Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. It
Speaker 1: was three or four AM, and I was leaving what
Speaker 1: had been a very long and fruitful paranormal investigation. The
Speaker 1: building we'd been investigating was massive, falling apart in some places,
Speaker 1: and had some of the most haunting history of any
Speaker 1: place I'd ever been. It wasn't my first time here,
Speaker 1: and it wouldn't be my last, but somehow this moment
Speaker 1: felt different. As another investigator and I were walking the long,
Speaker 1: dark halls to make our way out of the building,
Speaker 1: I felt like I was being watched and was that
Speaker 1: another set of footsteps behind us? I tried to shake
Speaker 1: away my apprehension and focus on the prize, my comfortable
Speaker 1: hotel room bed waiting for exhausted me, But as we
Speaker 1: kept walking, I couldn't shake the feeling, the feeling like
Speaker 1: the Boogeyman was about to reach out of the darkness
Speaker 1: and grab my shoulder. It was then that my friend
Speaker 1: and I stopped and looked at each other. He said,
Speaker 1: I feel like we're being followed. I felt it too,
Speaker 1: of course, and told him so. We craned our necks
Speaker 1: and stared behind us nothing, but I said loudly, I'm
Speaker 1: sorry you can't come with us, but we'll be back.
Speaker 1: We won't forget you. As we backed out of our
Speaker 1: parking spot a few moments later, and the headlights flickered
Speaker 1: across the rows of old windows and worn out brick
Speaker 1: in front of us, I knew, I knew that someone
Speaker 1: very much not alive was watching us from inside. Join me,
Speaker 1: my friends as we head to West Virginia and visit
Speaker 1: the trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. I'm Amy Brunei, and this
Speaker 1: is Haunted Road. The town of Weston, West Virginia, is
Speaker 1: a small community of about four thousand people, but in
Speaker 1: spite of its modest size, it's historically been on the
Speaker 1: cutting edge of technology and development. According to William M.
Speaker 1: Adler's entry on Weston in the West Virginia Encyclopedia, the
Speaker 1: community adopted telephones and electric lights in the eighteen nineties.
Speaker 1: Around the turn of the century, it displayed its well
Speaker 1: through paved streets, grand manners, a railroad stop, and public
Speaker 1: schools for both white and black residents. All of this
Speaker 1: affluence was thanks to one institution, the trans Alleghany Lunatic Asylum.
Speaker 1: It's a stately, massive medical facility that combines Gothic and
Speaker 1: Tudor revival flourishes. If you approach it via the tree
Speaker 1: lined circular driveway, you'll pass a babbling blue fountain that
Speaker 1: lies right in front of the two hundred foot tall
Speaker 1: clock tower. As grandioseays, the exterior is, the inside feels
Speaker 1: creepy and oppressive. The trans Alleghany Lunatic Asylum doesn't operate anymore.
Speaker 1: It's a tourist destination and with good costs. As the
Speaker 1: facilities haven't been maintained. Visitors can walk down crumbling hallways
Speaker 1: where sky blue paint peals to reveal the grimy gray walls.
Speaker 1: Underneath debris litters the slate colored floors, But beneath the
Speaker 1: decay and warped molding you might see hints of the
Speaker 1: hospital's former grandeur. Formerly known as the West Virginia Hospital
Speaker 1: for the Insane, the Western State Hospital, and Weston Hospital,
Speaker 1: the trans Alleghany Lunatic Asylum was first conceived in the
Speaker 1: mid nineteenth century. The designers followed something called the Kirkbride Plan,
Speaker 1: a philosophy that emphasized empathy kindness and patient comforts. Adheerins
Speaker 1: thought mental health facilities should be airy, spacious, sunlit, and
Speaker 1: well staffed. At first, the trans Alleghany Lunatic Asylum seemed
Speaker 1: like a fulfillment of this vision when it opened its
Speaker 1: doors in eighteen sixty four. The massive blue sandstone building
Speaker 1: featured multiple wards and a three hundred acre grounds where
Speaker 1: residents could walk and relax. According to Kim Jack's Western
Speaker 1: State Hospital, patients had access to card games and pool tables,
Speaker 1: while staff organized on site dances and horse drawn carriage rides.
