Speaker 1: What's that at the foot of my bed. It's spooky
Speaker 1: and JOOKI, I'm pretty sure it's dead.
Speaker 2: It's coming. That's way.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, I said, Hiraz Jessensase, Hey boo, it's
Speaker 1: me Roz. We've got another listener episode today, which I'm
Speaker 1: always excited about. And as always, if you want to
Speaker 1: be in a listener episode coming up here soon, just
Speaker 1: send me an email at Ghosted by Roz at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com and put in the subject line listener episode.
Speaker 1: We're getting very close to Halloween. It's October, my favorite
Speaker 1: month ever, also because my birthday is the twentieth and
Speaker 1: last year, on the nineteenth, we did the first ever
Speaker 1: live Ghosted in Los Angeles and it was such a
Speaker 1: magical night and it was sold out and I got
Speaker 1: to meet everyone and we just had a blast. And
Speaker 1: unfortunately we can't do that this year, but I will
Speaker 1: be celebrating my birthday. It's gonna be weird this year
Speaker 1: because it's not like I can really do it a
Speaker 1: whole lot. But it's actually it's a big birthday next Tuesday,
Speaker 1: the twentieth, So don't worry. You don't have to get
Speaker 1: me a gift or anything. This isn't technically a drag show.
Speaker 1: But if this was a drag show, you know, it
Speaker 1: would constantly be like, give me money, tip me, my
Speaker 1: venmo is at Queen Roz. My PayPal is ghosted by
Speaker 1: ras at gmail dot com. Tip me. But it's not
Speaker 1: a drag show, so I'm not gonna do that. But
Speaker 1: I will be having a big birthday on Tuesday, the twentieth.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is so fun. Okay, here's who I talked to.
Speaker 1: I talked to Kit, who grew up in a haunted house.
Speaker 1: Then I talked to Joey, who encountered maybe an angel.
Speaker 1: I'll let Joey tell it. And Joey's the one that
Speaker 1: recently I shared his story about encountering his boyfriend, but
Speaker 1: then it wasn't his boyfriend, So go back two episodes
Speaker 1: to the first R. H. Davis episode if you want
Speaker 1: to hear that story. And then I talked to Alex,
Speaker 1: who's a drag queen who does ghost tours in Chicago,
Speaker 1: which is so funny that we're talking about tours this week.
Speaker 1: Because I'm Patreon, I did a video where I drive
Speaker 1: around Los Angeles. I drove around my former neighborhood of
Speaker 1: Los Felis and I went to some spooky locations. I
Speaker 1: just kind of, you know, drove and wanted to show
Speaker 1: you some areas that were either used in horror movies
Speaker 1: or are allegedly haunted and gave you a little bit
Speaker 1: of facts, at least to what I know. And I
Speaker 1: think I'm just gonna keep doing those videos on Patreon.
Speaker 1: I had a good time, so go check that out
Speaker 1: on the first tier and the second tier of Patreon
Speaker 1: called On with the Show, you will hear a special
Speaker 1: bonus story from one of this week's listeners. That'll be Kit,
Speaker 1: who had a terrifying experience in the night in Auckland,
Speaker 1: New Zealand. You will also be hearing on today's episode Brad,
Speaker 1: who went to a an infamous Beverly Hills mansion and
Speaker 1: may have had some kind of energy or entity follow
Speaker 1: him home. All right, here is the special Halloween month
Speaker 1: of October's listener episode On with the Show.
Speaker 3: There's a ghost in my house?
Speaker 1: Hello, Kit, how are you?
Speaker 4: I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 3: Roz so good?
Speaker 1: Where are you?
Speaker 4: I'm in Oregon, I live in Bend, Oregon.
Speaker 1: Lovely you sent me this email and I was like, damn, Okay,
Speaker 1: there is a lot going on here. So you grew
Speaker 1: up in a haunted house?
Speaker 4: I did, yes, absolutely, what was going on with that? Okay?
Speaker 5: So I grew up in a small town in Nebraska,
Speaker 5: and our house was the it was there before the
Speaker 5: town was.
Speaker 4: The town was sort of built around it.
Speaker 5: So it was gosh when I in the eighties, it
Speaker 5: was well over one hundred years.
Speaker 4: Oh, I love.
Speaker 1: That this house is like, I'm here, you guys can
Speaker 1: create a whole town around me.
Speaker 4: That's right. So it's a pretty small house.
Speaker 5: And there are just two bedroom, like one small bedroom downstairs,
Speaker 5: and the downstairs area is one of those like circular houses,
Speaker 5: so there's opening like there's two doors in every room
Speaker 5: so you can just go around and around.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So so anyway, I was conceived in that house.
Speaker 5: But before I was born, my parents they always felt
Speaker 5: really uneasy the bigger room upstairs. My dad, in fact,
Speaker 5: would not would not be in that room alone. He
Speaker 5: wouldn't he absolutely wouldn't sleep in that room alone. He
Speaker 5: always felt like something was watching him and didn't like him.
Speaker 5: So growing up, they eventually put my brother in that room,
Speaker 5: and he really didn't the ghost really didn't like my dad.
Speaker 5: My brother had a picture of my dad when he
Speaker 5: was young flipping off the camera, and every time my
Speaker 5: brother would go into his room, that picture will have
Speaker 5: been thrown across the room.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 6: So when I was a toddler, my aunt was over.
Speaker 6: And this aunt is witchy as well. She long was
Speaker 6: talking two ghosts. In fact, invited a ghost when she
Speaker 6: moved house. She had made friends with him to the
Speaker 6: point where she invited him to come with them to
Speaker 6: the new house. So Aunt Jody is sitting in the
Speaker 6: living room and I pull open these pocket doors that
Speaker 6: connect the dining room and living room and look over
Speaker 6: toward the kitchen door where my mom is and I say,
Speaker 6: who's that? And I point toward the door, and Aunt
Speaker 6: Jody is like, well, that's your mom. She's making lunch.
Speaker 6: And I said, no, that, who's that? Who's that boy?
Speaker 6: That big boy over there in the corner. He always
Speaker 6: looks at me and says hello. And my Aunt Jody
Speaker 6: was like, oh god, here's another one that is going
Speaker 6: to see the things. And so from then on, my parents, well,
Speaker 6: I guess I should back up. When I was a baby,
Speaker 6: you know, right before me, you just kind of babble.
Speaker 6: They said, they would hear me in my crib and
Speaker 6: it sounded like I was having a conversation with someone
Speaker 6: that the just with the lilt of my voice and
Speaker 6: and you know the pauses. They were like, it sounds
Speaker 6: like she's you know, someone's asking her questions and she's answering,
Speaker 6: and you know, she's asking a question and they're answering.
Speaker 6: It was unsettling to them enough to where they noted it.
Speaker 6: So anyway, then back to uh, sorry, that's my nineteen
Speaker 6: year old cat.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I was like, I thought I heard
Speaker 1: a baby talking in the background.
Speaker 6: The fact, Yeah, he's he's sort of obnoxious these days.
Speaker 6: He's he's a little bit senile. So he just kind
Speaker 6: of walks around squawking. So okay, so they started hearing me, uh,
Speaker 6: just talking to this person, just having fu long conversations.
Speaker 6: They'd you know, at night, they'd send me out into
Speaker 6: the hallway to turn off the light if I was
Speaker 6: going to sleep with them, and I would stand out
Speaker 6: in the hallway for like ten or twenty minutes just
Speaker 6: having a conversation, answering questions. Again that they could hear
Speaker 6: the answers. They knew that someone was talking to me
Speaker 6: but I guess they just want preferred to sort of
Speaker 6: ignore it or maybe chalk it up to an imaginary friend.
Speaker 6: But you know, I was only like two or three.
Speaker 6: So then there was a time where my dad was
Speaker 6: he was playing in a band. He played in a
Speaker 6: band after work at nights, and he was gone, and
Speaker 6: my mom, my brother, and I had all fallen asleep
Speaker 6: in the living room and it was the summertime, so
Speaker 6: the front door was open with the screen door closed,
Speaker 6: and Mom woke up and it was dark by then,
Speaker 6: and there were no lights on in the house, and
Speaker 6: she sort of set up on the couch and was like, oh,
Speaker 6: I'm you know, this is not like me. I don't
Speaker 6: fall asleep. You know, my kids are right here, Like
Speaker 6: the door is open. This is someone like me. So
Speaker 6: she's thinking that, and then she sees something out of
Speaker 6: the corner of her eye, and she turned to look
Speaker 6: and it's that same door, the kitchen door. Shoulders of
Speaker 6: a man, all a kind of white walk out. And
Speaker 6: then she jumped up with her arms out because she
Speaker 6: thought she was gonna have to fight somebody. So when
Speaker 6: had come in the house, and he turned and looked
Speaker 6: at her and then just took a step backwards and
Speaker 6: disappeared into the wall.
Speaker 1: Now do you think that that was big boy?
Speaker 6: See, so I'm not really sure. And then when we
Speaker 6: get to the very end of the story, I'll let
Speaker 6: you make the call because it's just really unclear if
Speaker 6: there's more than one ghost in the house. I think
Speaker 6: there's probably more than one, just given how old it is.
