Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener, discretion is advised. One time,
Speaker 1: I practically begged to take a wooden leg home from
Speaker 1: a haunted location I was investigating. I'm not proud of
Speaker 1: this moment, but truly that leg became one of my
Speaker 1: favorite stories of all time, and I just really wanted
Speaker 1: to take it home, even though I had absolutely no
Speaker 1: business having it. You see, when I arrived at this place,
Speaker 1: no one had given much thought to the old wooden
Speaker 1: prosthetic hanging on the wall, but I was of course
Speaker 1: instantly drawn to it. When I asked about it, they
Speaker 1: said they'd found it in the attic. I live in
Speaker 1: a three hundred year old house, and let me just
Speaker 1: tell you, if I found a wooden leg in my attic,
Speaker 1: it would be like Christmas. Don't judge me. I look
Speaker 1: for ghosts for a living. What did you expect? Also,
Speaker 1: you're listening to this, so welcome to the party. Anyway,
Speaker 1: In the room where the leg was, they had some
Speaker 1: mischievous activity going on, including something that scared a bunch
Speaker 1: of kids trying to have a sleepover. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but I knew that leg was responsible, so I started
Speaker 1: doing research. What did I find that one hundred years
Speaker 1: before a literal one legged circus performer was a resident
Speaker 1: in the home we were investigating, and that he had
Speaker 1: a penchant for playing tricks. The timeline of when he
Speaker 1: had lived and died in the home lined up with
Speaker 1: the style of wooden leg, and on top of that,
Speaker 1: activity went wild when we brought him up in the room.
Speaker 1: Imagine my excitement when I realized I had absolutely found
Speaker 1: a haunted prosthetic. Needless to say, they didn't let me
Speaker 1: take the leg home yet, although it's definitely for the best,
Speaker 1: and this location quickly became one of my favorites. We're
Speaker 1: talking about the Randolph County Infirmary in Winchester, Indiana. I'm
Speaker 1: Amy Bruney, and welcome to Haunted Road. To reach the
Speaker 1: Randolph County Infirmary, visitors have to drive to rural Indiana,
Speaker 1: not too far from the Ohio border. After cruising through
Speaker 1: empty farmland, guests will arrive in a city called Winchester.
Speaker 1: Outside the city proper, but still within the town's limits.
Speaker 1: They'll come upon a two story brick building with peaked
Speaker 1: metal roofs, A pair of turrets loom on either side
Speaker 1: of the front door, dwarfing a concrete stairway between them.
Speaker 1: A carved inscription in stone reads Randolph co Infirmary. Inside,
Speaker 1: the hallways are dark and the plastered walls have holes
Speaker 1: exposing the brick underneath. Some rooms have been restored to
Speaker 1: their former glory with period appropriate furniture and fresh bright
Speaker 1: paint on the walls, but it wouldn't take long to
Speaker 1: walk from a welcoming sitting room to a crumbling chamber.
Speaker 1: Because the building was segregated by gender, there are two
Speaker 1: of everything. The facility features a pair of chapels, dayrooms,
Speaker 1: and infirmaries, one of which is filled to the brim
Speaker 1: with dolls. The county bought the land in eighteen fifty
Speaker 1: one to build a poorhouse. While it had numerous different
Speaker 1: names over time, I will refer to the facility as
Speaker 1: the Randolph County Infirmary throughout this episode for clarity. Even
Speaker 1: before the residence halls were built, clients lived in the
Speaker 1: agricultural buildings on the grounds. These were low income people
Speaker 1: who earned their keep by working on the on site
Speaker 1: farm if they were able. This included growing crops and
Speaker 1: tending to cows, chickens, and other animals. The official Randolph
Speaker 1: County Asylum Infirmary website notes that the facility also provided
Speaker 1: housing for people who were too ill, elderly, or disabled
Speaker 1: to pick up any chores. By eighteen fifty three, the
Speaker 1: main housing building was completed with space to accommodate sixteen people,
Speaker 1: but disaster struck almost immediately. The home burned down in
Speaker 1: less than a year. When replacement housing was constructed, the
Speaker 1: builders didn't follow proper procedure. According to Scott Schaeffer of
Speaker 1: the Winchester News Gazette. Individual bricks were made on site,
Speaker 1: but they weren't baked properly, and rather than forming sturdy walls,
Speaker 1: they began to disintegrate quickly. Within a few decades, officials
Speaker 1: tore the building down out of fears about its stability.
