: know their identity, there is no record or proof that
Speaker 1: the killer ever set foot in the town of Malvern
Speaker 1: or the Cottage hotel, but it's possible investigators believe the
Speaker 1: murderer took the t so the lodging would have been
Speaker 1: a reasonable place to stop for the night. Today, the
Speaker 1: site of the Veliska Axe Murders employs Johnny Hauser, friend
Speaker 1: of the show, as a caretaker. Johnny claims he's somehow
Speaker 1: drawn to the Malvern manner, and he sees this as
Speaker 1: evidence that the two houses are connected. As reported by
Speaker 1: Richard Estep, Hauser has also alleged that a large quartz
Speaker 1: vein runs between the homes, supernaturally linking them. While we
Speaker 1: can't verify any formal connection between the Malvern manner and
Speaker 1: the multiple homicide, it's possible the killer contributed to some
Speaker 1: of the eerie energy that seems to permeate the grounds
Speaker 1: Throughout the early nineteen hundreds. The hotel changed ownership numerous times.
Speaker 1: During that period. It also underwent numerous renovations and expansions,
Speaker 1: creating that patch together esthetic I referenced earlier in an
Speaker 1: article A Brief History of the Malvern, John D. Paddock
Speaker 1: speculated the hotel might have been suffering from bad luck
Speaker 1: due to Whodo. Regardless, in nineteen fifty six, the facility
Speaker 1: stopped operating as a lodging and was converted into a
Speaker 1: nursing home, but it wasn't much more successful now than
Speaker 1: it had been as a hotel. While the residents were
Speaker 1: initially pleased with the clean, well maintained facility, it soon
Speaker 1: had to be shut down when government officials discovered the
Speaker 1: hallways were too narrow to wheel beds down them. In
Speaker 1: June nineteen seventy six, the manner transformed once again, this
Speaker 1: time to a hospital for people with physical and mental disabilities.
Speaker 1: Reporting in a local newspaper suggested the staff went to
Speaker 1: great lengths to make patients feel safe and comfortable. One
Speaker 1: client described how they dined, worshiped, and explored their hobbies
Speaker 1: with the other residents, forming a makeshift family. The Devil's
Speaker 1: Coming to Get Me The Haunting of Malvern Manor by
Speaker 1: Richard Estep, tells a different story. In this book, Richard
Speaker 1: discussed one resident who was said to be highly aggressive
Speaker 1: and murdered at least two people. He chased staffers down
Speaker 1: the hall when they were performing checks, and many employees
Speaker 1: were afraid to interact with him at all. They'd refuse
Speaker 1: to help him dress or put his shoes on in
Speaker 1: the morning. There are also accounts which are unverified, of
Speaker 1: another patient named Grace, who stayed in a room on
Speaker 1: the first floor. Rumors suggests she suffered from multiple personality disorder.
Speaker 1: The American Haunting's Ghost Hunts web page titled Night at
Speaker 1: the Milevern Manor discussed how staffers would often walk by
Speaker 1: Grace's room late in the evening. They'd hear a man's
Speaker 1: voice repeating the Devil's coming to get me, The devils
Speaker 1: coming to get me. When these employees would open the
Speaker 1: door to investigate, they'd find Grace alone, speaking in the
Speaker 1: deep male voice to herself. While the residents sought treatment
Speaker 1: at the hospital, history repeated itself once more. The state
Speaker 1: had to intervene and shut the business down. This time
Speaker 1: it was because, as Clark Kaufman wrote for the Des
Speaker 1: Moines Register, the structure's electrical system wasn't up to code. Additionally,
Speaker 1: they weren't maintaining the proper records on their employees or patients,
Speaker 1: adhering to food safety and preparation procedures, or taking proper
Speaker 1: steps to prevent outbreaks and spread of infectious disease. In
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, the hospital was shuttered. Afterward, the
Speaker 1: Malvern Manors spent one year as another care facility called
Speaker 1: the Heritage House before it was finally condemned for good.