Speaker 1: Over the next few decades, the facilities only expanded. New
Speaker 1: wings were built with two and a half foot thick
Speaker 1: walls engraved with images of people and animals. In the
Speaker 1: twentieth century, they added a kitchen, a laundry, more residences,
Speaker 1: and additional medical facilities. The Transallgating Lunatic Asylum's our history
Speaker 1: page says that today the facility is the largest hand
Speaker 1: cut stone masonry building in North America, and it's purportedly
Speaker 1: the second largest in the world, next to the Kremlin.
Speaker 1: The hospital's glory didn't last for long. The structures weren't
Speaker 1: well maintained, and it was only matter of time before,
Speaker 1: paint peeled and walls crumbled worst the trans Alleghany Lunatic
Speaker 1: Asylum was becoming dangerously overcrowded. At one point, it housed
Speaker 1: seven hundred seventeen patients, even though it had only been
Speaker 1: designed to accommodate two hundred and fifty, and this wasn't
Speaker 1: even its peak. The population only swelled in the years
Speaker 1: that followed. Although the hospital kept building new wings to
Speaker 1: accommodate the growing need, they couldn't keep up with demand,
Speaker 1: and they continued admitting new residents they could not properly
Speaker 1: care for. In early nineteen forty nine, a journalist named
Speaker 1: Charles Armentrout visited the hospital and wrote a report on
Speaker 1: what he found there. He described the facilities as stench
Speaker 1: filled with evil odors that assailed the nostrils. In one room,
Speaker 1: he saw a pair of two by fours had been
Speaker 1: slid under a sagging ceiling to prevent it from caving in.
Speaker 1: Another residential building had been condemned a full five years before,
Speaker 1: but it was still operating by the nineteen fifties, when
Speaker 1: the patients numbered in the thousands. The resident to staff
Speaker 1: ratio was roughly two hundred fifty to one. The employees
Speaker 1: were stretched thin, as were resources. In turn, the patient
Speaker 1: care almost certainly suffered. Most residents didn't even receive proper
Speaker 1: headstones when they died on the premises. Many were buried
Speaker 1: in one of the trans Alleghany Lunatic Asylum's three graveyards.
Speaker 1: As reported by Kim Jackson's Western State Hospital, when people
Speaker 1: were interred, their only grave marker was a plaque with
Speaker 1: a number on it. The staff maintained a database so
Speaker 1: they could track which number corresponded to which deceased patient. However,
Speaker 1: these plaques were eventually removed. Jack speculates it might have
Speaker 1: been to make lawn care easier. Thousands of graves are
Speaker 1: now unmarked, other than the marble monuments that were erected
Speaker 1: near each graveyard's entrance in the nineteen nineties. Given the
Speaker 1: lack of proper staffing and resources, it was a matter
Speaker 1: of time before the packed facility would become the site
Speaker 1: of a disaster. On October third, nineteen thirty five, some
Speaker 1: time before ten forty five am, a fire ignited in
Speaker 1: the south wings Ward six attic. The building housed six
Speaker 1: hundred residents, give or take, and when firefighters arrived on
Speaker 1: the scene, the first priority was getting all the occupants
Speaker 1: to safety. They thought they evacuated all the patients, but
Speaker 1: they were wrong. It was all too easy to lose
Speaker 1: track of a resident given the overcrowded conditions and the
Speaker 1: confusion of the evacuation. One patient was still asleep in
Speaker 1: the attic when the bell woke the other residence. By
Speaker 1: the time he awakened, the blaze roared between him and
Speaker 1: the exit. There was no avenue for escape except through
Speaker 1: the windows. Luckily, someone saw the trapped resident. The firefighters
Speaker 1: retrieved the ladder, and the chief climbed it to rescue
Speaker 1: the patient, only to encounter another challenge. The Transallaghany Lunatic
Speaker 1: Asylum had previously installed iron bars on every window. This
Speaker 1: was to prevent patients from jumping. Now those grates that
Speaker 1: were supposed to keep the patient safe had imprisoned one
Speaker 1: of them in a burning building. Amazingly, the resident managed
Speaker 1: to bend the iron bars enough that he could squeeze
Speaker 1: through the gap between them. Perhaps the heat of the
Speaker 1: fire was enough to make the metal pliable, or maybe
Speaker 1: the grates were already in disrepair. Either way, the patient
Speaker 1: miraculously escaped the blaze, and no one was killed. In
Speaker 1: the inferno, but there have been other instances of bloodshed
Speaker 1: at the trans Alleghany Lunatic Asylum. The first recorded murder
Speaker 1: at the hospital happened in January of eighteen seventy seven.