Speaker 1: A third structure, the one that still stands today, was
Speaker 1: erected just before the turn of the century. Unlike the
Speaker 1: previous buildings, this one was solid and well built. It
Speaker 1: cost fifty thousand dollars to fabricate, the equivalent of one
Speaker 1: point eight million of today's dollars adjusted for inflation. It
Speaker 1: had a bell system that rang through the facility to
Speaker 1: help residents stick to strict schedule. They ate and worked
Speaker 1: on the farm at specific times, and according to the
Speaker 1: official Randolph County Asylum Infirmary website, it also boasted laundry
Speaker 1: and kitchen facilities and a pair of dining rooms that
Speaker 1: were segregated by gender. Other news structures on the grounds
Speaker 1: included chicken coops, barns, machine sheds, and more. In nineteen eleven,
Speaker 1: the Monday Evening Press declared the Randolph County Infirmary one
Speaker 1: of the best in the state, and its history is
Speaker 1: marked with several uplifting stories. For example, a thirty two
Speaker 1: year old former lumberjack named Jimmy Cantrell checked into the
Speaker 1: Randolph County Infirmary in nineteen nineteen as spinal cancer left
Speaker 1: him immobilized. He couldn't work a traditional job, but the
Speaker 1: hospital's superintendent's daughter taught him tatting or lace making. Initially,
Speaker 1: Jimmy was resistant to the new hobby. He later told
Speaker 1: a reporter with the Muncy Sunday Star that he saw
Speaker 1: tatting as women's work, something embarrassing for a man like
Speaker 1: him to do, But after he gave it a try,
Speaker 1: he discovered that he was incredibly talented at the craft.
Speaker 1: He eventually opened a highly successful lace business and told
Speaker 1: the same reporter, every once in a while, I think
Speaker 1: about learning to do something more along a man's life,
Speaker 1: But then I remember that I'm making something useful, for
Speaker 1: without beautiful things, life wouldn't be much worth living. This
Speaker 1: story highlights how important organizations like the Randolph County Infirmary
Speaker 1: could be. There's a real power in giving meaning and
Speaker 1: purpose to people who might otherwise fall through the cracks.
Speaker 1: But as time went on, the conditions at the facility deteriorated.
Speaker 1: Sometime along the way, someone installed a barred jail cell
Speaker 1: on the second Supposedly this was a place where inebriated
Speaker 1: residents could sleep off their alcohol binges, but reports suggest
Speaker 1: some cruel staffers would also throw patients in the cell
Speaker 1: as a punishment, even for minor infractions. There were roughly
Speaker 1: two hundred documented deaths on site, maybe more. One early
Speaker 1: one happened in March nineteen oh six, not long after
Speaker 1: the newest version of the building was constructed, and five
Speaker 1: years before the newspaper sang its praises as the best
Speaker 1: in the state muncies. The press described how a residence
Speaker 1: suffered an epileptic seizure while standing near the top of
Speaker 1: the staircase on the third story. He fell nearly all
Speaker 1: the way to the ground floor and ultimately succumbed to
Speaker 1: his injuries from the fall. Decades later, another long term
Speaker 1: resident became confused while attempting to cross the street and
Speaker 1: stepped in front of an oncoming car. He was hit
Speaker 1: and died the next day. There are numerous other accounts
Speaker 1: of falls and car accidents, including one possible murder. In
Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, a man named John Oliver Champ tumbled
Speaker 1: out a second floor window and passed away afterward. There
Speaker 1: are allegations that this fall was no accident. It's said
Speaker 1: two other patients pushed him to his death, but these
Speaker 1: claims are unverified. However, I want to focus on one
Speaker 1: more notable passing, that of Ida Gunkle. She suffered from neurosyphilis,
Speaker 1: which was untreatable at the time she checked in in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty eight. Without medication. Syphilis is degenerative and causes
Speaker 1: cognitive decline. In Ida's case, she was prone to running
Speaker 1: through the halls and she had horrible hygiene. Before long,
Speaker 1: her caretakers determined that a traditional room wasn't adequate for her,
Speaker 1: so they transferred her into the basement into a dungeon
Speaker 1: like cell with barred windows. One evening, she hung herself
Speaker 1: from the ceiling, and her final moments were anything but
Speaker 1: quick and painless. The drop didn't break her neck, so
Speaker 1: she spent her last minutes choking and gasping for air.
