Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Minky listener, discretion is advised. Of
Speaker 1: all the places I investigate, believe it or not, lighthouses
Speaker 1: may be one of the saddest I think of the
Speaker 1: lighthouse keepers. They're very living to provide a guiding light,
Speaker 1: to keep people from danger. Their job was built in
Speaker 1: routine and discipline, for to fail meant failing those at
Speaker 1: sea who so desperately depended on them for safety. Is
Speaker 1: it any wonder lighthouses are notoriously haunted that in death
Speaker 1: those who once manned them still feel enough of a
Speaker 1: sense of duty to return and diligently walk hundreds of steps,
Speaker 1: forever manning a beacon in the darkness. And how sad
Speaker 1: that something once so noble and important has long been
Speaker 1: replaced with technology, superpowered lights and lenses. How do these
Speaker 1: spirits feel now? What are they trying to tell us?
Speaker 1: Is time and time again they don't leave their posts,
Speaker 1: even after they have long passed away. Perhaps the Pensacola
Speaker 1: Lighthouse can guide us to an understanding. I'm Amy Brune,
Speaker 1: and this is Haunted Road. If you were to hike
Speaker 1: along San Carlos Beach near the Pensacola Naval Air Station,
Speaker 1: and you glanced up on a dark night, you might
Speaker 1: see a brilliant beam of light in the sky. It
Speaker 1: would pulse on for twenty seconds, then flicker off again,
Speaker 1: only to light up once more after another twenty seconds.
Speaker 1: The beam comes from the one thousand watt bulb mounted
Speaker 1: in the Pensacola Lighthouse, a beacon that's amplified by the
Speaker 1: historic over one hundred and seventy year old fresnel lens.
Speaker 1: It's so you can spot it from twenty seven miles away.
Speaker 1: Unlike many haunted places, the Pensacle Lighthouse is still in
Speaker 1: operation today. It's not abandoned or in a state of disrepair.
Speaker 1: It also doesn't have an on site keeper operating its
Speaker 1: machinery anymore. Its processes are all automated. The roughly one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty foot tall tower looms over the two
Speaker 1: story keepers quarters. The residence, now home to historic exhibits
Speaker 1: for the public, is surrounded by balconies on each floor.
Speaker 1: It has a cheerful red roof, while the lighthouse itself
Speaker 1: is brown and white. The narrow base is a mere
Speaker 1: thirty feet in diameter, but the higher it goes, the
Speaker 1: narrower it becomes to a scant fifteen feet at the top.
Speaker 1: If you were to ascend the one hundred seventy seven
Speaker 1: steps up the winding spiral staircase, as I have done
Speaker 1: in the past, and I do not necessarily recommend it,
Speaker 1: you'd find an automated light system. It's completely surrounded by
Speaker 1: swirled glass that redirects and amplifies the beam. As reported
Speaker 1: by the National Park Services website. On the fresnel lens
Speaker 1: outside sixteen gargoyles ring a catwalk around the lighthouse exterior.
Speaker 1: These are spouts meant to redirect rainwater from the building,
Speaker 1: but the Pensacola Lighthouse and Maritime Museum claims they also
Speaker 1: keep evil spirits at bay. Given the lighthouse as history,
Speaker 1: it's no wonder the builders were worried about malicious energies.
Speaker 1: The city of Pensacola, nestled right on the boundary between
Speaker 1: Florida and Alabama, is named after the indigenous people of
Speaker 1: the area. The town was founded in August fifteen fifty
Speaker 1: nine and almost immediately destroyed like a bad omen. According
Speaker 1: to the Pensacola Lighthouse and Maritime Museum's history page, a
Speaker 1: hurricane thrashed the community just weeks after it was founded,
Speaker 1: beginning on September nineteenth. The death toll hit the hundreds,
Speaker 1: and the devastation destroyed the supplies the sour virus needed
Speaker 1: to ensure their town's success. After that settlement failed, nearly
Speaker 1: a century and a half passed until Spanish colonists erected
Speaker 1: Fort San Carlos State Astoria in the same place. Once again,
Speaker 1: the community only had a short time to flourish before
Speaker 1: disaster struck. Armed conflict broke out between the Spanish and
Speaker 1: the French, and later the British entered the mix to Finally,
Speaker 1: General Andrew Jackson, who later become president, seized the city
Speaker 1: now known as Pensacola for the United States in eighteen eighteen.
Speaker 1: When construction on the lighthouse began six years later, there
Speaker 1: were more bizarre disasters. The Pensacola News Journal reported that
Speaker 1: early in the building process, large numbers of highly venomous
Speaker 1: water moccasins migrated from the Gulf coast to the construction site.
Speaker 1: The snakes would lurk in piles of bricks, attacking any
Speaker 1: worker unfortunate enough to cross their path. The servants were
Speaker 1: even occasionally spotted on high scaffolding, and no one could
Speaker 1: explain how the snakes had climbed so high. In spite
Speaker 1: of these concerning harbingers, the lighthouse was completed and opened
Speaker 1: its doors in December of eighteen twenty four. The first keeper,
Speaker 1: Jeremiah Ingraham, moved into the on site accommodations. For two years,
Speaker 1: he lived there alone. Every other hour he'd have to
Speaker 1: climb to the top of the lighthouse to operate the
Speaker 1: mechanism that kept it lit. Luckily, Jeremiah didn't remain in
Speaker 1: solitude for long. He was married in eighteen twenty four,
Speaker 1: and he and his wife, Mikhaela, had three children together.