Speaker 1: Today the building belongs to private owners with an interest
Speaker 1: in the paranormal. They gave the facility its current name,
Speaker 1: Malvern Manor, and they host haunted tours on the premises
Speaker 1: because supposedly it's a hub for supernatural activities. It's been
Speaker 1: estimated that roughly one hundred people have died in the
Speaker 1: building since its construction, so it's almost to be expected
Speaker 1: that the house has halways echo with disembard moans, footsteps,
Speaker 1: and voices. Visitors say they hear heavy dragging sounds like
Speaker 1: someone unseen as moving furniture around. Others have seen balls
Speaker 1: roll or rocking chair shift without being pushed. Partial shadow
Speaker 1: figures sometimes appear, and guests should expect to be touched
Speaker 1: or groped as they pass through the house. Many have
Speaker 1: pointed at one possible source for all these disturbances in
Speaker 1: the house. A display case holds a doll named Rose,
Speaker 1: who is said to be haunted. Reportedly, Rose often moves
Speaker 1: around on her own. Some speculate that Rose's influence extends
Speaker 1: beyond her enclosed case and she can cause disturbances throughout
Speaker 1: the house, particularly on the second floor. Rose has been
Speaker 1: linked to another spirit called Number One. Richard Estep highlighted
Speaker 1: this connection in the text in his book. He also
Speaker 1: reported that Number One has a deep male voice when
Speaker 1: he speaks and growls a aggressively at visitors. But Rose
Speaker 1: and Number One don't seem to be responsible for everything
Speaker 1: that happens at Malvern Manor. The still unidentified perpetrator of
Speaker 1: the Veleska axe murders has reportedly made contact with investigators
Speaker 1: at the Manor, and earlier I discussed one former patient
Speaker 1: from when the building operated as a mental health facility,
Speaker 1: the man who chased terrified staffers in the halls. His
Speaker 1: six foot seven inch specter still appears in the second
Speaker 1: floor hallways, charging at guests the same way he bore
Speaker 1: down on employees so many years ago. Visitors have also
Speaker 1: reported instances associated with Grace, the woman who allegedly spoke
Speaker 1: in a deep male voice while alone late at night
Speaker 1: in her room. At times, the overwhelming sour scent of
Speaker 1: urine will fill her former chambers. In room seven, A
Speaker 1: spectral spirit screams in terror, believing her family left her
Speaker 1: unloved and forgotten at the facility, and another ghost in
Speaker 1: the lobby has been identified as had Harry, who lived
Speaker 1: at the manor when it was a nursing home. Richard
Speaker 1: Estep reports that Harry was wheelchair bound in life and
Speaker 1: enjoyed humming along and whistling to the radio. Today he'll
Speaker 1: push seemingly empty wheelchairs around, still whistling and humming all
Speaker 1: the while. Particularly dark energy seemed to permeate rooms seventeen
Speaker 1: and eighteen. It's hard to say exactly what happened there
Speaker 1: as reports are contradictory. It said that while Malvern Manor
Speaker 1: operated as a mental health facility, two men lived in
Speaker 1: the side by side rooms. Reportedly, late at night after
Speaker 1: checks were complete, the man in Room eighteen would slip
Speaker 1: into Room seventeen and possibly sexually assault the other resident.
Speaker 1: But in an interview with Richard Estep, paranormal investigator Dustin
Speaker 1: Perry said he connected with the spirit that still remains
Speaker 1: in Room seventeen. When he asked about the abuse, the
Speaker 1: spirit told him that never happened. I loved him. Visitors
Speaker 1: have also seen the spirit of a young girl lurking
Speaker 1: in the house, particularly in one second floor room. Investigators
Speaker 1: have captured audio of the phantom introducing herself as Inez
Speaker 1: Gibson now Ainas Gibson is a real, historically documented person,
Speaker 1: a Malvern local who died at the tender age of twelve.