Speaker 1: According to Teresa's Haunted History of the tri State by
Speaker 1: Teresa Racer, one resident came to believe that God wanted
Speaker 1: him to kill a fellow patient. He followed the apparently
Speaker 1: divine command by taking a bed slat and beating the
Speaker 1: other resident to death. One local paper described the violence
Speaker 1: by saying his head had been mashed into a jelly.
Speaker 1: More violence followed homicides. The staff was probably stretched too
Speaker 1: thin to prevent. Another deadly beating occurred in eighteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: a strangling in nineteen sixty three, and a stabbing in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two. In nineteen eighty seven, two patients conspired
Speaker 1: to kill a kindly forty nine year old mute man
Speaker 1: named Dean Methanie, who was a resident at the facility.
Speaker 1: They hanged him with a bedsheet, then, according to Kim
Speaker 1: Jackson's Western State Hospital, they put the metal leg of
Speaker 1: the bed through his head. When authorities discovered the crime scene,
Speaker 1: the culprits reportedly claimed that a ghost was to blame
Speaker 1: for the murder, while the perpetrators were deemed unfit to
Speaker 1: stand trial. There may have been something to their claims
Speaker 1: about a ghost. Since Dean Methanie's violent death, visitors have
Speaker 1: experienced weird phenomena in his bedroom. People say they felt
Speaker 1: an invisible presence giving them a hug. Some see their
Speaker 1: flashlights turn on and off on their own, and ghost
Speaker 1: hunters have picked up EVP in his quarters. It's thought
Speaker 1: to be Methany himself. While he was unable to speak
Speaker 1: aloud in life, he seemingly has found a way to
Speaker 1: communicate in death. Some believe one of Methanie's killers also
Speaker 1: haunts the asylum. The spirit called Big Jim lingers on
Speaker 1: the third floor, along with another specter called Elizabeth, a
Speaker 1: former nurse. Beyond that, the massive hospital, with a facade
Speaker 1: that spans almost a quarter mile, has several rooms and
Speaker 1: wards with a generally creepy feeling to them. The fourth
Speaker 1: floor began as staff residence and then was converted into
Speaker 1: a ward for patients with substance use disorders. Its doors
Speaker 1: won't open and stick even when there's nothing obstructing them.
Speaker 1: One visitor says they once heard pounding on the other
Speaker 1: side of the door and got the impression that someone
Speaker 1: didn't want them to come in. This floor is also
Speaker 1: said to be home to a ghost named Jacob. Investigators
Speaker 1: have claimed they captured an audio recording of Jacob's searching
Speaker 1: for a beer. Visitors have seen shadows in the morgue
Speaker 1: throughout the facility. Figures are sometimes seen standing in the
Speaker 1: corners of rooms. Furniture, including rocky chairs and doors, moves
Speaker 1: on its own. Some sniff the lingering scent of tobacco
Speaker 1: or perfume. Others say they feel someone touching or scratching them,
Speaker 1: even when there's no one nearby. In hallways that should
Speaker 1: be empty, guests report hearing whispered words or laughter, or
Speaker 1: gurney wheels, squeaking. Unexplained lights flicker in the distance, while
Speaker 1: passers through find themselves suddenly chilled in cold spots. In
Speaker 1: ward f which began as a woman's ward and was
Speaker 1: converted into housing for the most violent patients, tourists hear
Speaker 1: footsteps and empty hallways, and crushing feelings of grief wash
Speaker 1: over them. A ghost named Jack is said to lurk
Speaker 1: in the kitchen. He's sometimes joined by the specter of
Speaker 1: a little person, and reports suggest Jack is protective of
Speaker 1: his companion. He'll lash out if he thinks anyone is
Speaker 1: mocking his friend, but he's kind to children and pretty women.
Speaker 1: The most famous specter at the trans Alleghany Lunatic Asylum
Speaker 1: might be a ghost known as Lily. Lily is a
Speaker 1: nine year old girl who in some reports wears a
Speaker 1: nightgown wore a white dress. No one knows exactly how
Speaker 1: the young child ended up at the old mental hospital.
Speaker 1: One story, which is almost certainly false, tells of a
Speaker 1: woman who checked into the facility after surviving a sexual assault.