Speaker 6: So yeah, so that happened, and she was just like,
Speaker 6: uh shit, I don't know what to do. So that
Speaker 6: was the summer. So the following winter, they were potty training.
Speaker 6: Me and my dad and my brother were out somewhere
Speaker 6: and my mom had me in the bathroom that's off
Speaker 6: the other side of the kitchen, and she's We're just
Speaker 6: sitting there and she said, all of a sudden, she
Speaker 6: hears a voice say Okay, which is my full name, Katie.
Speaker 6: And she was like, oh, I'm just gonna shake that off.
Speaker 6: I must have just been hearing something. But then I answered,
Speaker 6: in the same voice, what.
Speaker 2: And it was?
Speaker 6: She said it was so sing songy and terrifying that
Speaker 6: she just like and she'd had enough of just hearing
Speaker 6: me talking to this person that she ran to the stairway,
Speaker 6: which is the hallway where she just like flipped out
Speaker 6: on him and was like, leave her alone, don't ever
Speaker 6: talk to her again, Brah, just flipping out, and then
Speaker 6: she slammed the door, and then they said they'd never
Speaker 6: heard me talk to him again. Then fast forward to
Speaker 6: I'm like sixteen, fifteen or sixteen, and I'm up in
Speaker 6: my room and I'm the only person in the family
Speaker 6: that feels good upstairs. I actually feel really really safe upstairs.
Speaker 6: Everyone else is a bit freaked out by it. And
Speaker 6: I was sitting on my bed and thinking about I've
Speaker 6: been told all these stories. I don't have any memories
Speaker 6: of them at all, and I was thinking about how
Speaker 6: cool it would be to have like this imaginary ghost friend,
Speaker 6: you know, Like I was just like, God, damn it, Mom,
Speaker 6: Like I could be talking to a ghost right now.
Speaker 6: How dope would that be? How dare you take that
Speaker 6: from me? And so I was kind of saying out loud,
Speaker 6: like inviting him because I'd named him Big Boy. That
Speaker 6: was his name when I was little. So I was like,
Speaker 6: big Boy, you know, I'm sorry, Like my mom didn't
Speaker 6: know what she was doing, but I'm totally not scared
Speaker 6: of you. And if you want to talk to me, again,
Speaker 6: I'm okay with it. So I didn't, you know, nothing happened.
Speaker 6: But like shortly after, my mom started having these like
Speaker 6: poltergeist tricks played on her where she The first one
Speaker 6: was like a mascara. She had just bought a brand
Speaker 6: new mascara. She put it on the very top of
Speaker 6: her kaboodle, like in the very first drawer, and to
Speaker 6: use it. It was gone, and she you know, asked
Speaker 6: me if I had taken it, you know, was like,
Speaker 6: it's okay if you took it, just I want it
Speaker 6: so you can use it. I was like, I didn't
Speaker 6: take your mascara. And so she tore everything out of
Speaker 6: the kaboodle like five times, couldn't find it, looked all
Speaker 6: over in her purse and other bags, couldn't find it.
Speaker 6: Decided to go one last time to look at the
Speaker 6: kaboodle and she opened it up and it was sitting
Speaker 6: right where she had put it originally, on top of everything.
Speaker 1: Oh good boy, probably had some luscious slashes.
Speaker 6: He was so beautiful. So so the next thing that
Speaker 6: happened was we were all sitting in the living room
Speaker 6: and my parents had recliners and my mom was sitting
Speaker 6: in hers with her arm on the arm rest and
Speaker 6: her watch just kind of fell off of her wrist
Speaker 6: onto the ground, and she was like, what the you
Speaker 6: know this is It's not really possible that it could
Speaker 6: have happened because her her arm was pressed flat against
Speaker 6: the rest. So she picked it up and tried to
Speaker 6: put it back on, and she realized that the the
Speaker 6: arm part that like goes into the hole of the
Speaker 6: watchband of secures it to your wrist, it was flipped
Speaker 6: on the other side of that of the bar that
Speaker 6: holds it in, if that makes sense, to the point
Speaker 6: where my dad was trying to fix it and he
Speaker 6: almost broke that little metal tie off trying to get
Speaker 6: it back to the right side of the bar. So
Speaker 6: there's no way you could do it without really really
Speaker 6: forcing it, like really intentionally doing it. So that was
Speaker 6: strange and we were all there to see it. And
Speaker 6: then the final thing that happened. I think this was
Speaker 6: all in the space of two weeks. The final thing, Yeah,
Speaker 6: the final thing to happen was she came home from work.
Speaker 6: It was like one in the afternoon, so sat down
Speaker 6: on her bed and you know, no TV, nothing was on,
Speaker 6: and she heard the sound. It was kind of like
Speaker 6: a worrying sound, and she said it sounded familiar, but
Speaker 6: she couldn't quite place what it could be. And she's
Speaker 6: looking around the room, and then she looked at the
Speaker 6: chest of drawers that excuse me, that were my dad's,
Speaker 6: and she said there was an empty styrofoam cup on
Speaker 6: the edge and it was spinning, and it just spun
Speaker 6: faster and faster and faster and then fell off. And
Speaker 6: she was like, Okay, I've I'm nuts, I've absolutely lost
Speaker 6: my mind. But that was the last thing that happened.
Speaker 6: I think, you know, big boy got his point across.
Speaker 6: I never told her that I had invited him in,
Speaker 6: But by the time she told me that, I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: I think I did this. I think this is my fault.
Speaker 1: So do they still live there?
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, Like the other goes, no, nothing,
Speaker 6: nothing else. One thing that to this day we can
Speaker 6: all hear is when you're sitting downstairs, you can hear
Speaker 6: footsteps walking back and forth between the upstairs bedrooms, just
Speaker 6: like really clear. It could not possibly be like an
Speaker 6: animal in the wall. It's just very obviously someone walking,
Speaker 6: but really beyond that, well, and I guess my mom
Speaker 6: has always felt when she's in the kitchen, she always
Speaker 6: feels like someone's looking right over her shoulder. She's at
Speaker 6: the stove or the sink, like just someone's like right
Speaker 6: over her shoulder watching what she's doing. She's never really
Speaker 6: shook that feeling. And one time, my dad has a
Speaker 6: really sick sense of humor, so he one time came
Speaker 6: up and right behind her. She didn't hear him come home,
Speaker 6: and he stood right behind her and scared the shit
Speaker 6: out of her. But that's really kind of it. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that I can think of.
Speaker 1: You still have that problem with the ghost that hates
Speaker 1: him in the one room.
Speaker 6: No, my dad died two years ago. Actually, oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 6: That's okay, it's okay. It's actually funny he haunts my
Speaker 6: mom now, So I guess there's a haunting because.
Speaker 1: You were saying that your mom is a psychic or
Speaker 1: has some.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, she's she's pretty. She's hesitant to even talk
Speaker 6: about it. It's just it kind of scares her, but yeah,
Speaker 6: she okay. So I guess the first story that I
Speaker 6: remember her telling was when my parents first got together.
Speaker 6: Like I said, my dad played in a band and
Speaker 6: their band was a house band at this at this
Speaker 6: hotel bar, and so they played, you know, six nights
Speaker 6: a week, which means the guys all left their instruments,
Speaker 6: you know, there on stage. So she was there with
Speaker 6: them one night and she watched my dad put his
Speaker 6: guitar in the guitar stand and then in her in
Speaker 6: her mind's eye, I guess she saw another hand come
Speaker 6: from the other side pick it up and take it
Speaker 6: out of the guitar stand. And she was like, you know, Charlie,
Speaker 6: I think you should take your guitar home tonight, Like
Speaker 6: I just really, I really think you should take it
Speaker 6: home tonight. And he was, you know, like you're crazy,
Speaker 6: Like we always leave this here. It's fine. And the
Speaker 6: next day they discovered that all of the guys's instruments
Speaker 6: had been stolen.
Speaker 7: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: So that's sort of is that kind of her ability is?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Yeah, she has those like premonitory things, the most yeah,
Speaker 6: the most intense one. It's really a tragic story.
Speaker 4: In we live.
Speaker 6: Our town was just outside Lincoln, Nebraska, so she worked
Speaker 6: in Lincoln and in the nineties, I can't remember what year.
Speaker 6: Sometime in the nineties, they're a girl, a college aged
Speaker 6: girl went missing. She had been with friends downtown drinking
Speaker 6: at a bar, and her friends, you know, left her
Speaker 6: on the corner of downtown, like right on the main
Speaker 6: drag they were. They said goodbye, They walked one way,
Speaker 6: she walked another way, and she was never seen again.
Speaker 6: Her name was Candice Harms, and it was I want
Speaker 6: to say months. You know, it was just a really
Speaker 6: really big deal. For whatever reason, that kind of thing
Speaker 6: just never happened or you never heard of it anyhow,
Speaker 6: So it was a really huge She was all over
Speaker 6: the news for a long time. And my mom was
Speaker 6: driving home from work and there's this highway that connects
Speaker 6: our town to Lincoln, and so the highway's like ten
Speaker 6: miles long, and so every mile there's a dirt road
Speaker 6: going in either direction. That part of has what's called
Speaker 6: a country mile, and it's just perfect checkerboards. So she's
Speaker 6: driving and she gets to this one dirt road intersection
Speaker 6: and she said it was like someone took her by
Speaker 6: the chin and snapped her head down that road and
Speaker 6: a voice in her head said, Candice Arms is there.