Speaker 1: She was the adopted daughter of a grocer who took
Speaker 1: her in after her mother and father divorced and neither
Speaker 1: parent was willing or able to care for her. In
Speaker 1: December nineteen ninety, Ainez tragically died allegedly just before she
Speaker 1: was supposed to move back in with her birth mother.
Speaker 1: While her demise was initially believed to be a suicide,
Speaker 1: further investigation revealed it was actually a horrific freak accident.
Speaker 1: The Daily Non Parell described the deadly incident in an
Speaker 1: article titled was Not a Suicide. Reportedly, Inez wrapped her
Speaker 1: jump rope around her neck before digging through her closet
Speaker 1: for some gifts she'd bought to give away on Christmas.
Speaker 1: Somehow the jump rope got on a clothing hook it
Speaker 1: tightened around her neck, forming a makeshift noose and strangling her.
Speaker 1: Now to be very clear, Inez did not pass away
Speaker 1: at Malvern Manor, but at her house a short distance away,
Speaker 1: but according to some speculation, After her house was demolished,
Speaker 1: her spirit sought a new home, one that was already
Speaker 1: full of other ghosts to keep her company, and so
Speaker 1: she ended up at the Manor. Another explanation is that
Speaker 1: some other spirit is impersonating Inez Or. Perhaps visitors to
Speaker 1: the Manor have essentially manifested the spirit they expected to
Speaker 1: interact with the little girl named Ainez, and the power
Speaker 1: of that anticipation actually brought this entity into existence. But ultimately,
Speaker 1: it's almost impossible to guess where a spirit came from
Speaker 1: or what it wants. Now, that's true in any haunted location,
Speaker 1: but particularly in Malvern Manor. Throughout its history, the structure
Speaker 1: has been locked in a cycle of new beginnings and condemnations,
Speaker 1: followed by even more fresh starts. It's hard to pinpoint
Speaker 1: where the facility story begins or ends, let alone the
Speaker 1: narratives of those who now linger in its halls. But
Speaker 1: up next, we'll chat with Josh Heard. He is a
Speaker 1: co owner of Malvern Manor, and he'll explain why destiny
Speaker 1: brought him there, and he'll also dive into the many
Speaker 1: haunting experiences he's had there over the years. That's coming
Speaker 1: up after the break. All right, So I am now
Speaker 1: joined by Josh Hurd, who is one of the co
Speaker 1: owners of Malvern manor really not anyone more perfect to
Speaker 1: speak with about this, so welcome to the program.
Speaker 2: Josh, oh, thank you so much for having me, of.
Speaker 1: Course, And how did you get involved with Malvern?
Speaker 2: You know, it's weird, Like I was, actually I had
Speaker 2: no idea that this building existed. I was actually filming
Speaker 2: a documentary across the street at this really cool restaurant
Speaker 2: called the Classic Cafe, and they have their own slew
Speaker 2: of paranormal happenings and they were kind enough to say,
Speaker 2: bring your cameras, do all that fun stuff. And we
Speaker 2: went over there and I didn't realize there was a
Speaker 2: bar that's attached to the Classic Cafe. It was a
Speaker 2: Friday evening, and apparently it had been a pretty rough week
Speaker 2: for a lot of people because they were very loud
Speaker 2: and boisterous. But we really couldn't investigate at all and
Speaker 2: give it really a fair shake, just from noise contamination
Speaker 2: and all that. So I went outside and I met
Speaker 2: this guy who was like, what's with all the cameras, dude,
Speaker 2: And I told him what we were doing, and oh
Speaker 2: my god, this guy's going to think I'm crazy, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. But he was like, oh, that's
Speaker 2: kind of cool. He goes, I really don't believe in
Speaker 2: this stuff. However, He's like, I got this building and
Speaker 2: it used to be, you know, basically a hotel, and
Speaker 2: then it was a group home or a nursing home
Speaker 2: and then like a group home for mentally handicapped people,
Speaker 2: all that stuff. And he's like, yeah, the place is
Speaker 2: like ten thousand square feet. I'm like, where is this place?