Speaker 1: She took over his keeper's work when he died, and
Speaker 1: when she passed, her son in law inherited the job.
Speaker 1: He also oversaw numerous renovations, including the significant improvements that
Speaker 1: were made to the lens at the top of the tower.
Speaker 1: He resigned around the time of the Civil War, and
Speaker 1: operation of the lighthouse transferred to new keepers, many of
Speaker 1: whom continued to improve the facilities and upgrade the technology.
Speaker 1: They also rebuilt the lighthouse keeper's quarters in the midst
Speaker 1: of these improvements. The next few decades were marked by
Speaker 1: more strange natural disasters. The lighthouse was hit by lightning twice.
Speaker 1: A faulty lightning rod allowed one of these jolts to
Speaker 1: damage it during a thunderstorm, according to the lighthouse website.
Speaker 1: A few years later, a tornado further wrecked the building,
Speaker 1: and an earthquake shook the lighthouse so hard it made
Speaker 1: the bottom floor's pendulum clock stop at nine oh seven pm.
Speaker 1: All the while, occasional hurricanes raged in the Gulf of Mexico,
Speaker 1: wearing down the facilities further. But these years were marked
Speaker 1: by heartwarming good fortune too. On January twenty first, eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty four, the lighthouse keeper's wife gave birth and the
Speaker 1: on site residence. In the Pensacola News Journal, reporter Dot
Speaker 1: Brown noted that this was the first dock documented instance
Speaker 1: in which anyone was born within the keeper's quarters. About
Speaker 1: twenty years later, it seems the first recorded death on
Speaker 1: the property occurred. At that time. The keeper was a
Speaker 1: man named George T. Clifford. His daughter, Ellen, who went
Speaker 1: by Ella, apparently had a lot of affection for the property.
Speaker 1: She was married in the lighthouse in nineteen o three,
Speaker 1: and she returned to the quarters when she became seriously
Speaker 1: ill in late January nineteen o five. It's not clear
Speaker 1: what was making her sick, but many believes she suffered
Speaker 1: from complications after giving birth five months earlier. The twenty
Speaker 1: three year old passed on the evening of January twentieth,
Speaker 1: and it's believed she breathed her last in the keeper's residence.
Speaker 1: There don't seem to have been any other deaths on
Speaker 1: the property, but the lighthouse's history is full of more
Speaker 1: eerie occurrences, like the time a flock of wild ducks
Speaker 1: passed through the lens room, damaging the equipment, and the
Speaker 1: lighthouse was the site of grave injustices too. In nineteen
Speaker 1: oh nine, the US federal government forced several families to
Speaker 1: relocate off the land surrounding the lighthouse. The officials claimed
Speaker 1: this was federal territory and the families there had no
Speaker 1: right to stay, in spite of the fact that many
Speaker 1: had dwelled and paid property taxes there for decades. The
Speaker 1: displaced residents included a widow named Winnie Hart. Her husband, Charles,
Speaker 1: was an escaped, formerly enslaved person. According to a nonprofit
Speaker 1: called Impact one hundred Pensacola, he worked on construction for
Speaker 1: the lighthouse and other structures on the surrounding naval base.
Speaker 1: How ironic that his family was no longer welcome on
Speaker 1: the land he'd helped develop. In the nineteen thirties, the
Speaker 1: Hatton family moved onto the property after the patriarch accepted
Speaker 1: a job as lighthouse keeper. Winnie Who of the Pensacola
Speaker 1: News Journal reports that when they surveyed the keeper's quarters,
Speaker 1: they noticed a strange red stain on the floor in
Speaker 1: the second story southeast bedroom. According to Who, the mark
Speaker 1: was about a foot long, just beside the fireplace. Additionally,
Speaker 1: there were circular red dribbles throughout the room, some up
Speaker 1: to a quarter in diameter. No one in the hat
Speaker 1: and family knew how it got there, but they recognized
Speaker 1: what the stain was blood. The keeper's young son, Emmett Hatton,
Speaker 1: watched his mother spend who knows how much time scrubbing
Speaker 1: the floor to remove the disturbing splotches, but her efforts
Speaker 1: were fruitless. The rusty discoloration was permanent. Who reported that
Speaker 1: at some point in the nineteen fifties, one of the
Speaker 1: lighthouse's residents must have installed vinyl tiles to cover the
Speaker 1: blood stains. From then, the spots went undiscovered until nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety four, when renovators pulled up the tiles and revealed
Speaker 1: the old marks, still visible and unnerving roughly forty years later.
Speaker 1: This kicked off a period of research in which countless
Speaker 1: people tried to determine how so much blood could have
Speaker 1: spilled on the floor. Two theories emerged, both of which
Speaker 1: are unsupported by the historic record. Some say the spots
Speaker 1: are the last remaining evidence of a homicide that took
Speaker 1: place in the pensacle A lighthouse. Specifically, rumour says that
Speaker 1: the very first lighthouse keeper, Jeremiah Ingraham, was killed by
Speaker 1: his wife, Mikayla. Depending on the story, she may have
Speaker 1: attacked him in a murderous frenzy because the isolation at
Speaker 1: the remote lighthouse had driven her mad, or perhaps Jeremiah
Speaker 1: attacked her first and Mikayla killed him in self defense. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: those rumors are almost certainly idle speculation. Mikayla and Jeremiah
Speaker 1: both died before the current lighthouse keeper's quarters were even built.