Speaker 6: And she, you know, she tried to not think about it.
Speaker 6: How are you going to tell somebody this? And I
Speaker 6: think it was a or two later, they discovered her
Speaker 6: body about about a mile down that road in a
Speaker 6: shallow grave.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, hello Joey, where are you?
Speaker 2: I am coming to you from Mario, Quebec. That's Quebec, Quebec, Montreal, Quebec.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you said it so fancy.
Speaker 2: So again Marial Quebec.
Speaker 1: Love it. Well, thanks so much for being on. I
Speaker 1: recently read your story like literally just like a week
Speaker 1: or two ago, about this crazy doppel ganger situation, Yead,
Speaker 1: And then you sent me another story about this woman
Speaker 1: in a grocery store and I want to hear it.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. So it was the most amazing moment
Speaker 2: of my life. Like I told my parents about it
Speaker 2: when it happened, and they were like, oh, jo wait,
Speaker 2: that's an angel And I was like, okay, ma. So
Speaker 2: we had we had just moved. This takes place in Sunrise, Florida,
Speaker 2: and we had just moved from Staten Island. So I
Speaker 2: was like in a very place as a kid, Like
Speaker 2: I was elevenish and I was gay from the womb honestly,
Speaker 2: So like going to South Florida was like really a
Speaker 2: culture shock for me, and I was just like very
Speaker 2: sad all the time. So we get to this my mom.
Speaker 2: We intended to get something very quickly, like we knew
Speaker 2: what we were going to get, and we just walked
Speaker 2: into the grocery store. But I remember I was holding
Speaker 2: my mother's hand, like I was holding her hand. We
Speaker 2: walked into the grocery store, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: I see my mother like in my peripheral and she's
Speaker 2: already with the cart, like all the way like far
Speaker 2: from me. And I was like, okay, whatever. But then
Speaker 2: my I just stared at like the aisles or whatever,
Speaker 2: and this woman was standing there and something in such
Speaker 2: like I didn't talk to strangers. I wasn't crazy. I'm
Speaker 2: from New York. But I saw this woman and she
Speaker 2: was just she looked totally normal, by the way, but
Speaker 2: it was evident that she was beautiful on like a
Speaker 2: different level, like I'll use an American horror story term,
Speaker 2: like they say, like the Supreme on that show has
Speaker 2: glowing radiant health. This woman was that she was just
Speaker 2: really I guess crazy, uh beautiful. So I just walked
Speaker 2: up to her and she was wearing okay, she was
Speaker 2: wearing like this long skirt that was floral. Everything looked new.
Speaker 2: It didn't look old at all. And she was wearing
Speaker 2: like a mid drifty type of sweater with long sleeves
Speaker 2: but it exposed her midriff. And she was wearing all
Speaker 2: these bangles on her hands, like on both wrists, and
Speaker 2: she had like very long gray hair, but it was
Speaker 2: very well kept, like it looked like it was styled
Speaker 2: and curled a bit of course, like a gay child
Speaker 2: is noticing all this, And she wasn't wearing makeup, but
Speaker 2: her features were just like kind of perfect. And when
Speaker 2: I walked up to her, she had such a strong
Speaker 2: odor of like lemon and peaches, and just from like
Speaker 2: approaching her, she was just so warm and I could
Speaker 2: do it was like pulsing out of her, like I
Speaker 2: could feel something was not normal. But then again, like
Speaker 2: I'm eleven, like what the hell do I know? So
Speaker 2: she addresses me by name, and I was like what,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, how did you know my name? It
Speaker 2: was the She was like, hello, Joey, and it was Joey.
Speaker 2: It wasn't Joseph. Only my parents or like my family
Speaker 2: would say Joey, like I would tell everyone I'm Joseph,
Speaker 2: like I do that to this day. So I was
Speaker 2: like how did you know my name? And she was like, well,
Speaker 2: we've met before, but you won't remember that because it's
Speaker 2: it was another uh remember what she said exactly, but
Speaker 2: she was like, you won't remember that, and I was
Speaker 2: like okay. And then she was like I know you're
Speaker 2: going through And by the way she was saying this,
Speaker 2: like not like a condescending way. She was saying all
Speaker 2: of what she was about to say like very warm,
Speaker 2: the way a kindergarten teacher would would say to you,
Speaker 2: being very comforting. And she was like, I know you're sorry.
Speaker 2: I'm so anxious to say this because it's like it
Speaker 2: was such a real experience. It's like giving me goosebumps
Speaker 2: and I'm shaking. So she said, I understand you're going
Speaker 2: through such a hard time right now, and don't worry
Speaker 2: about that. You will understand when you're older. And I
Speaker 2: was like, what will I understand when I'm older? And
Speaker 2: she was like, it's very hard for us here on
Speaker 2: Earth and I was like it's hard for who on Earth?
Speaker 2: And she was like witches and I was like boy,
Speaker 2: it was like boy, yeah, yo ya yay. I was
Speaker 2: like what. I was like, whoa? And when she said that,
Speaker 2: like something happened inside me, like it just I didn't
Speaker 2: have per se memories come up in my mind, but
Speaker 2: I just knew, listen to everything she's gonna say right now, Joey,
Speaker 2: you have to really focus on this. And I never
Speaker 2: experienced that before, so I was just like WHOA.
Speaker 1: So I'm just like, did you have like those preconceived
Speaker 1: notions that a lot of kids have of like a
Speaker 1: witch being a certain image or how did you feel
Speaker 1: about that?
Speaker 2: Cause my family has a lot of psychic people, and
Speaker 2: my family is from Sicily, so we have a lot
Speaker 2: of straghira, which is witchcraft in Italian. So it was
Speaker 2: I never thought of any I always thought of them
Speaker 2: as hippy dippy people, and that's exactly what this woman
Speaker 2: looked like. So she was saying, she said witches, and
Speaker 2: she said it with such like a presence, like such
Speaker 2: profound meaning, and I was like, witches And then like
Speaker 2: inside me, all these feelings started happening. And she was like, yes,
Speaker 2: it's very difficult when we're here and we have a
Speaker 2: very hard time because the world is very difficult. And
Speaker 2: I was like, oh wow, and she was like, but
Speaker 2: don't worry, but you need to listen to these words.
Speaker 2: What you think about, you bring about your thoughts. You
Speaker 2: have to be impeccable. And she used that word, you
Speaker 2: have to be impeccable with your word. She was like,
Speaker 2: what you think about yourself, what you think about others,
Speaker 2: it has an effect. And I'm eleven, so I'm just like,
Speaker 2: uh huh uh huh. I'm just like taking this all in.
Speaker 2: And then I was like yes and uh. Basically I
Speaker 2: told her I it here saying Florida and how I
Speaker 2: just felt so alone, like everyone made fun of me.
Speaker 2: And she was like, don't worry about all that, all
Speaker 2: of the all your differences make you powerful or like
Speaker 2: I was special something around that, and then she hugged
Speaker 2: me and rose. When she hugged me, it was like
Speaker 2: she was sucking out the badness out of me. Like
Speaker 2: I felt so relieved, so completely rejuvenated in that moment. Now,
Speaker 2: by the way, as I said in the story, when
Speaker 2: I typed it, my mother is she's nowhere in sight.
Speaker 2: And this was a full conversation. Time was going by,
Speaker 2: like I saw people passing us, people ringing up their
Speaker 2: groceries and leaving, like nothing was strange about the moment.
Speaker 2: I was just talking to a woman, and so she's
Speaker 2: hugging me and it was the best in the world.
Speaker 2: And then she held my face and she was like,
Speaker 2: don't forget the words I said, my little witch, I
Speaker 2: will see you again in another life. And then she
Speaker 2: stood up. But when she like we we uh, let
Speaker 2: go of the embrace. As she's standing up, it was
Speaker 2: like she was just gone, like I blamed her like
Speaker 2: for a second, and she was gone, and I was
Speaker 2: like I was starting to panic, like I was like,
Speaker 2: what the whoa? And then out of nowhere, my mother
Speaker 2: is like she turned around at me in the same
Speaker 2: kind of spot, like a little far away. She's like,
Speaker 2: joo camea And I was like.
Speaker 6: Uh what.
Speaker 2: She's like, let's go. We're getting dinner. And I was
Speaker 2: like no, there's no way, Like I was just here
Speaker 2: for like like ten minutes, like you didn't do the groceries.
Speaker 2: I think, I said, I was mom, I was just
Speaker 2: talking to and she's like, you aren't talking to nobody.
Speaker 2: Come on, And so we get our stuff. We get
Speaker 2: into the car and my mom sees like I'm shaking,
Speaker 2: and I kind of started to cry. But I was
Speaker 2: so happy and I felt like just amazing honestly, and
Speaker 2: I told her what happened everything, and my mom was like, well,
Speaker 2: that was probably an angel, Joey, and you have to
Speaker 2: listen to what she said. And I was like okay,
Speaker 2: and my mom just it was like so normal to her.