Speaker 2: And he's like, right there across the street. I'm like, wow,
Speaker 2: pretty sure. We just became best friends, you know. I'm like,
Speaker 2: hey man, he let us in, and I mean we
Speaker 2: had more happened to us in the first two hours
Speaker 2: than we had in the last two years. So it
Speaker 2: was it was absolutely mind boggling, like what was happening.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I don't think you realize what you
Speaker 2: have here, you know what I mean. And so it
Speaker 2: was that point that I was like kind of talked
Speaker 2: him into opening the doors to the public because the
Speaker 2: building was just sitting here completely vacant, right, and so yeah,
Speaker 2: and now we're lucky enough to keep the building doing
Speaker 2: what it's doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great. I mean, it is kind of one
Speaker 1: of those situations where it seems like the paranormal kind
Speaker 1: of keeps history alive, you know, And I really like
Speaker 1: that because sometimes there are these buildings, especially kind of
Speaker 1: in the Midwest, where if someone wasn't looking for ghosts
Speaker 1: in them, there probably wouldn't be a whole lot else
Speaker 1: happening inside of them, if that makes sense. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, weirdly you breathe new life into it, which
Speaker 1: I really like. The history to me is fascinating. We
Speaker 1: cover that in the first half, but you know, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine you know, having those experiences so quickly and
Speaker 1: then convincing him to open the doors to going on
Speaker 1: to be you know, part owner of the location. Has
Speaker 1: this place just kind of become like your life in
Speaker 1: some ways?
Speaker 2: My god? Yeah, Like I feel like I'm married to
Speaker 2: the place right Like It's one of those things where
Speaker 2: it's like, I'm I'm very similar in the respect that
Speaker 2: I really enjoy history, and when you can correlate historical
Speaker 2: fact with paranormal happenings like that, to me is the
Speaker 2: good stuff. When those two things can kind of come
Speaker 2: together and momentarily shake hands, you know, it's like Wow,
Speaker 2: very very interesting stuff. And so I became obsessed with
Speaker 2: this place more in a healthy respect. My wife may argue,
Speaker 2: I don't know, but still like it's amazing to me.
Speaker 2: Like like one of the first things that I did after,
Speaker 2: you know, acquiring this building then for ourselves, is I
Speaker 2: invited the former nursing staff back here, like walk me
Speaker 2: down memory Lane, like I wanted to know what the
Speaker 2: day to day was like here. It's fascinating stuff to me.
Speaker 1: That's a great move. I love that. You know, not
Speaker 1: a lot of people have that opportunity, which is is
Speaker 1: so that's valuable information to have when you're investigating. Now,
Speaker 1: when you first went in there, where was the moment
Speaker 1: when you were like this is something special, Like when
Speaker 1: something happened, you know, paranormally speaking, like when were you like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's something to this. You know?
Speaker 2: It was honestly, like within the first forty five minutes
Speaker 2: of getting into the building, we were upstairs on the
Speaker 2: second floor, and I remember specifically hearing footsteps coming down
Speaker 2: the hallway, which it's an old building and you're certainly
Speaker 2: going to hear footsteps coming towards you. But everybody was
Speaker 2: accounted for. Everybody was in the room, and so I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: that's interesting. But then we heard a very audible, disembodied
Speaker 2: like female voice, and it couldn't make out anything that
Speaker 2: it was saying. It almost sounded like a like a
Speaker 2: moan or a hum or something similar. But it happened twice,
Speaker 2: and I was like, what in the world is going
Speaker 2: on here? So it really left me like scratching my
Speaker 2: head because again, like, no females were present with us
Speaker 2: that night, and everybody was accounted for, so I'm like,
Speaker 2: I don't understand. There were numerous things that happened just
Speaker 2: that night that that really made me scratch my head
Speaker 2: and think, Okay, this place is something special.