Speaker 1: Other murderous gossip suggests the victim was one of the
Speaker 1: keeper's anonymous assistants, but these stories date to the nineteen nineties,
Speaker 1: well after the alleged homicide would have happened. Some argue
Speaker 1: these discolourations are from when Ella Clifford Miller, the lighthouse
Speaker 1: keeper's daughter who died in the quarter's, gave birth. However,
Speaker 1: the baby wasn't born in the lighthouse, but in a hospital,
Speaker 1: so the mystery remains unsolved today. That said, when people
Speaker 1: visit the blood stained bedroom, many report that even after
Speaker 1: all these years, it still smells like blood. Besides that,
Speaker 1: visitors to the lighthouse have reported that doors open and
Speaker 1: close by themselves, lights flicker, and bursts of cold air
Speaker 1: rush through the building even on warm days. Guests may
Speaker 1: hear disembodied voices or footsteps or knocking on the windows.
Speaker 1: It's said that numerous people have been groped while ascending
Speaker 1: the stairs, and at least one visitor felt someone pull
Speaker 1: her hair. You hear similar accounts about the keeper's quarters,
Speaker 1: plus stories about figures appearing in windows and a lingering
Speaker 1: scent of tobacco even when no one is smoking. Alan
Speaker 1: Brown's Ghosts of Florida's Gulf Coast says when tour guides
Speaker 1: are alone in the residence, they hear disembodied voices calling
Speaker 1: their names. One of the lighthouse's tour coordinators, Rob Booth,
Speaker 1: says there are six ghosts who haunt the Pensacol Lighthouse,
Speaker 1: but only two have a verifiable history with the building.
Speaker 1: These are Ella, the keeper's daughter, and another lighthouse keeper
Speaker 1: named Samuel Lawrence. He's said to lurk in the stairwell
Speaker 1: and at the top of the tower, grabbing visitors who
Speaker 1: ascend the steps. Local lore suggests two enslaved people named
Speaker 1: Thomas and Reynald also haunt the lighthouse grounds. Booth claims
Speaker 1: they ran away, only to be recaptured and hanged near
Speaker 1: the lighthouse, but there's no record of such an execution
Speaker 1: in the area. Of course, that doesn't rule out the
Speaker 1: possibility of an unrecorded lynching. If Thomas and Reynold's story
Speaker 1: is true, one of them may be the figure who
Speaker 1: has been spotted in the basement of the keeper's quarters.
Speaker 1: The specter, who may be a child or an adult,
Speaker 1: looks like an enslaved person and is sometimes seen hiding
Speaker 1: behind the stairs. The last two spirits Booth identified were
Speaker 1: both children, a girl named Lizzie and a boy named Joey.
Speaker 1: They both supposedly died of yellow fever in nineteen twenty two,
Speaker 1: but there's no documented yellow fever outbreak that year. There
Speaker 1: was one in eighteen twenty two, but this redated the
Speaker 1: construction of the lighthouse, so once more, it's challenging to
Speaker 1: verify how much of this story is real. We may
Speaker 1: never know the names of all these ghosts or how
Speaker 1: they came to be at the Pensacola Lighthouse, but that
Speaker 1: hasn't stopped the building from earning a reputation as one
Speaker 1: of the most haunted lighthouses in the United States. In
Speaker 1: his book Ghosts of Florida's Gulf Coast, Alan Brown described
Speaker 1: a woman who's been seen walking along the catwalk at
Speaker 1: the top. When the beacon turns its brilliant light on her,
Speaker 1: it shines straight through as though she's transparent. Guests have
Speaker 1: also seen a child and a kind elderly woman roaming
Speaker 1: through the tower, and some visitors say they've spotted the
Speaker 1: original lighthouse keeper and his wife, Jeremiah and Mikayla Ingraham,
Speaker 1: And concerningly, some spectral encounters have a threatening edge to them. Earlier,
Speaker 1: I mentioned a renovation that happened in the early nineteen nineties,
Speaker 1: which resulted in the bloodstains on the bedroom floor being uncovered.
Speaker 1: During that same project, a pair of workers found a
Speaker 1: coil of rope encircling some water pipes. As Alan Brown
Speaker 1: wrote in Ghosts of Florida's Gulf Coast, the workers tried
Speaker 1: to remove the rope, but hadn't finished. When their shift ended.
Speaker 1: They left a job partially done, presumably intending to resume
Speaker 1: the next day. Instead, they returned in the morning to
Speaker 1: find the rope wasn't on the pipes anymore. It had
Speaker 1: been suspended from a light fixture in the shape of
Speaker 1: a noose. Now as to whether this was intended as
Speaker 1: a warning, a threat, or a spectral prank is hard
Speaker 1: to say, but we can learn more about the spirits
Speaker 1: of the Pensacola Lighthouse by talking to people who have
Speaker 1: investigated it. I'm one of those folks, and so is
Speaker 1: my next guest, mister Adam Berry. All right, so I
Speaker 1: am now joined by almost a series regular here on
Speaker 1: Haunted Road, mister Adam Berry. Welcome to the program, mister Berry.