Speaker 2: She was like, yeah, that was really cool. Don't worry
Speaker 2: about it. And we just went home and we cooked dinner.
Speaker 2: But after that day, I never feared being gay. I
Speaker 2: never feared being myself or being like spiritual. I mean,
Speaker 2: before I was eleven, I had crazy psychic experiences. Once
Speaker 2: I passed the age of ten, they sort of lessened
Speaker 2: until like I came out and fully became myself, like
Speaker 2: once I was in college.
Speaker 1: But that so, why do you think, why do you
Speaker 1: think that that happened at that moment in a grocery store.
Speaker 1: Do you have any idea?
Speaker 2: Well, that day in particular was kind of insane because Okay, obviously,
Speaker 2: in Staten Island, like I didn't, I wasn't bullied at all,
Speaker 2: like everyone like kind of enjoyed my differences. But in Florida,
Speaker 2: like guys and girls did not like that I was feminine,
Speaker 2: that I liked theater, that I liked acting and stuff.
Speaker 2: They were very hostile towards this and this day, like
Speaker 2: it was like a whole group of kids at the
Speaker 2: lunch table were telling me such add full things like
Speaker 2: I have to like sports, I have to do this.
Speaker 2: So I was really upset about I was so angry
Speaker 2: and upset, and I never told my parents how horrible
Speaker 2: people were to me in school. So I feel like
Speaker 2: this happened at such a time where I was so defeated,
Speaker 2: and I felt like maybe I could have gone down
Speaker 2: a downward spiral and became like bad or something like
Speaker 2: a bad kid, because just no one was understanding me,
Speaker 2: and I felt so alone. But after that moment, a
Speaker 2: lot of things changed with my attitude, like I just
Speaker 2: had a I don't give an f attitude after that,
Speaker 2: and of many things changed with how I dealt with
Speaker 2: bullies at school and things like that.
Speaker 1: So did you identify as a witch?
Speaker 2: My yeah, I mean my mother realized after that day
Speaker 2: because we told my father and he was like, well,
Speaker 2: let's go to the bookstore. So we went to the bookstore.
Speaker 2: And there was a spiritual store near us in Sight
Speaker 2: on Rise. It was called Magic with a K and
Speaker 2: this witch, this wicked priestess who we didn't know she
Speaker 2: was Wicked Priests, but she was like, I'm going to
Speaker 2: give you Stop Cunningham and Silver Raven Wolf, and you're
Speaker 2: gonna read that, and then if you like that, I'll
Speaker 2: give you some more information. And I went back a
Speaker 2: week later read them all and was like, okay, so
Speaker 2: this is for me, and that was pretty much it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this woman sounds so this, this this
Speaker 1: witch angel, it just sounds so magical. I'm just thinking
Speaker 1: about get it, Like I'm thinking about like the gay
Speaker 1: angel glam squad that probably put it together for her,
Speaker 1: you know, you know someone was on hair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I almost I'm trying to remember if she had
Speaker 2: any shoes, and all I remember is seeing nail polish
Speaker 2: on toes. I think she was probably barefoot. Like it
Speaker 2: was so crazy.
Speaker 1: I'll never really thought about every little static.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget it. Oh so wild.
Speaker 1: Tell me the story you said was crazier? Another crazy.
Speaker 2: So I've had I have a list here because I
Speaker 2: hope I get to come back, because I have tons
Speaker 2: of experiences, well not tons, but like enough that where
Speaker 2: they were so significant that you'll never forget them.
Speaker 6: But this, in particular was.
Speaker 2: The only one that I felt was bad, but I
Speaker 2: still was so excited about it. Okay, so okay, I was. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to say dating, but you know what
Speaker 2: I'm talking about. I was seeing this dude and he
Speaker 2: was he was born and raised in Florida. He knew
Speaker 2: all these things that me and my sister, who are
Speaker 2: from Sena and had, you know, we didn't really know,
Speaker 2: but I was. Me and my sister were teenagers, like
Speaker 2: I was seventeen and she was like, she's three years
Speaker 2: under the mesis she was like around fourteen years. So
Speaker 2: he goes, hey, I want to take you guys to
Speaker 2: this abandoned house in Davy, Florida. Davey, Florida, is this
Speaker 2: very It's in Fort Lauderdale, so it's not like in
Speaker 2: the country, but it is very spread out, so like
Speaker 2: there's farms and things like that, and it's very country
Speaker 2: western raws. So not my style at all, but it's
Speaker 2: very interesting because this house it's a mansion, and the
Speaker 2: whole block is like they're far enough apart where you
Speaker 2: can have great privacy. However, every single house was occupied
Speaker 2: for years, but this particular house. He kept telling us.
Speaker 2: This guy I was seeing, he was like, by the way,
Speaker 2: no one will move into this house. It's been vacant
Speaker 2: for ten years. No one will go in here. Every
Speaker 2: time someone moves and they move out, and me and
Speaker 2: my sister does it.
Speaker 1: Did it look busted or no?
Speaker 2: That outside it looked busted, but when I tell you
Speaker 2: about inside, it was so weird. And me and my
Speaker 2: sister were like, oh, yeah, let's do that. So we
Speaker 2: get there and he takes us around the the It
Speaker 2: was like acres of land and all the other neighbors
Speaker 2: had like farm animals that would like come in to
Speaker 2: this land. It was fenced in though it was so creepy,
Speaker 2: and we were like if if my sister joked, it
Speaker 2: looks like a civil war place. And then he was like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, yeah, uh this is like where they kept
Speaker 2: like plantations. And me and my sister were like, oh
Speaker 2: that's fucking gross. Excuse me for cursing, and and uh
Speaker 2: so we noticed and I was like, so how are
Speaker 2: we going to get in? He's like, oh, the door's
Speaker 2: always open. I was like that's impossible, but no. We
Speaker 2: walked right to the front door and it was it
Speaker 2: was open, and I was like, Okay, we get in
Speaker 2: there and everything is beautifully finished. Everything's would. There's even
Speaker 2: stealing fans going. That was wild. The electricity freakin worked.
Speaker 2: But no one lives in this house. That's I was
Speaker 2: paying for that. I have no idea I was thinking,
Speaker 2: because there was always a there. He told me the
Speaker 2: realtor sign. There was a realtor sign outside. They were
Speaker 2: probably trying to sell this for ten years, as he said.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he was selling the truth, but
Speaker 2: like it was evident nobody wanted to go near this house.
Speaker 2: Like people like when we were walking around the neighborhood,
Speaker 2: people were looking at us and shaking their heads like
Speaker 2: be careful over there. Oh the place is crazy. And
Speaker 2: me and my sister are like, this is so weird
Speaker 2: because they wouldn't even bring their dogs over to the house,
Speaker 2: like they would circle around. So we were just like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is a little eerie whatever, but like again, we
Speaker 2: didn't care. So we walk in. Everything's like newly finished,
Speaker 2: but there's no furniture at all. It's totally bare, and
Speaker 2: he goes, you've got to see this bathroom. So we're
Speaker 2: walking around and then we shut the door. Now this
Speaker 2: is August in Florida, the worst month ever, so it's
Speaker 2: very humid. We were all sweating. We get into this house.
Speaker 2: It's freezing, like freezing, and Ali, excuse me. My sister
Speaker 2: and I are just like the a season and he
Speaker 2: was like no, and of course this kid doesn't. We're
Speaker 2: just like, oh, okay. So then he goes you go
Speaker 2: to see his bathroom. So we get to this bathroom ross.
Speaker 2: It's a huge bathroom room. It is completely tiled with
Speaker 2: ornate like Mexican like tile, Like it's very lovely. But
Speaker 2: the whole wall with the sink is like a whole
Speaker 2: wall is a mirror, okay, And then behind the mirror
Speaker 2: is like this huge shower and there's a big bang
Speaker 2: quette so there's like a bench in there. So the kid,
Speaker 2: I was saying, sits in the shower and he's like
Speaker 2: just chilling there. And me and my sister, because this
Speaker 2: was the dawn of the iPhone, we were just taking
Speaker 2: selfiees and being silly. So my sister and I are
Speaker 2: like standing next to each other, but like there's a
Speaker 2: space between us, and we're looking at the mirror and
Speaker 2: the only light that was on was the one in
Speaker 2: the shower, and it was quite it was bright enough,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't fully lit bathroom, so whatever. So we're
Speaker 2: looking at the mirror taking selfies, and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, me and Ali see through the mirror that
Speaker 2: the guy I was seeing, his face like looks like
Speaker 2: he just saw it goes. He's like milk white, and
Speaker 2: he he's like he can't talk, he's like ough, and
Speaker 2: he's pointing at the mirror. So me and Ali look
Speaker 2: behind us and we're like, are you okay, sweetie, And
Speaker 2: then where we look at the mirror, and my sister
Speaker 2: grabs my arm and we're like, oh, like gay gasp,
Speaker 2: and okay, this is I don't care if it sounds weird.
Speaker 2: This happened. Purple smoke was in the mirror. It was
Speaker 2: like pools of purple smoke were in.
Speaker 1: The Prince concert.