Speaker 1: She was found dead the next morning. In nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 1: the Randolph County facility passed from public to private owners,
Speaker 1: and the new administration tried to change the way they
Speaker 1: ran the operation. Instead of ringing bells to keep all
Speaker 1: the residents on the same schedule, they instead tried to
Speaker 1: add more flexibility to the calendar. This didn't go over
Speaker 1: well with the residents. By now only about twelve people
Speaker 1: lived on site, a sharp decline from previous eras when
Speaker 1: the Randolph County Residents housed around ninety people. But those
Speaker 1: dozen or so clients were adamant about sticking to the
Speaker 1: way they'd always done things, and eventually the new owners
Speaker 1: caved to their demands. A few years later, in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety seven, reporter with the Indianapolis News interviewed an eighty
Speaker 1: two year old resident named Doris Addington, who'd lived on
Speaker 1: site since nineteen forty five. She described her time at
Speaker 1: the Randolph County Infirmary to the journalists, saying, in the
Speaker 1: old days it was like a dungeon here, terrible things
Speaker 1: were done. When the journalist asked her to elaborate, she
Speaker 1: burst into tears and couldn't answer. Later in that interview,
Speaker 1: she alluded to something involving getting in a car with boys,
Speaker 1: but this account was short on details. While the reporter
Speaker 1: didn't get a clear explanation. Then it's not too late
Speaker 1: to learn from Doris. Even though she passed away in
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, her spirit is sometimes spotted in
Speaker 1: the kitchen where she used to work. Many claims she
Speaker 1: moves items around, situating things just the way she once
Speaker 1: liked them. She's also thought to be a presence in
Speaker 1: the infirmary where she spent her final days. Mitch goth
Speaker 1: Of haunted us for that. Doris loved porcelain dolls in
Speaker 1: her life, and now the infirmary is filled with her
Speaker 1: old figurines and other dolls that were left in her honor.
Speaker 1: Visitors claim these toys sometimes move on their own, as
Speaker 1: though Doris is still arranging or playing with them. The
Speaker 1: woman who killed herself, Ida Guncle, is also said to
Speaker 1: haunt the basement cell where she took her own life.
Speaker 1: Many visitors who set foot in the chamber feel an
Speaker 1: overwhelming sense of panic, and people have recorded a voice
Speaker 1: urging them to get out. Ida seemingly saves the worst
Speaker 1: of her ire for people who get facts about her
Speaker 1: life wrong. According to the reality TV show Destination Fear,
Speaker 1: Ida has been known to become violent against those who
Speaker 1: mock her or make untrue statements about her. She's even
Speaker 1: scratched people deeply enough to drop blood. However, some visitors
Speaker 1: have tried to placate her by bringing small gifts and
Speaker 1: leaving them in her former room. Likewise, many guests bring
Speaker 1: toys as a gift for a boy who's been dubbed Noah.
Speaker 1: One psychic claimed the child's ghost made contact with her
Speaker 1: and asked for toys, and if you bring him an
Speaker 1: offering he likes, he may try to play with you
Speaker 1: in his former first bedroom. Guests have also reported interactions
Speaker 1: with the spirit of an unidentified judge who's said to
Speaker 1: be particularly active in the attic. Mitch Goth claimed he
Speaker 1: was notorious for his harsh verdicts in the courtroom. Apparently,
Speaker 1: after he was admitted to the facility, he continued to
Speaker 1: wield his perceived authority, subjecting other residents to foe trials.
Speaker 1: In the attic, investigators have captured his voice on tape,
Speaker 1: and many feel as though they're being watched when they
Speaker 1: reach the top floor. There's one eerie area on the
Speaker 1: second floor where guests often feel as though some invisible
Speaker 1: attacker is punching them in the gut or grabbing their throats. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: this isn't too far from the site of John Oliver
Speaker 1: Champs deadly fall out the window. If it's true that
Speaker 1: he was murdered by his fellow patients, these ghostly blows
Speaker 1: might be a spectral echo of his final fatal moments.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, the infirmary has many of the typical tell
Speaker 1: tale signs of hauntings. Figures appear in empty spaces. Mitch
Speaker 1: Goth describes some as white and misty and others as
Speaker 1: more shadowy. Passers through might also feel as though someone
Speaker 1: they don't see is touching them, and a tricycle in
Speaker 1: the attic has rolled on its own. For an empty facility,
Speaker 1: it's surprisingly noisy in unoccupied rooms, Guests may hear doors,
Speaker 1: slam bangs on the walls, or voices including children's laughter,
Speaker 1: screams and moans frequently echo through the basement and near
Speaker 1: the barred jail cell on the floor. Some of these
Speaker 1: disturbances don't have a clear explanation. For example, at least
Speaker 1: one visitor saw a figure in the basement that they
Speaker 1: described as resembling a baby octopus. Others have identified something
Speaker 1: they call a creeper. The Hauntings around America web page
Speaker 1: on Randolph County Asylum described the creeper as having an
Speaker 1: ominous ambiance. It's said to charge it visitors moving impossibly fast.