Speaker 2: Right, and you're the best to interview, so Amy, tell
Speaker 2: me about your experiences at Lightouse.
Speaker 1: It's so funny because when I was looking for someone
Speaker 1: to interview about the Pensacola Lighthouse. I actually had a
Speaker 1: lot of trouble because it's on a military base, and
Speaker 1: so it's not really a place that people get to
Speaker 1: investigate very often. Like it was actually a really big
Speaker 1: deal that we got to investigate there, and so like
Speaker 1: I found one person who had investigated, but it had
Speaker 1: been like, you know, fifteen years ago, and I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: I know Adam and I investigated it together fairly recently
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, and I had investigated it even
Speaker 1: before that in two thousand and nine with ghost Hunters.
Speaker 1: So it turns out I'm the person who I know
Speaker 1: who's investigated it more than anyone. Actually, what's really fun.
Speaker 1: So I remember when we went back in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: I thought this was all going to happen again. But
Speaker 1: the first time we went there to investigate with ghost Hunters,
Speaker 1: it was a way more secure of a location when
Speaker 1: we investigated it in two thousand and nine with Ghosts.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened to the base since then,
Speaker 1: but I remember like telling everybody when we went back,
Speaker 1: when we go back now, I just want you to
Speaker 1: know they're going to go through everything. They're very like
Speaker 1: security is tight, because in two thousand and nine they
Speaker 1: literally went through all of our gear that we had
Speaker 1: to open all of our cases. They took dogs that
Speaker 1: went through all, like all the cars, they had mirrors
Speaker 1: where they looked under the vehicles. And when we went
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty two, none of that happened. Like,
Speaker 1: I don't even think they checked our ID when we
Speaker 1: went in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do remember like driving into it and being like, oh,
Speaker 2: we're on a military base. But then it was much
Speaker 2: It was definitely not as secure as I would have
Speaker 2: thought it was going to be. But I and I
Speaker 2: don't know if there's I think there's a reason. It's
Speaker 2: got to be a reason.
Speaker 1: I think maybe it's just more open now or something.
Speaker 1: It's more open to the public. But yeah, it was
Speaker 1: just way more secure when we first went there. But regardless,
Speaker 1: it's a really cool place. You and I have investigated
Speaker 1: many lighthouses together. The one thing about this lighthouse that
Speaker 1: I talked about in the history a little bit is
Speaker 1: that there's really not a lot of verifiable history. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of like lore.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: We're like when we went to Saint Augustine, you know,
Speaker 1: there were in fact, children who died there and there's
Speaker 1: a record of that, and like here they see the
Speaker 1: ghosts of children, but there's zero record of that happening.
Speaker 1: So but that doesn't mean people aren't experiencing it, of course.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it looks like what's crazy to me
Speaker 2: is it looks a lot like Saint Augustine Lighthouse. You know,
Speaker 2: it's almost like a sister or a cousin, And so
Speaker 2: when you pull up to it, you're like, oh, this
Speaker 2: is going to be really creepy, Like there's got to
Speaker 2: be something to it. And of course, you know, lighthouses
Speaker 2: in general have really great history, a lot have spooky history,
Speaker 2: but it was the only thing I could compare it
Speaker 2: to when driving up and seeing it for the first time. Well.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but because we have done
Speaker 1: so many lighthouses, sometimes they kind of like meld into
Speaker 1: my memory and I'm like, was that at this lighthouse
Speaker 1: or was that at light this lighthouse? But I do
Speaker 1: remember distinctly some of the things I experienced at Pensacola
Speaker 1: in particular, were definitely footsteps that lighthouse keeper had to
Speaker 1: go up and down those stairs every two hours, twenty
Speaker 1: four hours a day, right, so the original keeper there,
Speaker 1: and so I feel like he is still very much there,
Speaker 1: like I just yeah, or at least that that presence,
Speaker 1: Like I can't imagine he just never got a full
Speaker 1: night's sleep, like I could not, Like he just had
Speaker 1: to get up every two hours and walk all the
Speaker 1: way up those stairs, yeah, and check on that light
Speaker 1: and come all the way back down.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It makes sense with buckets of oil, like buckets
Speaker 2: of heavy oil. And here's what's here's the craziest thing.
Speaker 2: And those of you who have never investigated a lighthous before,
Speaker 2: wear really good sturdy shoes, especially if it's like wet
Speaker 2: outside and like humid inside the lighthouse. Because this lighthouse, y'all,
Speaker 2: I've never, like I've climbed to the top of a
Speaker 2: lot of things. But when I tried to climb to
Speaker 2: the top of this lighthouse with Dave or with you specifically,
Speaker 2: and with Dave, I was wearing converse and these metal
Speaker 2: stairs go all the way up and there's like a handle,
Speaker 2: but like it was slippery. So the higher that I got,
Speaker 2: the more nervous I got, and on my foot kept slipping,
Speaker 2: and I was like, this is an absolute no for me,
Speaker 2: Like I I had to. I sat down. It was like, Nope,
Speaker 2: not going any further. I'm just not going to go.