Speaker 2: Possible why like exactly, Oh my god, I'm boring you
Speaker 2: in exactly like that. So it was like purple smoke
Speaker 2: in this mirror, and I could not look away. My
Speaker 2: sister kept like grabbing my arm though, like to pull
Speaker 2: me away from looking, but like she was also looking
Speaker 2: at it too. Like we were just mesmerized by this.
Speaker 2: And the kid I was saying was like from a
Speaker 2: Christian family, So it was what bent out. But me
Speaker 2: and Ali were like whoa, And so me and my
Speaker 2: sister looking at this mirror, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: in between the space that we had like standing next
Speaker 2: to each other, a woman appears like her face it
Speaker 2: was so weak cut, I'm getting goose. Okay, she was.
Speaker 1: So you only saw her like when you were looking
Speaker 1: in the mirror, or you could see her in the
Speaker 1: room as well.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, she was only in the mirror. But she
Speaker 2: was definitely it was like like you know when you
Speaker 2: go to the Haunted Mansion in Disney World and you
Speaker 2: and you like see the ghost next to you in
Speaker 2: the cart. It was like that, but she was totally solid.
Speaker 2: She was, but she was This is also weird. She
Speaker 2: was like black and white. She had no color, and
Speaker 2: she was wearing definitely like an anti Bellamish dress, but
Speaker 2: she had a bonnet on, which I historically I figured, oh,
Speaker 2: she was like a servant or something whatever. So we're
Speaker 2: looking at this woman and she's staring directly at me
Speaker 2: and my sister, and my sister is trying to pull
Speaker 2: me out of the room because the one I was
Speaker 2: seeing ran out of that bathroom so fast. When that
Speaker 2: girl when that woman appeared. We didn't even know you left.
Speaker 2: So looking at this woman and the smoke is still
Speaker 2: going behind her, and I'm just so fascinated. And now
Speaker 2: this is where I felt it gets a little evil.
Speaker 2: I literally felt a suction pull to this mirror, and
Speaker 2: at one point I was reaching my left hand toward
Speaker 2: the mirror. At that point, my sister finally got scared
Speaker 2: and slapped my face on the other side to get
Speaker 2: me to not look at the mirror. So once I
Speaker 2: didn't look, I didn't have my eyes on the mirror,
Speaker 2: I kind of snapped out of it. And then I
Speaker 2: looked at her and I was like, whoa. And then
Speaker 2: we looked at the mirror and this woman looked like
Speaker 2: she was going to come out of the mirror, and
Speaker 2: we screamed and we ran out of the house and
Speaker 2: we slammed the door behind us, and my sister was like,
Speaker 2: I Am never coming back here, and Joey, we can't
Speaker 2: go in there. It's freaking I was like what. But
Speaker 2: the whole ride home, I was like, what the hell
Speaker 2: was that? It was so wild, it was crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm sure like, oh yep, that's what happens.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Seriously, because now, did you.
Speaker 1: Get any selfies with the purple smell?
Speaker 2: No? In fact, it's so funny you mentioned that because
Speaker 2: I just remember this detail. Every freaking selfie my sister
Speaker 2: and I took did like there was something wrong with
Speaker 2: the photos, like we had literally like we were doing
Speaker 2: selfies like we saw the iPhone, I mean in first
Speaker 2: generation take it No, Yeah, And when we got home
Speaker 2: it was like all smeared and like a weird flash,
Speaker 2: like nothing we took had taken and that it even
Speaker 2: uh confirms for me. Okay, this wasn't good. This was
Speaker 2: not good. This was a bad experience. But I love
Speaker 2: this stuff. So I was just like, whoa, Allie, did
Speaker 2: you see the smoke? And she was like, yes, why
Speaker 2: was it purple? Like we were just so confused. But
Speaker 2: the woman looked like an actual woman that was standing
Speaker 2: in the bathroom and we had happened to be there
Speaker 2: as well, But she was not disily with us, and
Speaker 2: we did not feel an energy next to us. It
Speaker 2: was definitely coming from the mirror. It was insane.
Speaker 1: I've been ghosted too. Oh my god. We are joined
Speaker 1: by Alex also known as Chicago z Own Wanda Screw. Hello, Hello,
Speaker 1: how's it going so good. I'm so excited to talk
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 8: Same same.
Speaker 1: So you're a drag queen in Chicago and you dos
Speaker 1: I do?
Speaker 7: Yes.
Speaker 8: I think I think I'm the only drag queen who
Speaker 8: does ghost tours definitely here, maybe in the world, but
Speaker 8: who knows.
Speaker 1: It's crossed my mind of doing it because actually, the
Speaker 1: last job I had before I just started being real
Speaker 1: ast dressful as all the time was being a tour
Speaker 1: guide at a movie studio. And I love, I love
Speaker 1: being a tour guide, but I just am always afraid
Speaker 1: of walking around the streets and drag and who knows
Speaker 1: what could happen with that? How is that for you?
Speaker 8: You know, it's been interesting. That's kind of the first
Speaker 8: thing that a lot of people say as a concern
Speaker 8: when when they find out about the tours. But you know,
Speaker 8: I've really only ever had positive experiences. I've almost never
Speaker 8: had any you know, any people trying to like disrupt
Speaker 8: or say anything. It's been actually kind of a really
Speaker 8: nice way to meet people.
Speaker 1: Do you do it during the day or at night?
Speaker 8: Both? So I actually I started as a museum drag
Speaker 8: tour guide through this company called Museum Hack that wanted
Speaker 8: to try out doing drag queen tours in the Art Institute.
Speaker 8: So I started out doing that and that's like middle
Speaker 8: of the day on Saturdays, and so I would sometimes
Speaker 8: I would take the train and go down there in
Speaker 8: the middle of the day, and I mean that was
Speaker 8: really really fun and like going.
Speaker 1: I love the Art Institute. Oh it's it's amaze Sunday
Speaker 1: afternoon at the island of La Granjo.
Speaker 8: Oh yes, Oh, I walked by that every every time
Speaker 8: I did it, and like going to the members lounge
Speaker 8: in full drag and just like sitting at the bar
Speaker 8: was pretty amazing. So I had a really fun time.
Speaker 8: And then I thought, well, I love I love talking
Speaker 8: about ghosts and spooky stories and history, so I should
Speaker 8: just like try to make a ghost tour thing. And
Speaker 8: that was like four years ago, I think, And here
Speaker 8: we are, so yeah.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. So what are some of the places that
Speaker 1: you see in Chicago.
Speaker 8: So we were limited in the walking tour by everything
Speaker 8: being within five or ten minutes of each other because
Speaker 8: we needed to keep it snappy. This year, I'm doing
Speaker 8: them virtually, so I'm basically just like telling spooky stories
Speaker 8: with photos and videos to back it up. On zoom
Speaker 8: for this Halloween, but the original tour, we go to
Speaker 8: the Congress Hotel, which is apparently one of the most
Speaker 8: haunted hotels in the country slash definitely the most haunted
Speaker 8: one in Chicago. And then we go to the Palmer
Speaker 8: House Hotel, which now unfortunately has closed because of pandemic
Speaker 8: things and hopefully it will reopen. And we go to
Speaker 8: a theater that has a haunted alleyway behind it and
Speaker 8: a part of the Chicago River that's apparently haunted as well.
Speaker 1: Is it the theater where like Wicked used to be.
Speaker 8: Did you see the episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories where she,
Speaker 8: of course was on a gas starre that girl.
Speaker 1: Don't ask me trivia about Celebrity ghost Stories, Yeah, especially
Speaker 1: about miss Anna.
Speaker 8: Miss Anna who is on it multiple times and has
Speaker 8: dazing stories. But yeah, I retell her story because I
Speaker 8: so I usually do the tour. Last year, I did
Speaker 8: the tour in like Wicked, Witch of the West drag
Speaker 8: every day every time I did it because I just,
Speaker 8: I don't know, I have an obsession with with villains
Speaker 8: of all kinds, but especially her, So I did. I
Speaker 8: did that last year and so it was a perfect time.
Speaker 8: But yeah, I mean that that alleyways is famous apparently
Speaker 8: among touring theater companies that come through.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us the story? I can't, so.
Speaker 8: I'm going to try to get all the years right.
Speaker 7: So it is.
Speaker 8: Early nineteen hundreds. It is I believe nineteen oh three,
Speaker 8: nineteen oh five, and it is December. It's one of
Speaker 8: the last days of the year, and it's really snowy
Speaker 8: and you know, blizzard outside, and all of these children
Speaker 8: and their caretakers are going into the theater to watch
Speaker 8: a Christmas pantomime called Mister blue Beard and Mister blue
Speaker 8: Beard like it was. It was like a very long
Speaker 8: show from what I can gather with, you know, huge
Speaker 8: dance numbers and acrobatics and all this crazy stuff, right,
Speaker 8: And there's a moment in the show that particular day
Speaker 8: where one of the lights gets very hot above the stage.
Speaker 8: And on this particular day, the theater was packed over capacity,
Speaker 8: like people sitting in the aisles, people just crowding all
Speaker 8: the way up. And this light got really hot and
Speaker 8: started to spark on the scenery that was hanging above
Speaker 8: the stage, and it was painted with lead based paint
Speaker 8: because early nineteen hundreds, and it started to smolder the
Speaker 8: set pieces that were up above the stage and slowly
Speaker 8: spread until there started to be smoke. Once there was smoke,
Speaker 8: people on stage started to kind of notice and get
Speaker 8: weirded out, apparently, and then the audience started to notice.