Speaker 1: It's clear there are many spirits with a variety of
Speaker 1: different attitudes and personalities at the Randolph County Infirmary. To
Speaker 1: tease out their stories, I'm going to speak with someone
Speaker 1: who spends a tremendous amount of time there, mister Ted Martin.
Speaker 1: Ted heads up their tours and does a lot of
Speaker 1: paranormal investigations on site, and he's got some very interesting
Speaker 1: stories to share with us. That is coming up after
Speaker 1: the break. All right, So I am now joined by
Speaker 1: Ted Martin, who is the historian at the infirmary and
Speaker 1: has a wealth of information. Also kind of has what
Speaker 1: I consider to be a dreamy job. I'm a little jealous.
Speaker 1: So welcome to the programs.
Speaker 2: Ed, thank you.
Speaker 1: Now, when did you get started with the INFIRMI how
Speaker 1: long have you been associated with that building?
Speaker 2: A little over three years?
Speaker 1: Now, that's great. And now did you just kind of
Speaker 1: fall into it or was it something you had an
Speaker 1: interest in initially or.
Speaker 2: No, I was actually the county historian and I was
Speaker 2: a president of the Historical Society. You yourself have been
Speaker 2: to our museum up there, and I had retired from
Speaker 2: my full time job, and these guys knew me from
Speaker 2: working with them a little bit here and there, and
Speaker 2: they called me and asked me if i'd like to
Speaker 2: have a job by meeting people at the door and
Speaker 2: telling them the history and showing them around the place.
Speaker 2: And it sounded like exactly what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2: So how I become involved?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean I would say, you're the perfect
Speaker 1: guy for the job. So now, did you have you
Speaker 1: always believed in the paranormal or did the infirmary kind
Speaker 1: of make you a believer?
Speaker 2: The infirmary definitely made me a believer. To be quite
Speaker 2: honest with you, Ammy, I was fourteen years Army Infantry
Speaker 2: and eighteen years firefighter, and I wasn't much that I
Speaker 2: was afraid of, to be honest with you, and I
Speaker 2: didn't believe that this stuff was real. I always said
Speaker 2: that somebody goad to walk up and shake my hand
Speaker 2: and introduce themselves to me before I believe it. And
Speaker 2: lo and behold, it basically happened here.
Speaker 1: What was the moment, What was it that made you
Speaker 1: a believer?
Speaker 2: Well, the moment that made me believer. You remember me
Speaker 2: telling you back when you guys were here about the
Speaker 2: judge up in the attic.
Speaker 1: Well, why don't you recount it for us, just because
Speaker 1: there's a lot of listeners who aren't familiar. But I
Speaker 1: do remember, okay.
Speaker 2: Well, I had told you about the judge had mock
Speaker 2: court mock trials up in the attic. He came here
Speaker 2: like in nineteen thirty eight, and he didn't have any
Speaker 2: family or anything, and he offered to pay the county
Speaker 2: commissioner's rent to live here, and of course nobody else
Speaker 2: is paying anything, so they took him up on it.
Speaker 2: And so he was asked what he could do to
Speaker 2: help people here and they had decided that he would
Speaker 2: be in charge of security, and so they let him
Speaker 2: do mock trials up in the attic so that the
Speaker 2: regular residents of the people here where he was a jury.
Speaker 2: And of course he had taken the superintendent to win
Speaker 2: to Winchester to County jail, and they had purchased a
Speaker 2: jail cell and took the jail cell apart and brought
Speaker 2: it out here and put it in one of the
Speaker 2: rooms on the second floor. So if in his mock trials,
Speaker 2: if he sentenced you to an overnight or a day
Speaker 2: or two in jail, he actually had a place to put.
Speaker 1: You, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: And so fortunately he was a good, honest man. He
Speaker 2: wasn't like he was a hanging type.