Speaker 1: I felt like a terrible friend because you were so mortified,
Speaker 1: Like you were legitimately just probably the most terrified I've
Speaker 1: ever seen you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's heights.
Speaker 1: You were so afraid of flying, flying, you were so
Speaker 1: afraid of falling down those stairs, and like it was slippery,
Speaker 1: like it was just the condensation and everything, like it
Speaker 1: was dangerously slippery. And it's so it's one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy seven steps if I remember correct, yes, So like
Speaker 1: it was like if you fall, it's certain death or
Speaker 1: at least, and.
Speaker 2: It's gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt because the stairs are metal,
Speaker 2: so you might like you'll start to roll, but like
Speaker 2: it is going to hurt. And I had just I
Speaker 2: think it was my birthday too, and I was like
Speaker 2: I want to live to another year. Okay, So I
Speaker 2: was like I am all set with going any higher
Speaker 2: in this lighthouse. But I do remember like once we
Speaker 2: got settled right, and once I like wrapped my arm
Speaker 2: around the railing so that I would not fall. I
Speaker 2: remember like Dave and I were investigating and we hurt. Oh, Cheato.
Speaker 2: See now see Cheetoh's going to talk about it. He's
Speaker 2: barking in the background.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Dave and I were investigating once we got settled, and
Speaker 2: we heard a very strange sound coming from the bottom
Speaker 2: of the lighthouse and I couldn't it was like a
Speaker 2: voice or something. It sounded mechanical, you know sometimes dissembodied
Speaker 2: voices have that weird like have that weird like mechanical sound. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like a weird thing. And that's what it sounded like.
Speaker 2: And we were both like that, it's very weird. And
Speaker 2: you know, it took a soft guard, but it did
Speaker 2: sound like a man, like it could have been a man,
Speaker 2: maybe the light keeper.
Speaker 1: I actually remember that happening. I don't know if they
Speaker 1: showed it on the show, but I know you guys,
Speaker 1: you guys radioed over like what is happening? Is someone outside?
Speaker 1: And like, I want to check there was no one
Speaker 1: out there. The door was closed.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And Tango's very hard on experiences too, Like he's one
Speaker 1: of those people where like he's you know, he's very
Speaker 1: very hard on evidence. And he was completely like, I
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on here, and that's always weird
Speaker 1: because when you're in the lighthouse, it's just you and
Speaker 1: the like your camera operator whoever, you know, there's three
Speaker 1: of you, like, and it's very clear to tell like
Speaker 1: a sound is coming from somewhere else because the way
Speaker 1: like it's like literally one big hollow tube and so,
Speaker 1: which it can play tricks on you, but not in
Speaker 1: that sense at all. And so and then there's also
Speaker 1: like the keepers quarters are supposedly haunted, and so I
Speaker 1: know that, like Britt and I Brit Griffith who used
Speaker 1: to be on GH. So the first time I investigated there,
Speaker 1: that was when Steve and Dave were doing Ghost Hunters Academy.
Speaker 1: I think it was the first season, and so it
Speaker 1: was me and Britt investigating, and I know we had
Speaker 1: separated in the keeper's quarters and we were like really
Speaker 1: far away from each other, basically trying to see if
Speaker 1: we could see shadows between us because that's one of
Speaker 1: the most kind of famous things that happened there. And
Speaker 1: I know we heard a lot of unexplained noises in
Speaker 1: that area. I just feel like it's just not investigated
Speaker 1: that often, Like it's one of those spots that whatever
Speaker 1: spirits are there, they're not having investigators coming in talking
Speaker 1: to them very often, which makes me wonder like if
Speaker 1: that affects the activity at all.
Speaker 2: You know, I think so, because if you think about
Speaker 2: a lightkeeper, like any lightkeeper, and you know, the ghost
Speaker 2: associated with keeping a light, like they have a job
Speaker 2: to do. It's almost like we I find that sometimes
Speaker 2: you interact with spirits there that are still doing that job,
Speaker 2: and so you come in and start asking them questions
Speaker 2: and they can get really annoyed. They're like, look, I'm busy,
Speaker 2: I got to make sure the light is lit. I
Speaker 2: got to you know, keep doing this job that I
Speaker 2: am supposed to do. It's like it's like a watchman,
Speaker 2: like their watch is never over.
Speaker 1: In a way, it's not. And I actually feel like
Speaker 1: that's why so many lighthouses are that haunted. I feel
Speaker 1: like there was this very diligent sense of duty, and
Speaker 1: the routine portion of it is so in like it's
Speaker 1: so like ingrained in that location. Like there's probably not
Speaker 1: many jobs that just required complete and total routine like that.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to do things at a certain time.
Speaker 1: There's certain signals that you have to give at the
Speaker 1: exact right moments. If the weather starts to turn a
Speaker 1: certain way, you have to change, like you know the
Speaker 1: pattern of the light, and like it just and now
Speaker 1: it's like it's so routine that it was actually fairly
Speaker 1: easy for humans to automate that eventually, which really kind
Speaker 1: of got rid of the whole idea of a lighthouse keeper,
Speaker 1: which is really depressing and sad to me because I
Speaker 1: think it was probably one of its just kind of
Speaker 1: one of the most I don't want to say, just
Speaker 1: kind of an whol old school job, like you're the
Speaker 1: keeper of the light. You're keeping this going, and you're
Speaker 1: just like ensuring that chips don't crash, Like is there
Speaker 1: anything more important than that? And now we've just given
Speaker 1: that to machines.