Speaker 1: You know, do you think that most of the activity
Speaker 1: there seems to be kind of more on the intelligent
Speaker 1: side or do you think it's a lot of residual activity.
Speaker 2: I would say there's a fair amount of both going on.
Speaker 2: A lot of what I seem to capture does seem
Speaker 2: to have some form of intelligence to it. It's answering
Speaker 2: questions and things like that. Then there are other times
Speaker 2: where it's almost as if and I don't even know
Speaker 2: how this is possible, if it is something that's intelligent,
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe they just think I'm a resident,
Speaker 2: but that I've been told numerous times to get back
Speaker 2: in my room.
Speaker 1: Strange now, Mike.
Speaker 2: So if I'm walking around in the middle of the night,
Speaker 2: you know, and it's like get back to your room,
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, you think I'm I'm a patient here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So they know they're like, you're up and about
Speaker 1: when you are not supposed to be, and you're either
Speaker 1: getting in trouble or someone's looking out for you. Both
Speaker 1: very interesting, I think so too.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, gosh, is this something that's intelligent or
Speaker 2: something that's residual, or is it somehow a mixture of both,
Speaker 2: Like I have no idea.
Speaker 1: Have you been able to kind of verify activity and
Speaker 1: link it to people who were, you know, who lived
Speaker 1: in that location at some point?
Speaker 2: Definitely, And that was one of the biggest things of
Speaker 2: why I wanted to invite some of that former nursing
Speaker 2: staff back, is to see if we could correlate specific
Speaker 2: names without giving them any information whatsoever. Just again walk
Speaker 2: me down memory lane. And it was fascinating. One of
Speaker 2: the first rooms that we came to, we had been
Speaker 2: getting the name of this woman calling herself Gracie. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's a pretty name, you know, all that stuff, And
Speaker 2: I would go into Gracie's room often, and it wasn't
Speaker 2: then until we had that group of nurses kind of
Speaker 2: walking with us. They're like, and this over here was
Speaker 2: Grace's room, or Gracie's room as she liked to be called.
Speaker 2: But now Gracie was also she had schizophrenia, but she
Speaker 2: also had the idea or what they used to refer
Speaker 2: to as multiple personalities, So Gracie had a lot going on.
Speaker 2: One evening in particular, three nurses sat with Gracie for
Speaker 2: an hour and documented thirteen separate distinguishable personalities, which is
Speaker 2: I mean almost medically un of like the wheelhouse is
Speaker 2: like two to five, so it's certainly tipping the scales.
Speaker 2: But that fascinated me because I was like, I'm sorry, what, like,
Speaker 2: say again, what what was her name? Because that's the
Speaker 2: name we're.
Speaker 1: Getting now when you interact with Gracie, do you feel
Speaker 1: like she's taken that with her, like that kind of
Speaker 1: personality disorder for lack of a better term, you think
Speaker 1: that that is showing itself in the afterlife, or do
Speaker 1: you think she's like whole and healthy and herself.
Speaker 2: See, that's the way I want to imagine her in
Speaker 2: her afterlife. I can't imagine taking something like that with us, right,
Speaker 2: because it's a horrifying thought. But so every time that
Speaker 2: I've seemed to have an interaction with her, it has
Speaker 2: been her. I will say that. Now. I will also
Speaker 2: say that I've had numerous conversations with friends, you know,
Speaker 2: those weird late night conversations where you've had one too
Speaker 2: many glasses of wine. Had a few of those, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and you go down rabbit holes, right, I mean, that's
Speaker 2: what happens. But numerous times we've talked and we're like,
Speaker 2: my god, like, what if those personalities do transfer on
Speaker 2: to the next life or what have you. It's like,
Speaker 2: what if Gracie is just the antecedent of the haunting?