Speaker 3: Drugs that could have been bad, yes, And to be
Speaker 3: honest with you, since he was retired, he actually had
Speaker 3: no legal authority.
Speaker 2: But if the superintendent of this building says he could
Speaker 2: do it, and they let him do it, and people
Speaker 2: are going along with it, well he can pretty much
Speaker 2: do what he wants to do. So I remember one
Speaker 2: evening I was up in the attic with some guests
Speaker 2: that was up there, and there's two different guys and
Speaker 2: both of them had SLS cameras, you know, the stick
Speaker 2: figure shoot a stick figure. And they asked me, they
Speaker 2: said ted, They said, where is the jed holding him
Speaker 2: open his mock trials? And I said, right in front
Speaker 2: of you. It was Christopher and Philip Booth is who
Speaker 2: it was.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, okay, you know who they are? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I am familiar.
Speaker 2: And so they asked me, worry, how did he mock trials?
Speaker 2: And I said, right in front of you, right out there.
Speaker 2: And they said, why do you reckon he's here? And
Speaker 2: I said, yes, I think he's still up there. And
Speaker 2: about that time Philip said, look at my screen on
Speaker 2: my camera, on the computer screen, and I looked on
Speaker 2: his computer screen and he had it pointing towards an
Speaker 2: upright up up there in the attic, and there was
Speaker 2: a stick figurehead peeking around the upright and he said
Speaker 2: you recognize him and I said, yes, I do recognize him.
Speaker 2: He said, well can you get do you know him?
Speaker 2: And I said sure, I know him well enough I
Speaker 2: can talk about him. And he said, well, see if
Speaker 2: you can get him to come out. So I went
Speaker 2: down to where that upright was and I said, judge
Speaker 2: listen to me, I said, THEMN cameras, them guy's got
Speaker 2: can't hurt you. They won't hurt They'd like for you
Speaker 2: to come out behind from behind this upright so that
Speaker 2: they could see you better. And of course I couldn't see.
Speaker 2: I didn't have no camera, and that's one of the
Speaker 2: big reasons why it didn't scare me to death. So
Speaker 2: I went over there and he I asked him to
Speaker 2: come out, and I turned around and walked back across
Speaker 2: the hallway and was leaning against a chimney up there,
Speaker 2: and one of the guys, either Phillip or Christopher, one
Speaker 2: said he's following you. And then Christopher said, well, as
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, he's leaning against the chimney right
Speaker 2: beside you. Well, if he's right beside me, that makes
Speaker 2: him no further away than two feet away from me.
Speaker 2: And I'm wanting to see him. And so I'm looking
Speaker 2: real hard, looking real hard, and the next thing I know,
Speaker 2: I break out into a cold sweat, and I feel
Speaker 2: like I'm going to do a nose dive. I feel
Speaker 2: like I'm going to pass out right, And I squatted down,
Speaker 2: clothes to the floor, and Philip or Christopher popped up
Speaker 2: and said, then Ted, He said, Ted, I think he
Speaker 2: likes you. He laid his hand on your shoulder. Well,
Speaker 2: that's what it was. He was zapping my energy, trying
Speaker 2: to materialize, I guess, and that was making me sick.
Speaker 3: Of course.
Speaker 2: I was scooted down next to the floor and I said, Judge,
Speaker 2: I said, if this is you, I said, you're going
Speaker 2: to have to please get your hand off of me
Speaker 2: because it's making me sick. I can't take it. And
Speaker 2: within ten seconds I felt fine, and I asked him
Speaker 2: what happened, and Christopher said, well, I believe he dropped
Speaker 2: his hand off your shoulder and walked back across the
Speaker 2: opening hallway there and went back behind the upright, and
Speaker 2: we can't see him now. So any skepticism of my
Speaker 2: head went right out the window. That night, I couldn't
Speaker 2: see it. I couldn't feel anything, but something was bothering me.
Speaker 2: Something was making really feel tapped.
Speaker 1: Right, And I mean the timing worked out to you.