Speaker 2: I know, don't mess up, Like, don't mess up machines.
Speaker 2: We I was going to say that, I mean, like
Speaker 2: it also makes it easier for us to sort of
Speaker 2: I guess trigger activity, if that makes sense, Like you know,
Speaker 2: when we did the lighthouse in Newport, right, like we
Speaker 2: were able to play cannon fire because the canon at
Speaker 2: the fort would trigger you know, when the person would
Speaker 2: go up and light the light for the night. Right.
Speaker 2: So I think there's things, there's routines. I think there's
Speaker 2: a set of rules and those are easily explored by
Speaker 2: investigators to you know, to trigger activity. I think that that's.
Speaker 1: A plus, now do you remember? And I think so too, like,
Speaker 1: because all you have to do is kind of threaten
Speaker 1: that routine and that can sometimes make things happen. Not
Speaker 1: that I like to provoke, but like, there's that's one
Speaker 1: instance where maybe a little bit of like, oh, we
Speaker 1: might be getting off kilter here, right, instigate some activity.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if you remember this, but one
Speaker 1: of the stories there, and it's really hard. I'm surprised
Speaker 1: no one has come in and tried to really debunk them.
Speaker 1: But I saw it, and I don't remember if you
Speaker 1: saw it. But so supposedly there's a large blood stain
Speaker 1: in the keeper's quarters that cannot be cleaned. Yes, and
Speaker 1: so it was, it was, it was covered up until
Speaker 1: the mid nineties and then they were like, Rea, there
Speaker 1: was linoleum over it, and so then they tore up
Speaker 1: linoleum and they found the hardwood floors beneath and the
Speaker 1: stain is still there and they have not been able
Speaker 1: to determine, like they're just like, yep, it's blood, and
Speaker 1: so part of me is just like, why can't we
Speaker 1: test it? I really want to know, Like all you
Speaker 1: need is like a cadaver dog or like some I mean,
Speaker 1: I just I don't know why, like they hang under
Speaker 1: that story and don't try to prove whether it's real
Speaker 1: or not.
Speaker 2: We had black lights. I think you and I walked
Speaker 2: around with some black lights to like see if we
Speaker 2: could see the stain at one.
Speaker 1: Point, Yeah, and well you can see it. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's there. I just don't know how it's so easy
Speaker 1: to look at it and just say, yep, it's blood,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a really big state and there's
Speaker 1: some spattered.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think we did ask for like a testing kit,
Speaker 2: but they and I and I'm you know when usually
Speaker 2: so when we join other like Kindred Spirits, like joining
Speaker 2: another show, we come up with these wild and crazy
Speaker 2: ideas and we're usually just like, hey, can you get
Speaker 2: us like a blood testing kit please? And so I
Speaker 2: think they tried, but the kit just didn't work. It
Speaker 2: wasn't like the right correct kit. Yeah, but I remember
Speaker 2: they did go get something and they really tried to
Speaker 2: see if we could get some like a kit to
Speaker 2: test that that would.
Speaker 1: I know, I remember they brought me in for like
Speaker 1: the historical scene and that, you know, and that's one
Speaker 1: of those things like you know, me, I do on
Speaker 1: my own research. And so I walked in and they
Speaker 1: I was like, well, all this happened, and they're like,
Speaker 1: but we're focusing on this, and I was like, but
Speaker 1: this happened. Yeah, But I was like, I was like,
Speaker 1: don't you know, like on Kindred, I like find something
Speaker 1: really crazy no one knew about, and then it changes
Speaker 1: the direction of the entire case and they're like.
Speaker 2: No, like no, we're good. I'm like, Okay.
Speaker 1: That's why it's always fun to walk in to other
Speaker 1: cases because the pressure.
Speaker 2: Is not there exactly exactly. We just do it. We
Speaker 2: do our own thing and you know, finda find some
Speaker 2: really good stuff. And I think the coolest thing about
Speaker 2: investigating lighthouses, or at least the ones that we've investigated,
Speaker 2: especially the Pensacola Lighthouse, is the access that we get
Speaker 2: when we're there, Like, you know, it's these people, this
Speaker 2: is a historic monument. It stood for you know, over
Speaker 2: one hundred years, and they trust us to go into
Speaker 2: these spaces and to explore in the dark, to try
Speaker 2: to connect with the spirits and I think we're very
Speaker 2: lucky that we get to do that kind of thing
Speaker 2: because mostly, you know, it's tours. You see it during
Speaker 2: the day, there's ropes everywhere. But when we get to
Speaker 2: do these kind of things, those ropes come down, and
Speaker 2: so you we immerse ourselves in this environment and we
Speaker 2: get to go back back in time for a brief
Speaker 2: moment and really explore what it might be like to
Speaker 2: you know, live there during like a big hurricane or
Speaker 2: when it was really active. And I think that's the
Speaker 2: best part.