Speaker 2: What if she's haunting this place and it's just an
Speaker 2: offshoot of different personalities and things like that, which is
Speaker 2: also a terrifying thought to entertain.
Speaker 1: Right, And then it also makes you wonder like where
Speaker 1: does that actually come from? Is that our brain or
Speaker 1: is it our psyche? Is it our soul? You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It does raise a lot of questions
Speaker 1: but now when you had the staff there, did they
Speaker 1: ever claim that they had experiences when it was operating?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, which I also found fascinating because they like, oh,
Speaker 2: They're like, gosh, this feels just like before. What do
Speaker 2: you mean by that? They're like, it just feels like
Speaker 2: eyes are on me. And I have had numerous people
Speaker 2: that were former staff members here that have come through,
Speaker 2: and they they always say, oh, this was the best
Speaker 2: job I ever had, or this was the worst job
Speaker 2: I've ever had, And it's interesting to me just how
Speaker 2: how that dichotomy works, right, And they're like, oh, I
Speaker 2: remember specifically this one time, like I went upstairs and
Speaker 2: I was trying to fix a residen's bed and all
Speaker 2: of this stuff was happening around them, but nobody was around,
Speaker 2: and so I was like, this is fascinating to me
Speaker 2: that they were having different pieces of activity happened that
Speaker 2: they couldn't themselves just explain away. And some of them,
Speaker 2: I mean Gracie for an example, some of them were
Speaker 2: so terrified of Gracy because she would speak sometimes in
Speaker 2: a weird, growy kind of a male voice and say
Speaker 2: things like the Devil's coming to get me, you know,
Speaker 2: things like that. It freaked them out. So I'm like,
Speaker 2: turnover here was almost laughable, you.
Speaker 1: Know, really, right, having gone through this, I mean, I
Speaker 1: imagine you investigate other locations as well, Right, do you
Speaker 1: ever feel like, I don't want to say that you
Speaker 1: compare them, but do you? I mean, how does that
Speaker 1: feel to be so kind of connected to one location
Speaker 1: but then occasionally branch out to others? Does it feel different?
Speaker 1: Or do you ever? I mean, honestly, do you ever
Speaker 1: feel like part of Malvern comes with you elsewhere? If
Speaker 1: that makes sense?
Speaker 2: It does. It's super weird. One of my favorite places
Speaker 2: to go is obviously the Veliska Axe Murder House, which
Speaker 2: is just thirty minutes down the same stretch of road.
Speaker 2: And Johnny over there at the Veliska House is one
Speaker 2: of my best friends.
Speaker 1: I love Johnny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's one of the best, you know, And so
Speaker 2: it's it's just good people and good fun. But it's interesting,
Speaker 2: like going into another location and separating yourself from what
Speaker 2: you already know to be the normal. Right, So it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: I could go and investigate the Queen Mary for an example,
Speaker 2: or someplace like that and have to mentally say to myself, Okay, dude,
Speaker 2: This is not going to be what you're used to,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, this is not going to
Speaker 2: be And I think, honestly, as weird as this sounds,
Speaker 2: the spirits here are more familiar with me. Oh that's
Speaker 2: the guy that wipes down the counters, that's the guy
Speaker 2: that annoys me with the vacuum cleaner, you know, things
Speaker 2: like that. But they see me as more of, like,
Speaker 2: you know, a caretaker of the place, and so I
Speaker 2: think they're more familiar with me and more willing to
Speaker 2: mess with me a little bit more than maybe anybody else.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask that actually, like if you
Speaker 1: felt like you had kind of built up a camaraderie
Speaker 1: with some of the spirits there, or if there are
Speaker 1: some there that might not like you.