Speaker 8: So it kind of grew throughout the audience, people kind
Speaker 8: of grumbling, starting to get up, not being sure what
Speaker 8: to do. At this point, people backstage can see that
Speaker 8: there is a fire building above them, and so, according
Speaker 8: to legend, the stage manager throws open these big double
Speaker 8: doors in the back part of the stage, which are
Speaker 8: like loading doors, with the intention of getting the actors
Speaker 8: out safely and having another big door that people could
Speaker 8: leave through. By doing this, he creates a back draft basically,
Speaker 8: and it whooshes this huge gust of cold wind into
Speaker 8: the theater and creates what one person who was there
Speaker 8: who survived describes as a three story fireball that like
Speaker 8: balloons up on the stage and like shoots out onto
Speaker 8: the whole audience. So now you have an entire audience
Speaker 8: full of children that are like on fire. Basically, heats
Speaker 8: are on fire, the carpets on fire, walls are on fire.
Speaker 8: You know, they're starting to run towards the exits. This
Speaker 8: was very old in times and things like this hadn't
Speaker 8: be thought about yet. So all of the doors out
Speaker 8: of the theater there were no exit doors onto the street.
Speaker 8: If you notice nowadays, when you go into a theater
Speaker 8: there are exit doors. Wherever there is street access, there
Speaker 8: are exit doors. That was not the case. And also
Speaker 8: the doors opened inward, so if you can imagine like
Speaker 8: hundreds of people packing trying to get out a door
Speaker 8: that opens in they basically were trapping themselves inside the theater.
Speaker 8: So people got trampled, people got you know, crushed underneath
Speaker 8: the weight of people who are trying to get out
Speaker 8: above them, to the point that people in the balcony
Speaker 8: started to jump off of the fire escapes in this
Speaker 8: famous alley because they tried to get onto the fire
Speaker 8: escapes and they found that they had not been finished
Speaker 8: and they didn't go all the way to the ground.
Speaker 8: So people were jumping two, three, six stories up to
Speaker 8: try to get out of this burning building onto the
Speaker 8: pavement and you know, hitting the ground really hard. And
Speaker 8: according to legend, there was a stack of bodies six
Speaker 8: feet high in that alley. Day God once the once
Speaker 8: the fire department came so over I want to say
Speaker 8: over eight hundred people died that day, and around two
Speaker 8: hundred of them were children, so that you know, that
Speaker 8: led to a lot of fire safety laws in theaters.
Speaker 8: The theater had to be rebuilt, and to this day,
Speaker 8: as recently as one Wicked was there. According to Celebrity
Speaker 8: ghost Story, people who are there will who are doing shows,
Speaker 8: we'll see we'll see people in early nineteen hundreds, garb
Speaker 8: watching them in the backstage, to the point that one
Speaker 8: summer I was doing it at Summer and Fall and
Speaker 8: the Share show was doing the pre Broadway tryout, which amazing.
Speaker 8: I saw it so many times. I loved it. And
Speaker 8: the people who would kind of come upon the tour
Speaker 8: as we were giving it, we're like, oh yeah, Like
Speaker 8: when we were moving into the theater, people would tell
Speaker 8: us this was called deaf Alley because you can like
Speaker 8: feel it when you walk when you walk in.
Speaker 1: Uh, it's very weird. It's uh, well, we always talk
Speaker 1: about why theaters, like why are theaters so haunted? But
Speaker 1: like that one, that's pretty catastrophic. What is that theater called? Again?
Speaker 8: So it's gone through a variety of names. It just
Speaker 8: recently was renamed the Neederlander Theater in Chicago. Okay, so
Speaker 8: that's that's uh, yeah, it's uh, it's interesting. They put
Speaker 8: a lot of lights and like lighted posters on that
Speaker 8: alley to I think try to make it seem like wow,
Speaker 8: like showbiz, like this is amazing. It's just so cool,
Speaker 8: I think because it has such a terrible reputation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so has on your tour, have have any paranormal happened?
Speaker 8: You know, not really? And that's the disappointing thing.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 8: I think maybe because all of these areas, like we
Speaker 8: go inside a few buildings, we would go inside some
Speaker 8: of the hotel lobbies and those are still pretty public spaces,
Speaker 8: so we were very rarely in like, you know, a
Speaker 8: room by ourselves or anything like that. So I think
Speaker 8: often there's just so many distractions. There's you know, so
Speaker 8: much street noise, there's so much stuff going on that
Speaker 8: nothing has ever really happened.
Speaker 1: But those kinds of tours I think people need, they
Speaker 1: probably want that, but I'm sure they leave being like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this was just a fun experience and
Speaker 1: you get a fun history lesson you know. I've been
Speaker 1: on a number of those tours and nothing paranormal has
Speaker 1: ever happened. But I just really enjoy it and it's
Speaker 1: nice to get some steps in.
Speaker 8: You go, oh, you get steps. It's a two mile
Speaker 8: tour and I do it in six inch fields.
Speaker 1: Well that was more. What I was talking about earlier
Speaker 1: was like I don't want to be walking around in heels.
Speaker 1: It is that's my problem.
Speaker 8: It is like, yeah, I feel it. Like last last
Speaker 8: year at the end of the month, I would feel
Speaker 8: it and be like, oh, I shouldn't. I should give
Speaker 8: myself a break here for a second.
Speaker 1: But your caps are stunning. I'm sure what the history
Speaker 1: of Chicago is. I mean, I can imagine I would
Speaker 1: have so many paranormal uh you know aftermath when you
Speaker 1: think of the Great Fire and there's the mob presence,
Speaker 1: and I can only imagine, Oh, I want to go
Speaker 1: on your tour hopefully one of these days, one.
Speaker 8: Of these days when we can do do things in
Speaker 8: person again. You're definitely invited, though, if you want to
Speaker 8: join the zoom call and hear all the spooky stories,
Speaker 8: I'll forge you the info. Okay for this for this fall,
Speaker 8: but yeah, Chicago.
Speaker 1: Can you tell people right now how they can find
Speaker 1: all that?
Speaker 8: Of course, yes, the events are on event right. The
Speaker 8: tour is called Death Becomes Her and it is on
Speaker 8: event right. It's also on Facebook and you can find
Speaker 8: everything through there. I'm doing it right now. I'm doing
Speaker 8: it four dates in October, so the last the last
Speaker 8: two weekends on Friday and Saturday nights. I think it's
Speaker 8: gonna be cute. I'm going to send out, you know,
Speaker 8: some like little cocktail recipes, snack ideas, things to try
Speaker 8: to make it a fun experience, even though we're all
Speaker 8: isolated in our homes, to try to you know, kind
Speaker 8: of gather around and tell some spooky stories. So I
Speaker 8: think it'll be fun.
Speaker 1: I hope that sounds great. Well, so what are your
Speaker 1: experiences with ghoes?
Speaker 8: You know, I'm one of those people and I've heard
Speaker 8: a few other people and your podcasts say something similar
Speaker 8: where I like, really want to have an amazing, crazy story,
Speaker 8: and I just I do have a story. But it's
Speaker 8: not like I don't have ghost experiences all the time.
Speaker 8: But I did have an experience when I was younger.
Speaker 8: I think I was like twelve, and we were going
Speaker 8: to clean out my great uncle's factory that he owned
Speaker 8: in the country. So imagine like rural Illinois, cornfields for miles,
Speaker 8: and then there's this this building in the middle of
Speaker 8: all of it. He was like an inventor and he
Speaker 8: had a factory. I don't totally know everything that he did,
Speaker 8: but he had a factory. And he died and we
Speaker 8: went out there to kind of clean everything out, and
Speaker 8: you know, I was I was like the kid who
Speaker 8: came along with all the adults. And it was like
Speaker 8: postcard from the sixties, like wood paneled walls, typewriters. This
Speaker 8: was like early two thousand and five, maybe still had
Speaker 8: like typewriters everywhere. He had to walk in safe. It's
Speaker 8: like very, very bizarre. So the mood was already kind
Speaker 8: of weird, and so I started wandering around and I
Speaker 8: started hearing kind of like I thought it was like
Speaker 8: on a loud speaker, just like people's voices, like multiple voices,
Speaker 8: kind of grumbly garbled, like up in the air like
Speaker 8: it was.
Speaker 7: It was.
Speaker 8: I felt like it was like on a factory loud speaker.
Speaker 8: And I was like, okay, like whatever, and I just
Speaker 8: like would go about my business. I was like looking
Speaker 8: around whatever, and I would always assume, Okay, I'm going
Speaker 8: to go back into the office part and people are
Speaker 8: probably talking, like there's like a loudspeaker or something that
Speaker 8: people are messing with, or I'm hearing them somehow through
Speaker 8: the system or whatever. And I really distinctly remember walking
Speaker 8: back in. So it's kind of like if you imagine
Speaker 8: like a car repair place where there's like an open
Speaker 8: kind of garage area and then there's like you know,
Speaker 8: a glass window and offices, and so I walked through
Speaker 8: there and there's like shelving and people are looking through
Speaker 8: like everything that was on the shelves and sorting things.