Speaker 1: I mean, what an interesting story, like I can't imagine,
Speaker 1: first of all, the way that man lived. You know,
Speaker 1: He's just like I'm gonna rent the attic of the
Speaker 1: infirmary and hold mock trials like, this is what I'm
Speaker 1: doing with my life. And so obviously he already had
Speaker 1: kind of an interesting personality, so it makes sense that
Speaker 1: he would stick around, and it makes sense that he
Speaker 1: would have an affinity for other people, especially people dedicated
Speaker 1: to the location. So I think that's really interesting if
Speaker 1: someone visits the informer, like I've been there, and honestly,
Speaker 1: I adore that building. I love the history there, I
Speaker 1: love the activity there. The feeling there can vary greatly,
Speaker 1: Like in some places it feels very warm and inviting,
Speaker 1: and I've been in other places where it feels a
Speaker 1: little bit like we don't want you here, you know,
Speaker 1: And it just depends on the day. I would say.
Speaker 1: But along those lines, when people visit, what would you
Speaker 1: say is the most common activity that they report or
Speaker 1: that they experience.
Speaker 2: Well, I would say the most common experience most people
Speaker 2: have is with either a guncle the lady that hung
Speaker 2: herself down in the basement, or with Doris Addington, the
Speaker 2: whole woman that cooked here for seventy years.
Speaker 1: Right, those were two names that came up a lot
Speaker 1: in my research, and I mean I found both of
Speaker 1: their stories fascinating. I love Doris just because she's kind
Speaker 1: of a recent figure, and I was able to find
Speaker 1: like photos of her and everything still there. How does
Speaker 1: she manifest? How do people know that they're encountering Doris.
Speaker 2: Well, she'll either interact with him to a spirit box
Speaker 2: down in the kitchen around the island down there in
Speaker 2: a basement, or she'll interact with them in the room.
Speaker 2: And she passed away in a sick room up here
Speaker 2: on the first floor where all her dolls.
Speaker 1: Are at Okay, And so the dolls that are there,
Speaker 1: those actually belong to her, are those dolls that people
Speaker 1: bring for her.
Speaker 2: One album on the shelves against the north wall in
Speaker 2: her room are really hers. All the others that are
Speaker 2: in there is people that's heard the story by listening
Speaker 2: to different things like this, and they bring her doll.
Speaker 2: And if they bring her a doll and present it
Speaker 2: to her, it's usually on film or on tape or something.
Speaker 2: And she has never yet neglected not to thank somebody
Speaker 2: for giving her a doll. If you've got a spirit.
Speaker 1: Box, wow, So if people bring a doll, most likely
Speaker 1: they're going to get some sort of interaction with her,
Speaker 1: like her actually thanking them for it.
Speaker 2: I can't guarantee it naturally, you know how. Yeah, but yes,
Speaker 2: actually most of the people do have some kind of
Speaker 2: interaction with her.
Speaker 1: See. I like that, that kind of interaction between you know,
Speaker 1: the living and the dead. It's this kind of very
Speaker 1: peaceful kind way of getting activity. Right now, as far
Speaker 1: as ida I know, most of the activity involving her
Speaker 1: seems to be in the basement. Is that.
Speaker 2: Right? It's in that room. Supposedly she hung herself in
Speaker 2: that room.
Speaker 1: And how does she manifest? What does she do?
Speaker 2: Well, you got to have a K two meter in there,
Speaker 2: and she'll she'll light it up bright red. She'll pag
Speaker 2: it clear to the top. Now there's a there's a
Speaker 2: there's an electricity line across the ceiling in there, but
Speaker 2: as far as I know, there's no electricity to it.
Speaker 2: I've never seen that light work before. When she when
Speaker 2: she manifests herself, your K two meter will basically jump
Speaker 2: out of your hand. I mean, it PAGs it right,
Speaker 2: bright red.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think that those kind of items like K
Speaker 1: two's are the things that light up. I just think
Speaker 1: that spirits sometimes that's just a very easy way for
Speaker 1: them to communicate. It's like this universal language, like everyone
Speaker 1: understands a light or a knock or something like that. Now,
Speaker 1: as far as people visiting that, you did you guys
Speaker 1: do daytime tours non paranormal related, right? Or is everything
Speaker 1: paranormal related?
Speaker 2: Well, I do history tours through the daytime, or if
Speaker 2: I just tell people the history of the place and
Speaker 2: then take them a walk through the building. But it
Speaker 2: doesn't really matter whether it's daytime or night. I've had
Speaker 2: his people see shadow figures and everything else when I'm
Speaker 2: just doing a history tour.
Speaker 1: That's what I was going to ask if. I was
Speaker 1: going to ask if when people come in to do
Speaker 1: like a history tour, are they ever surprised and suddenly
Speaker 1: have a paranormal experience? They weren't bargaining for.