Speaker 2: You know, there's that like Gracie, for an example, is
Speaker 2: one of my favorites. She's become my built in therapist,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Like, I'll just go into
Speaker 2: Gracie's room and I'll be like, You're never gonna believe this,
Speaker 2: and I'll just word vomit for a half hour and
Speaker 2: I'll feel great and she's probably annoyed. But regardless, like
Speaker 2: there is one gentleman upstairs, and his name is Hank
Speaker 2: or Henry, and it kind of depends on the day
Speaker 2: and what he wants to be called. He's your very
Speaker 2: stereotypical grumpy old man, and he just doesn't seem to
Speaker 2: enjoy company. He certainly doesn't enjoy the company of female investigators,
Speaker 2: that is for sure. But like he's just a crotchety
Speaker 2: old dude, and like he would sit out on the
Speaker 2: front porch and like throw rocks at children and things
Speaker 2: like that. So he's just kind of a butt heead.
Speaker 2: I also kind of aspire to be this man one day, right.
Speaker 1: But yeah, this right, you might be.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe, but no, he's honestly like one of my
Speaker 2: favorites too, because he will just kind of flip you crap,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. But I'm also flipping it
Speaker 2: right back. But it's almost like a buddy thing. But
Speaker 2: I do think that I get on her nerves more
Speaker 2: often than not.
Speaker 1: Do you really think there's a connection between Malvern and Fliska.
Speaker 2: It's it's fascinating again, one of those conversations that happened
Speaker 2: after too many glasses of wine with Johnny House, Right.
Speaker 1: But I can only imagine he's so much.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yes, but it is interesting because there
Speaker 2: does seem to be some kind of correlation, some kind
Speaker 2: of a tie that we're not quite privy to yet,
Speaker 2: things that I don't quite know, Like we're getting EVPs
Speaker 2: here for an example, that would suggest Veliska. However, they're
Speaker 2: also getting EVPs and Velliska that are suggesting Malvern. It
Speaker 2: makes no sense, like I would give my left arm
Speaker 2: to see a ledger from the hotel right back in
Speaker 2: nineteen ten in June specifically, or.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, well, no, yeah, exactly. And what also makes
Speaker 1: you wonder too, because obviously Feliska was huge news, and
Speaker 1: so sometimes even just a news story can be enough
Speaker 1: of triggering information to get a spirit to speak with you,
Speaker 1: even if they weren't necessarily involved in it, it's enough
Speaker 1: for them to be like, oh, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 1: Clearly everyone who was at Malvern knew about that. Obviously
Speaker 1: we could go down the rabbit hole. But but that's
Speaker 1: a possibility too. I find that connection to be very interesting,
Speaker 1: and Johnny brought it up to me when I was
Speaker 1: at Veliska last He was like, you got to go
Speaker 1: to Malvern, and I still can't believe I haven't been there.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I have this very weird draw to Iowa.
Speaker 1: So like I've always, like every time we've gone there
Speaker 1: to investigate or whatever, I've always had this kind of
Speaker 1: draw to it and can come to find out like
Speaker 1: I was half adopted and all bunch of my birth
Speaker 1: families all from Iowa, like I descended from Iowan's. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so strange, but well.
Speaker 2: That's interesting, yeah, I mean honestly, like what you guys
Speaker 2: go to Belvoir a lot, yeah, which I mean that's
Speaker 2: just two hours away, give.
Speaker 1: Her and a half. Yeah. When we were filming at
Speaker 1: Veliska for Kindred, the owner of Belvoir, so Jesse is
Speaker 1: one of my best friends, and so he came out
Speaker 1: and hung out with us, and so personally, like, do
Speaker 1: you ever well, first of all, do you live in
Speaker 1: Malvern or are you just like there all the time.
Speaker 2: I'm just overcoming it feels like I live in Malverne.
Speaker 2: I live like ten or fifteen minutes away, which is
Speaker 2: like just close enough and just far enough away, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that makes sense. Now do you ever regret
Speaker 1: the decision to be so heavily involved in it?