Speaker 1: Well, I try to I try to tell groups this
Speaker 1: a lot. So like with Pentacola Lighthouse, like it's on
Speaker 1: a base, and like we've done other places that are
Speaker 1: you know, connected to like military or law enforcement or
Speaker 1: like you need certain security clearances to do and they're
Speaker 1: not going to trust any team with that. And that's
Speaker 1: why I think it's really important, like when you're investigating
Speaker 1: the paranormal, to kind of maintain that level of integrity
Speaker 1: where places like that will feel good about bringing you
Speaker 1: in because they know that you're going to do justice
Speaker 1: to the history and they know you're going to do
Speaker 1: justice to the activity and to their ghosts, and that's important.
Speaker 1: I think that's why we get called into so many
Speaker 1: you know, like we get called into libraries, ge get
Speaker 1: called into schools, we get called obviously into military bases.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that happens for a lot of
Speaker 1: other paranormal shows, but I think paranormal teams in particular,
Speaker 1: you can formulate that kind of reputation as a team
Speaker 1: and get called into those places. You don't need a
Speaker 1: TV show to do it. So that's one of the
Speaker 1: many reasons why we tried to kind of be on
Speaker 1: the level at all times.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, and I think, you know, our reputation precedes us.
Speaker 2: Thank god. Yeah. God.
Speaker 1: Well, so they've okay, so I know they've seen an
Speaker 1: apparition of a woman there, which they say is that
Speaker 1: girl who died. She didn't actually I don't believe she
Speaker 1: died on the property, or she might have died on
Speaker 1: the property, but she had a very strong connection to it,
Speaker 1: like she specifically came back to die there. Basically, she
Speaker 1: gave birth to her baby and then never they say,
Speaker 1: never quite recovered from that, and then five months later
Speaker 1: died on the property. And so she's one of the
Speaker 1: only like kind of deaths there. There was a keeper
Speaker 1: who died while they were still serving as a lighthouse keeper.
Speaker 1: So now there's this I weren't going by. You know,
Speaker 1: we're waving way back away from the road. It's very
Speaker 1: loud here today. I wanted to do this in person,
Speaker 1: but A we never had a chance, and.
Speaker 2: B, yeah, it was busy this weekend.
Speaker 1: I did not have a second microphone to do it.
Speaker 1: So okay, so let me get back to that kind
Speaker 1: of shot there. I forgot where I was showing with it.
Speaker 1: So they have seen this apparition of a woman that
Speaker 1: might have been connected to that death. But like, I
Speaker 1: did not see anything like that. I didn't really see
Speaker 1: anything visual. Definitely heard sounds like you had that crazy
Speaker 1: sound in the lighthouse. I absolutely heard footsteps, and so
Speaker 1: there were definitely things going on, but I didn't get
Speaker 1: the vibe that it was something like either a aggressive
Speaker 1: or b like really trying to get anyone's attention. Like
Speaker 1: it just seemed very much like it just sort of existed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I agree. I think it was almost
Speaker 2: like again they were going about their business. They were
Speaker 2: sort of you know, keeping the light, watching what we
Speaker 2: were doing closely to be like, who are these people
Speaker 2: and why are they in the space, but it was
Speaker 2: almost like they were just going they were doing their thing,
Speaker 2: and we were sort of there witnessing them continuing the
Speaker 2: tradition of the lighthouse, and it didn't feel like it
Speaker 2: didn't feel really aggressive or scary by any means.
Speaker 1: Now, one of the weird things that I don't think
Speaker 1: we talked about much when we went there with gh
Speaker 1: is that during the building of the lighthouse and just
Speaker 1: like kind of over the years, it kept being affected
Speaker 1: by like weird natural disasters, like it was struck by
Speaker 1: lightning at one point. But the weirdest one, which I
Speaker 1: wanted to tell you because I wanted to see how
Speaker 1: you feel about it, is that while they were building it,
Speaker 1: there was this like freak occurrence where all of these
Speaker 1: snakes like these I think they were even poisonous snakes
Speaker 1: like traveled across the water and all came and started
Speaker 1: nesting in the construction site and so like thousands of them,
Speaker 1: so as they were trying to like build, they would
Speaker 1: like fall down on the workers.
Speaker 2: And no, no, that is Satan, that is a demonic
Speaker 2: entity that is get out of my back. Nobody needs snakes.
Speaker 2: Snakes and investigation. That's like w' that's terrible.
Speaker 1: I know, I was just envisioning it, like these poor
Speaker 1: people like trying to build and go about their day
Speaker 1: and it's like infested with snakes. And it was just
Speaker 1: like some weird fluke enough that like the newspaper reported
Speaker 1: on it that all of these snakes had just come
Speaker 1: up out of the water and made their home in
Speaker 1: the construction zone where all of these men were working.
Speaker 2: See, I don't know, I don't know, that's so weird.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously it's probably just a coincidence and not paranormal,
Speaker 2: But like back then, I feel like or at any point,
Speaker 2: you could take that as a sign as an omen
Speaker 2: to be like do not like stop doing what you're doing,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, Like it could just throw
Speaker 2: people off pretty bad.
Speaker 1: Well, that was it. That was one of the many
Speaker 1: things like that where people were like is this place cursed?