Speaker 8: And I was like, okay, yeah, like they're having some
Speaker 8: kind of conversation, so I'm going to go back and
Speaker 8: see what they're saying. And I remember it being like
Speaker 8: kind of loud, like full conversation going on. I couldn't
Speaker 8: really understand the words. And then going back into this
Speaker 8: office and it just being dead silent, and it was
Speaker 8: so weird because I looked around and I was like, well,
Speaker 8: everyone must know that something must have just happened where
Speaker 8: everyone just is silent, like someone said something that like
Speaker 8: made everyone stop or and everyone was just going about
Speaker 8: their business sorting things like it was like not a
Speaker 8: big deal. Nothing weird was happening, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 8: this is weird. And then I went back out and
Speaker 8: I started hearing like it kind of morphed into the
Speaker 8: sound of dogs barking, and I was like, oh, there
Speaker 8: must be like dogs outside or something. I don't remember
Speaker 8: if it was that day or later. When we got home,
Speaker 8: I told my mom, yeah, I heard, like I always
Speaker 8: hearing like weird stuff. I thought I heard dogs barking,
Speaker 8: and she was like, well, he had two dogs that
Speaker 8: he kept out there, that lived out there, and when
Speaker 8: they died, he buried them outside the factory. And so
Speaker 8: I was like, oh, okay, And that's as far as
Speaker 8: I took it. But I do believe something was going
Speaker 8: on that day. Don't totally know what, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting ghost dogs I loves.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's the only experience, so I don't know. My
Speaker 8: mom has had a lot of experiences of like after
Speaker 8: after a very close loved one dies, of like seeing
Speaker 8: them in the house and she's she's still she won't
Speaker 8: admit like whether she really thinks she sees a ghost
Speaker 8: or she thinks she just is imagining them, but she's
Speaker 8: had it. It's happened multiple times for her, so that's interesting.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on and I hope
Speaker 1: that people listening will go check out your tour and
Speaker 1: your ghost stories.
Speaker 7: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 8: I guess maybe the most direct way to get in
Speaker 8: touch that I didn't think about was my Instagram, which
Speaker 8: is just a Wanda underscore screw. I'm I'm very yeah,
Speaker 8: very matter of fact. But yeah, I pot about it
Speaker 8: incessantly on there, so that might be the best way
Speaker 8: to go about it. And yeah, hopefully I'll meet some
Speaker 8: new people through your podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah for everybody that Wanda hear a ghost story. Okay,
Speaker 1: hello Brad from Los Angeles?
Speaker 7: How are you good?
Speaker 1: Are you so good? I wanted to hear the story
Speaker 1: that you sent me about the Greystone Mansion.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, for sure. So I actually went to see
Speaker 7: a friend in a play there, which I found it
Speaker 7: is like the longest running play in Los Angeles, been
Speaker 7: there for eighteen years and.
Speaker 1: They still do it. Yeah, I mean probably not right now,
Speaker 1: but well no.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but it's called The Manor, and you go in
Speaker 7: and the family is called the the Mcallisters, and you know,
Speaker 7: so it's based loosely on the Doheiny family and they
Speaker 7: come out looking like they're just an I says people,
Speaker 7: and everything was really wonderful, and you know, it's the
Speaker 7: character from There Will Be Blood. So you know, the
Speaker 7: son and his valet died the night before they were
Speaker 7: supposed to testify in the Teapot Dome scandal. The bodies
Speaker 7: were found covered in blood. Like there's a lot of
Speaker 7: really dicey stuff around it, and oh, yeah.
Speaker 1: We should probably get into the backstory.
Speaker 7: Yeah, just really quickly. And so I went to see
Speaker 7: the show and I was asking the woman. A friend
Speaker 7: of mine was in it, and I said, well, why
Speaker 7: do you why does the family come up looking like
Speaker 7: that when there are all these other things And she said, well,
Speaker 7: even though it's a national park, the family that owned
Speaker 7: that made the house still has script approval. And I
Speaker 7: thought that was kind of an interesting idea. So I
Speaker 7: was talking to my friend who was in it, and
Speaker 7: she said while she performed, she felt like the presence
Speaker 7: of a little girl around her, or like a child,
Speaker 7: and there were these She started telling me stories like
Speaker 7: people would see this girl in a polka dot dress,
Speaker 7: or one of the forest rangers had locked up the
Speaker 7: house and there's there's like a bridge or the window
Speaker 7: on the second floor. And he thought somebody who's like,
Speaker 7: oh yeah, I checked, but saw like a person and
Speaker 7: then went inside and it was like a headless torso
Speaker 7: and he just ran out screaming. So she was telling
Speaker 7: me all these stories, you know, and the people themselves,
Speaker 7: they werehearsing the quote unquote murder room, which is where
Speaker 7: the valet live, where the murder took place.
Speaker 1: And then you said, a headless torso I had to
Speaker 1: like comprehend that. So it's basically just a first of all,
Speaker 1: it's like sounds like grinder, but it's just a no
Speaker 1: legs and no head floating in the air.
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly. Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So she started telling me these stories and I was like, well,
Speaker 7: that's bizarre, and so I kind of had the idea
Speaker 7: of like a screenplay thing. So I started researching for
Speaker 7: like writing a screenplay about a group of actors stuck
Speaker 7: in the house and you know, who gets to tell
Speaker 7: the truth and that kind of thing, which felt very
Speaker 7: like of our moment, since this wealthy family gets to,
Speaker 7: you know, tell tell the story, even though the real
Speaker 7: story is a lot darker, and you know, and there
Speaker 7: are all these rumors about these murders and suicides, so
Speaker 7: weirdly A friend of mine was friends with a forest
Speaker 7: ranger who no longer works there, So I think I
Speaker 7: can tell these stories because he's like, don't tell anyone,
Speaker 7: I want to get fired. But he doesn't work there anymore.
Speaker 7: So I made an arrangement to have a little tour
Speaker 7: with him around the house, and he told me there
Speaker 7: were actually six debts in the house that there a
Speaker 7: little girl had fallen out a window playing with her playmate.
Speaker 7: That's the little possibly the girl in the Polkada dress.
Speaker 7: Two of the there were two women who killed themselves.
Speaker 7: There's a whole thing about that, possibly with like being
Speaker 7: sexually assaulted by the man that the woman who possibly
Speaker 7: killed her husband and the valet remarried. Like there's a
Speaker 7: whole thing. And then another guy was possibly thrown in
Speaker 7: the boiler who worked there because they used to keep
Speaker 7: the men locked in the boiler room to keep away
Speaker 7: from the female servants. When it was, you know, a
Speaker 7: working house in the twenties and thirties, super charming the
Speaker 7: whole time. It was like, you know, we walked around
Speaker 7: the whole house and he was telling me these stories,
Speaker 7: and I was like, yix and yeah, And so he
Speaker 7: started telling me that like, you know, one of the
Speaker 7: forest rangers like was pushed down the stairs and she
Speaker 7: was just standing at the stairs. There was no one
Speaker 7: behind her. And another one was on a photo shoot
Speaker 7: and something crazy happened and he ended up like leaving
Speaker 7: the client alone. Soe he was so freaked out. And
Speaker 7: and what were some of the other ones? Oh that
Speaker 7: you know, somebody had like turned off all the lights
Speaker 7: and then one of the then he heard his voice
Speaker 7: that said you missed one, and turned around and one
Speaker 7: of the lights was back on. He himself like pushed
Speaker 7: a cabinet closed and felt like it being pushed back
Speaker 7: at him. So there were those kinds of things. They
Speaker 7: said they had a paranormal investigator in there, and there's
Speaker 7: like a supposedly a demon living in there, and they
Speaker 7: said it was like a portal to another world. And
Speaker 7: they found some substance on the floor that nobody could identify.
Speaker 7: I mean, he was telling me all this, you know,
Speaker 7: sure or not?
Speaker 1: So anyway, Well, that place, see, don't I don't know
Speaker 1: a ton about it. I had never I've never been
Speaker 1: to it. But it's basically it's this grand mansion in
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills that so it's it's what were you saying?
Speaker 1: It's a national it's a national park now, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 7: Originally I think it was on like four hundred acres
Speaker 7: of land. They had like a game reserve. You go
Speaker 7: on the second floor, they actually have a sink that
Speaker 7: has like where they would like they could shoot game
Speaker 7: and they just bring them up and prepare them and
Speaker 7: you know the sink where they can the blood light
Speaker 7: goes into the sink from where they you know, slaughter
Speaker 7: the animals, that kind of thing. Dumb waiters, the whole deal.
Speaker 7: It's like fifty rooms. It's big, and there's like, oh
Speaker 7: my god, and there's a bowling alley which you saw
Speaker 7: and there will be blood. They renovated the bowling alley
Speaker 7: and there. It was also built during prohibition, so there
Speaker 7: are all these like the walls are really thick, or
Speaker 7: like there's a hidden bar downstairs where you like hit
Speaker 7: a wall and it like turns into a bar. That
Speaker 7: kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, it's been in like a bajillion movies. That's what
Speaker 1: I That's what I had known it from. Well, I
Speaker 1: love Death Becomes Her and I remember when I'm like
Speaker 1: watching it and being like what is this place? And
Speaker 1: then I saw that that's that they had shot there.