Speaker 2: Right they have. I've I've had one young guy swear
Speaker 2: that there was a big, tall shadow figure like standing
Speaker 2: in the hallway at the end on the men's side
Speaker 2: of the second floor, and we were cleared down the
Speaker 2: hall from him, and he swore that he's standing right
Speaker 2: there beside the door. And I was convinced that he
Speaker 2: saw something. I really was.
Speaker 1: So now did he remain or was he done with
Speaker 1: the tour at that point?
Speaker 2: Well, he remained. The young man. He was with his mother,
Speaker 2: and they went ahead, and we still had to go
Speaker 2: the remainder of the second floor enough through the attic,
Speaker 2: and they went on with it.
Speaker 1: Well that's good. Have you ever had anybody just who
Speaker 1: had enough and was like, I'm done, They're out, They've
Speaker 1: they're leaving the building.
Speaker 2: Usually it'll be a man, and usually it'll be a
Speaker 2: time when he's going I don't know whether he's trying
Speaker 2: to prove something to himself or what. But we've had
Speaker 2: two different guys show up by themselves and going to
Speaker 2: stay here by themselves at night, and both guys have
Speaker 2: called me later at night and said that they're not
Speaker 2: there anymore, that they went on down to the motel
Speaker 2: a couple of miles down the road from here, and
Speaker 2: so they just had enough of it, and they basically
Speaker 2: would scare them all.
Speaker 1: Oh jeez. I mean, I wonder what they were doing.
Speaker 1: I think I get hang there by myself for the night.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, I might get lonely, but
Speaker 1: I don't know if I get scared, I.
Speaker 2: Don't think they'd let you get long.
Speaker 1: I guess you're right, that's true. Now on the day
Speaker 1: to day, now I know that. You guys get a
Speaker 1: lot of shadow figures in that persons. Have you got
Speaker 1: any identifiable evidence or interactions where they say their names
Speaker 1: or names you weren't familiar with anything like that.
Speaker 2: Well, one of them was I saw personally. I saw
Speaker 2: and a young girl with me, and I saw a
Speaker 2: figure of Doris go across from the ladies dining room
Speaker 2: down there in the basement, and she kind of floated
Speaker 2: through that doorway into the kitchen, and I could see
Speaker 2: from her waist up. And so since I know what
Speaker 2: Doris looks like, I could definitely recognize who that was.
Speaker 1: And now, remind me what year did Doris pass away?
Speaker 2: If I'm not mistaken, I think it's nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: Four, okay, And then why do you think she stays there? Like,
Speaker 1: what's your theory?
Speaker 2: Well, once she was here, you know, I've told you
Speaker 2: a story about about every church in town. When they
Speaker 2: would have a function, like a food gathering or something,
Speaker 2: they would always ask Doris to help them cook. And
Speaker 2: when she was doing that, different people of the church
Speaker 2: to offer her a place to stay, and she would
Speaker 2: always turn it down. She'd always say, no, I got
Speaker 2: to get back out there. Somebody might have missed her
Speaker 2: supper tonight I got to get ready for him. So
Speaker 2: I feel like, basically she was dumped here by her sisters.
Speaker 2: But I feel like as she stayed here throughout the years,
Speaker 2: she felt obligated to the place, and so she just
Speaker 2: didn't want to leave. She wanted to be out here
Speaker 2: and wanted to make sure she was doing what she
Speaker 2: was doing right.
Speaker 1: It's almost like she felt kind of a sense of
Speaker 1: duty to the place. Now, I think I'd talked about
Speaker 1: it in the first half, but I'm trying to remember,
Speaker 1: like how many years. I feel like she lived there
Speaker 1: for like forty six years or something. Do you remember
Speaker 1: how many years it was she spent there.
Speaker 2: She was here for seventy years, So.
Speaker 1: Seventy years, so I wait, seventy years, So that's really
Speaker 1: all she knew. So it really makes perfect sense why
Speaker 1: she would be a very prevalent spirit there because if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, did she have any living relatives when
Speaker 1: she passed or anything, or.
Speaker 2: Well, she had family. She's not buried down here in
Speaker 2: a pauper graveyard. I think she's buried and found Park
Speaker 2: Cemetery right in Winchester. But like I said, she had
Speaker 2: I think the longer she stayed here, the more of
Speaker 2: an obligation she felt like she added to this place.
Speaker 2: And so this was just her life, is what it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now besides her and Ida, are there any other
Speaker 1: spirits that you can think of at the top of
Speaker 1: your who kind of make themselves known pretty regularly?