Speaker 1: Like these kinds of things keep happening here, Like what's
Speaker 1: going on? So I just ooh, it just gave me. Oh,
Speaker 1: it just kind of made me feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: I got the like gum.
Speaker 2: Would you rather have? Like would you rather have like that?
Speaker 2: Or like a bunch of mice and rats? Oh?
Speaker 1: Probably the snakes, because mice and rats can give you diseases.
Speaker 2: Well, snakes can bite you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but only when provoked, that's true.
Speaker 2: Just leave them alone. Rats just come out of nowhere
Speaker 2: and take you away.
Speaker 1: I can like smell one mouse. I can't even imagine
Speaker 1: like an infestation like.
Speaker 2: Now, especially when they die in the wall and you
Speaker 2: can't find them. You're like, well there.
Speaker 1: Was that, and thank god. But I smelling moss from
Speaker 1: a mile away. It's my little my weird nose super grows.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: That's that's my other parent. That's actually I actually sniff
Speaker 1: out ghosts. I don't know if you knew this. That's
Speaker 1: why I have so many experiences. I can smell ghosts too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, your fallback, your fallback in your in your life
Speaker 2: should be like wrote it, like you know, you go
Speaker 2: in and like track, yep, you got mice.
Speaker 1: You got that's my plan B or ghost sniffer. I'm
Speaker 1: going to write a book called ghost Sniffer Ghosts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you should make Oh that's what you. Fragrance is
Speaker 2: next fragrance, Just two fragrances.
Speaker 1: Okay, and this is usually what that's our cue that
Speaker 1: we're done speaking. We have we have done this ran it.
Speaker 1: But before we go, what do you want? What do
Speaker 1: you want to talk? I know your book is out
Speaker 1: and like a release now going strong? What else? What
Speaker 1: else is going on in the world of Adam Barry
Speaker 1: that the world needs?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Well, the book is out, you can
Speaker 2: buy it wherever books are sold. And what else is happening? Well,
Speaker 2: I don't know when is this air?
Speaker 1: This will be probably in December, actually December.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, we're you know, doing I have a book
Speaker 2: signing with Steve Gonzolvez in December, and I Ben and
Speaker 2: I are doing a virtual cocktail party in December that
Speaker 2: people can join. You know, it's very like staying at
Speaker 2: home making bread and suits and getting off fat and sassy.
Speaker 1: I love doing these a few weeks in advance because
Speaker 1: it's like we're seeing into the future. So let's envision
Speaker 1: what we'll be doing in December. I envision I will
Speaker 1: be looking at my beautiful Christmas tree and eating a
Speaker 1: lot of cookies and snuggling up and hopefully it will
Speaker 1: be snowing, because it's only okay, if it snows before Christmas,
Speaker 1: after is terrible. All right, So well, thank you, mister Barry.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you taking the time, and I're welcome.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I will see you very soon. But good
Speaker 1: luck with everything. And yeah, I guess that's it. I
Speaker 1: guess we need to get back. Let's go to the
Speaker 1: pensacle A lighthouse right now, because I guarantee it's warmer there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's go now, Okay.
Speaker 1: All right bye. Throughout history, lighthouses have served two purposes.
Speaker 1: They keep ships safe and warn them of danger. Pensacola
Speaker 1: and its lighthouse have long histories full of tragedy and
Speaker 1: ominous portents. Between the hurricane and the venomous snakes and
Speaker 1: the lightning strikes, the structure seems almost synonymous with disaster.
Speaker 1: If there's any lesson to take from this haunted tower
Speaker 1: and the quarters attached, perhaps it's that we should all
Speaker 1: take care. Like a ship navigating through dark water, you
Speaker 1: can never know for sure what risk lies ahead. I'm
Speaker 1: Amy Brunei and this was haunted road. Are you tired
Speaker 1: of the same old, vague Haitian destinations and cookie cutter experiences?
Speaker 1: Do you crave a sense of mystery, wonder and adventure
Speaker 1: that can't be found in ordinary travel brochures? Do you
Speaker 1: listen to this podcast and think I'd like to visit
Speaker 1: that spooky place. Well, that's why I started Strange Escapes,
Speaker 1: a paranormal based travel company that takes you to some
Speaker 1: of the most haunted locations in the world. Frankly, it's
Speaker 1: my excuse to combine all of my favorite things, which
Speaker 1: is ghosts, beautiful hotels, food and wine, and other weirdos
Speaker 1: like me. To be honest, If that sounds right up
Speaker 1: your alley and you want to learn more, then visit
Speaker 1: Strange Escapes dot travel and hopefully you can join us sometime.
Speaker 2: Also.
Speaker 1: To keep up on all of my upcoming projects and appearances,
Speaker 1: head to amybrune dot com. I have some really great
Speaker 1: things in the works and I don't want you to
Speaker 1: miss it. Thanks.
Speaker 3: Haunted Roadies. Hauntad is hosted and written by me Amy Bruney,
Speaker 3: with additional research by Cassandra de Alba. This show is
Speaker 3: edited and produced by Rima Alkali, with supervising producer Josh
Speaker 3: Thain and executive producers Aaron Menke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 3: Haunted road is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and
Speaker 3: Mild from Aaron Menkey. Learn more about this show over
Speaker 3: at Grimandmild dot com and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 3: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 3: to your favorite shows.