Speaker 2: Sometimes? I guess like it's weird, right, Like I can't
Speaker 2: imagine doing anything else now, like I honestly can't. I
Speaker 2: feel also very fortunate to be doing what I'm doing,
Speaker 2: because I know a lot of people that would die
Speaker 2: to do this, you know. But there are certain times
Speaker 2: like I mean, I remember one time giving an interview,
Speaker 2: sitting in the main room over here, and somebody asked
Speaker 2: that question, does anything ever follow you home? And I
Speaker 2: said no, not really like and right at that moment,
Speaker 2: my wife called me and I was like, sorry, guys,
Speaker 2: I gotta take this real quick. And I asked if
Speaker 2: everything was okay. She goes, I don't know what you
Speaker 2: guys are doing over there, but you need to knock
Speaker 2: it off. I'm like, what do you mean. She's like, like,
Speaker 2: the kitchen cabinet doors are opening. The dog is like
Speaker 2: going absolutely batcrap crazy. He's like. My wife was like,
Speaker 2: something is going on over here. Please stop. I'm like,
Speaker 2: we're not doing anything, we're just talking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your Malvern friends were like, oh, that's something we
Speaker 1: can do. Let's explore this option exactly.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh and now they heard that, yes.
Speaker 1: Well, hopefully you set some boundaries since then, so that's
Speaker 1: not happening.
Speaker 2: Definitely.
Speaker 1: Well I love that now, I know. So Malvern is
Speaker 1: open for tours and investigations, is that correct?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, and how does that work, like if people
Speaker 1: want to come visit and check it out?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So malvernmanor dotweeble dot com is the website. And
Speaker 2: on that website, I mean you can check out the
Speaker 2: calendar with available dates, you can request a date and
Speaker 2: from there it just emails me directly and we get
Speaker 2: you on the calendar and off you go, you know
Speaker 2: type of thing. So it's it's super fun. I love
Speaker 2: meeting new people and seeing people's approach to an investigating
Speaker 2: and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you have boundaries and things, and everybody's super
Speaker 1: respectful and I can only imagine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, for the most part they are. It's
Speaker 2: there's obviously your your outliers, right like once in a while,
Speaker 2: but no, like for the most part, ninety nine percent
Speaker 2: of people come in here very respectfully, which I also
Speaker 2: say is probably the only way that you're going to
Speaker 2: get legitimate interactions because absolutely if you come in kind
Speaker 2: of like what I call guns a blazon, you know,
Speaker 2: where you're like kicking indoors saying show yourself and all that, tiff,
Speaker 2: it's really not going to get you very far. But
Speaker 2: if you take an hour or you take ninety minutes,
Speaker 2: and you go and just sit in a room and
Speaker 2: you just ask very generic questions, what did you do today?
Speaker 2: You know, what are you doing tomorrow? How is your day?
Speaker 2: You have things like that, like it seems to really
Speaker 2: elicit a response from these people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree completely. So well, I'm going to have
Speaker 1: to pay a visit clearly next time I'm in Iowa
Speaker 1: exploring my heritage, and I will. But I really do
Speaker 1: appreciate you taking the time. It's been a lot of
Speaker 1: fun chatting with you, and like I said, hopefully I'll
Speaker 1: be visiting soon.
Speaker 2: That sounds great, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Malvern Manor has left behind its old role as care
Speaker 1: facility and now caters to supernatural enthusiasts and paranormal investigators.
Speaker 1: It's oddly appropriate that the facility still straddles the line
Speaker 1: between looking forward and looking back. Its business model is
Speaker 1: different from anything it had before, but any interaction with
Speaker 1: mysticism and spirituality will always involve some engagement with the past.
Speaker 1: So while spirits from long ago continue to dwell there today.
Speaker 1: We can only hope they'll find a pathway forward as well.
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 Cassandra de Alba. This show is edited and
Speaker 1: produced by Rima Alkali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and
Speaker 1: executive producers Aaron Menke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. Haunted
Speaker 1: Road is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Menke. Learn more about this show over at
Speaker 1: Grimanmild dot com, and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.