Speaker 1: But here, I'll give you a list for anyone listening.
Speaker 1: I went to a website called seeing dash Stars dot
Speaker 1: com and here's some of the movies. What Women Want
Speaker 1: I was starring Mel Gibson, The Bodyguards starring Queen Whitney Houston,
Speaker 1: The Phantom with Billy zon Oh, Witches of east Wick,
Speaker 1: Big Lebowski, All of Me with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin.
Speaker 1: Ghotsbusters too, that sounds fitting. There's Jumping Jack Flash with
Speaker 1: Woopy Goldberg, The Beautician and The Beast with Fran Dresser.
Speaker 1: There's there's like the list goes on and on and on.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's crazy. And in fact, right after I visited,
Speaker 7: I for some reason was watching All of Me and
Speaker 7: I was like, that's that. Wait, I was just there. Yes,
Speaker 7: So it's crazy. It's a beautiful house. It's enormous, you know,
Speaker 7: I mean the tile is incredible. I mean it really
Speaker 7: is amazing. But I the whole time I was there,
Speaker 7: and this is why I would tell me this story,
Speaker 7: Like I had a headache, which was bizarre, and I
Speaker 7: was starting to feel tired, and you know, I was
Speaker 7: taking a lot of pictures and hearing all these stories,
Speaker 7: and then I went home and and that's why I
Speaker 7: thought you'd enjoyed listening to your podcast or none enjoyed,
Speaker 7: but be interested. I was getting really depressed. I had
Speaker 7: headaches all the time, I problems sleeping. I had this
Speaker 7: one moment where I, you know, I parked my cars
Speaker 7: with la apartment. You know, my parking space is behind
Speaker 7: my apartment building. And I had the thought like, wow,
Speaker 7: I've never It's funny, in thirteen years, I've never scraped
Speaker 7: the side of my car against my building. And literally,
Speaker 7: the next time I got in my car, I just
Speaker 7: like scraped the entire side of my car against my building.
Speaker 7: And so I was talking to a friend who a
Speaker 7: late friend you know, was a psychic actually for many,
Speaker 7: many many years and worked with a lot of people.
Speaker 7: And he was asking what had happened and how I
Speaker 7: was feeling, and he said, come over here right now,
Speaker 7: and he did something where like put our hands on
Speaker 7: the table and he goes, oh, yeah, something's attached itself
Speaker 7: to you. Because I also couldn't find jobs. I was
Speaker 7: running out of money, all this stuff, and he said something,
Speaker 7: He's like, I destroyed it, and I definitely felt like
Speaker 7: it's weird. I felt this like flush kind of thing,
Speaker 7: and an hour later I got offered a job. I
Speaker 7: got offered like three jobs in the next week, Like
Speaker 7: everything turned around. The headache went away, and I was like,
Speaker 7: I didn't need to know that was even plausible.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, do you think it was one of
Speaker 1: the demons from the alleged portal?
Speaker 7: I have no idea. What he told me was did demons?
Speaker 7: He's like, oh, demon's on't a problem. Demons have a
Speaker 7: place they live and they're just upset if you try
Speaker 7: to fuck with their house basically. But he was like,
Speaker 7: you know, they're not going to follow you. He was
Speaker 7: like just some kind of entity.
Speaker 1: And I got, well, are they paying rent? I know,
Speaker 1: because if not, you're out of here.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah. But it was one of those things where
Speaker 7: I was like, you know, I don't know true or
Speaker 7: not a suggestion, but I know I was on the
Speaker 7: grounds again. And then I was like, I got I
Speaker 7: get a headache anytime me think about it, so I'm like,
Speaker 7: you know what, I'll I'll steer clear. But yeah, it
Speaker 7: was kind of wild. I mean, AFI was there for
Speaker 7: many years. I mean like they said they've shot all
Speaker 7: kinds of movies, but it's just like the stories are
Speaker 7: that this forest ranger was just telling me story after
Speaker 7: story after story, and I was like, yikes.
Speaker 1: So but it's open to the public, right, like people
Speaker 1: can just go at any time.
Speaker 7: I think you can schedule a tour, but the gardens
Speaker 7: are open. And then like I've had friends have gotten
Speaker 7: married there, you know, they do marriages, and I was like,
Speaker 7: good for you.
Speaker 1: Oh I want to go. Well, you're telling me also
Speaker 1: that you've done shows at Casita del Campo where I
Speaker 1: do my live shows and stuff. Have you ever had
Speaker 1: any experiences there?
Speaker 7: I haven't. And when I heard the thing, you know
Speaker 7: about the ghost there, I was like, oh, because I've
Speaker 7: stood in that little corner, you know, waiting to go on,
Speaker 7: and I've never had never had any experiences there, but
Speaker 7: I had so weird me neither I had heard about it,
Speaker 7: you know, and you're always like, you know there was
Speaker 7: like oh there was a fire, you know, I mean
Speaker 7: you hear the stories, but no, it's such a great vibe.
Speaker 7: If there is something there, it's obviously not like trying
Speaker 7: to ruin everybody's day, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Totally, Yeah, it's whatever is going on. If there is,
Speaker 1: I mean enough people have said that there is that
Speaker 1: I believe it. But it's it's definitely just fun happiness.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's also just so much energy
Speaker 1: down there of people just cackling on full stomachs of
Speaker 1: delicious food and people are just like there's just so
Speaker 1: much happiness there.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I've never gotten that kind of vibe that it's like,
Speaker 7: because there have been times. I mean I think I
Speaker 7: mentioned I like went to a place over here near
Speaker 7: here and saw this chair that this guy had.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, can we talk about it?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, I know that place. It's called the Philosophical Research.
Speaker 7: Yeah, University of Philosophical Research.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay. I've always been like, what is that place?
Speaker 1: And I've been to the bookstore, but I don't really
Speaker 1: know what do you know what it is?
Speaker 7: You know, I'm Maryon Williamson studied there, I think, oh okay, yeah,
Speaker 7: and it was It's like but I think he built
Speaker 7: it in the you know, there are all those the Theosophis,
Speaker 7: like the Basant Lodge, that kind of history of la
Speaker 7: of like you know, lots of alternative thought and spiritual people,
Speaker 7: you know, and this guy guess was kind of heavily
Speaker 7: into the occult, but i'd never been either, and I
Speaker 7: don't live far driven past it so many times, so
Speaker 7: you know, I mean, I think a few years ago,
Speaker 7: I drove by and thought, you know what, I'm just
Speaker 7: going to stop in. And I walked up into the
Speaker 7: right there's this like and there's like a looks like
Speaker 7: a carved wooden chair from like let's say, like China
Speaker 7: in the eighteen sixties or something. And I looked at
Speaker 7: the chair and I thought, I'm going to throw up,
Speaker 7: like I'm really gonna get sick, which is not like
Speaker 7: at all. And then went to the bookstore and was
Speaker 7: like someone's going to stab me in the back or
Speaker 7: I'm going to be abducted, which was really weird. So
Speaker 7: I went to the bookstore the guy running the bookstore,
Speaker 7: and I said, what is that chair and he said, oh,
Speaker 7: that's where the founder would lecture from. That was his chair.
Speaker 7: And I was like, oh, well, I guess this place
Speaker 7: is not for me then, so I just kind of
Speaker 7: backed away slowly, and as soon as I left, I
Speaker 7: was fine. But it was just the weirdest I've never
Speaker 7: had that experience anywhere else. But I was like, I
Speaker 7: don't know what's going on here, but there was definitely
Speaker 7: some you know, I don't think I'm not clairvoyant, but
Speaker 7: I definitely, you know, there are moments. I don't know,
Speaker 7: if you have that thing where you go in somewhere
Speaker 7: and you're like, this is not right, And yeah, I
Speaker 7: had that experience other people. I think it's great for
Speaker 7: but sometimes I think that's just a guy and saying
Speaker 7: maybe you particularly shouldn't here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not for you.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Special thank you to Kit, Joey, Alex and Brad for
Speaker 1: being on this month's Listener episode. You can be on
Speaker 1: next month's Listener episode by emailing me at ghosted by
Speaker 1: Roz at gmail dot com. Type up a little bit
Speaker 1: of your stories and put in the subject line listener
Speaker 1: episode and we're just my work something out. Please join
Speaker 1: Patreon helps me out and I've been enjoying all the
Speaker 1: content and people have been loving it from what I hear.
Speaker 1: You Just go to Patreon dot com slash Rozdressfalest. There's
Speaker 1: also a link in the description of this episode. I'm
Speaker 1: on Instagram at Rozdresfales. Join our Facebook group Ghosted by Rozdresfales.
Speaker 1: I'm on venmo at Queen Roz and cameo rozdres Fales.
Speaker 1: I love you all, both living and dead. But if
Speaker 1: I didn't ask you to haunt me, don't haunt me.
Speaker 3: Gaybye, Starbans.
Speaker 4: There a podcast network