Speaker 2: Well, the judge, like I said, up in the attic,
Speaker 2: and there's a boy in the room down there. He
Speaker 2: interacts with people by jahn asking you to take one
Speaker 2: of the notebooks in there and the drawing pencils, and
Speaker 2: he'll interact with people to a spirit box by asking
Speaker 2: him to draw him a picture. You got to remember,
Speaker 2: in his world, it's nineteen forty three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's that makes sense for probably something he
Speaker 1: enjoyed in life too. Are you guys hosting do you
Speaker 1: have paranormal investigations there pretty regularly and tours and everything?
Speaker 1: How does that work?
Speaker 2: Well, we got a schedule and there's a yearly schedule
Speaker 2: Roucate and you have doctor her, but she scheduled, Well,
Speaker 2: there's one just about there's more more scheduled days than
Speaker 2: there are open days.
Speaker 1: Oh, I can imagine, I can imagine. I feel like
Speaker 1: places like that, you know, I think that you're you're
Speaker 1: bringing to light a really important part of history. And
Speaker 1: I also find the building to be beautiful. And I
Speaker 1: also think that probably for a long time, there wasn't
Speaker 1: anybody talking to those spirits there, So I think it's
Speaker 1: great that, you know, it's become kind of a regular
Speaker 1: thing for people to come in and interact with them.
Speaker 1: And you guys have all been lovely. I've met you
Speaker 1: all a couple of times now, and I'm eager to
Speaker 1: get back there. So I really do enjoy what you're doing.
Speaker 2: Well, we enjoyed having you all here. I hope you
Speaker 2: get back soon.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely, so really quick. If people want to
Speaker 1: visit the infirmary, I know you mentioned Kate, is there
Speaker 1: a website or anything that they can head to or
Speaker 1: anyone they can call if they want to schedule time
Speaker 1: or take a tour.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe it's called save Saving the Old Proberies
Speaker 2: dot com.
Speaker 1: All right, Save Theold Properties dot com? All right. And
Speaker 1: I know that you the people who run the infirmary,
Speaker 1: they've they're building up quite the portfolio of really cool
Speaker 1: old buildings in that area, and I think that is awesome.
Speaker 1: So I think this is one of the byproducts of
Speaker 1: paramol investigation that sometimes there are buildings that really wouldn't
Speaker 1: have a life otherwise, and this is a way to
Speaker 1: kind of fund that, but also keep history alive and
Speaker 1: also keep those spirits happy. So I appreciate everything that
Speaker 1: you guys do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's not very many old buildings around here that
Speaker 2: doesn't get their attention. I'll say that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, recently bought one.
Speaker 2: If I can kind of put a plug in, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Of course. Listen, you want to tell me about your
Speaker 1: new old building, you go right ahead.
Speaker 2: Recently just bought one down the land, which is only
Speaker 2: like seven or eight miles from the infirmaries, south of
Speaker 2: the infirmary, and it was the old the old church
Speaker 2: as a Nazarene church that they bought it land and
Speaker 2: at the church at Jim Jones grew up again.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's quite the history. So well, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to hear more about that. I'm going to have
Speaker 1: to come visit soon and jump from all these properties.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much for joining me. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate you taking the time, and hopefully we see each
Speaker 1: other in person again soon.
Speaker 2: Thank you for giving the opportunity for the exposure, we
Speaker 2: really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Randolph County Infirmary represents an odd tension that's true of
Speaker 1: almost any care facility. It can be a happy place
Speaker 1: where people go to get their life back on track,
Speaker 1: but not every resident will be a success story, and
Speaker 1: for some it will be a site of tragedy. For
Speaker 1: every patient, like Jimmy Cantrell, who found purpose and meaning
Speaker 1: making lace, there were others who saw the hospital as
Speaker 1: an unspeakably terrible place. This dichotomy is reflected in the
Speaker 1: spirits that remain today, some friendly and some not so much.
Speaker 1: As we all know, life is complicated, and it seems
Speaker 1: that death can be as well. I'm Amy Bruney and
Speaker 1: this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road is hosted and written
Speaker 1: by me Amy brune with additional research by Cassandra de Alba.
Speaker 1: This show is edited and produced by Rima El Kali,
Speaker 1: with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Menke,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. Haunted Road is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Menke. Learn
Speaker 1: more about this show over at Grimandmild dot com and
Speaker 1: for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.