Speaker 1: She became pregnant and gave birth, only for her child
Speaker 1: to be stillborn. According to this legend, the baby's ghost
Speaker 1: continued to age until she became the spirit of a
Speaker 1: nine year old girl. Other accounts say Lily died of
Speaker 1: pneumonia at the facility around nineteen twenty. People who have
Speaker 1: visited the hospital say they sometimes feel a childlike hand
Speaker 1: grasp theirs, or they hear a little girl giggling. If
Speaker 1: you put out a gift gum or a piece of candy,
Speaker 1: then leave the room, you may return to find it
Speaker 1: has been moved. A historian named Shelley Bailey witnessed this
Speaker 1: first hand. She told her story on the TV show
Speaker 1: Ghost Hunters. Sounds familiar. It was later covered in Trans
Speaker 1: Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and The Haunting Enigma of Lily by
Speaker 1: Eric Olsen. According to his reporting, Shelley left out a
Speaker 1: box of crackerjacks. She later heard the box being opened
Speaker 1: and a crunching noise. Then an EVP recording captured the
Speaker 1: words thank you for the snacks. In ward four, There's
Speaker 1: a room full of toys just for Lily to play with.
Speaker 1: She seems fond of a jewelry box with a dancing
Speaker 1: ballerina inside. It sometimes plays on its own. Some guests
Speaker 1: have also rolled a ball across the room, only for
Speaker 1: it to return. They believe Lily is playing with them.
Speaker 1: By all accounts, Lily's ghosts doesn't seem malicious. In fact,
Speaker 1: the many spirits who lurk at Trans Alleghany seem friendly
Speaker 1: or at least indifferent to visitors. It's striking given the
Speaker 1: hospital's dark history. In addition to the murders and the
Speaker 1: brutal conditions due to overcrowding, this facility was the site
Speaker 1: of many barbaric mental health treatments. Here, people were subjected
Speaker 1: to transorbital lobotomies, electroh treatment, insulin shock therapy, and hydrotherapy
Speaker 1: involving ice cold water. According to Jim Barnes's Washington Post
Speaker 1: article in West Virginia, a moving, respectful tour of the
Speaker 1: trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. But if the ghosts bear a
Speaker 1: grudge for their suffering, it doesn't come across in the haunting.
Speaker 1: Up next, we will be talking with someone who's very
Speaker 1: familiar with the asylum's hauntings. Brandy Butcher, the paranormal events
Speaker 1: coordinator at Trans Alleghany. She's been there for over a
Speaker 1: decade and she has some fascinating theories and stories to share.
Speaker 1: That's coming up after the break. I am now joined
Speaker 1: by Brandy Butcher, who is the paranormal event manager at
Speaker 1: Trans Alleghany, and she's been there for quite a while. White, Brandy,
Speaker 1: that is correct.
Speaker 2: I've been there almost ten years now.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. You know. I have been fortunate enough that
Speaker 1: I have investigated there quite a few time over the years.
Speaker 1: I've been there a few times with ghost hunters. I
Speaker 1: went back there with paranormal lockdown and it never disappoints
Speaker 1: like there was always a ton of activity. So is
Speaker 1: that why you found yourself there?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes it is.
Speaker 1: Now did you start in the capacity of paranormal event manager?
Speaker 1: How did you kind of come to this position that
Speaker 1: you're in now?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: I started as a paranormal tour guide and I would
Speaker 3: help god guests through on our two hour nighttime tours
Speaker 3: and then our overnight investigations, and you know, help guests
Speaker 3: investigate find their comfort zone within the asylum.
Speaker 2: Which, as you know, can be kind of tricky.
Speaker 3: To do, is finding a comfort zone in there. And
Speaker 3: then I have just kind of worked my way up
Speaker 3: over the years.
Speaker 1: It's a very intimidating building when you come up to it,
Speaker 1: like it's just it looks like a very scary place,
Speaker 1: and when you step inside, there's different dynamics depending on
Speaker 1: where you are in the building. I feel like like
Speaker 1: sometimes it feels very comforting and peaceful, and then other
Speaker 1: times you define feel like someone is like over your
Speaker 1: shoulder and they want you to leave. Has that been
Speaker 1: your experience?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Like you said, there are so many different dynamics.
Speaker 3: There's so much, you know, different types of history, so
Speaker 3: many different types of history within the asylum besides just
Speaker 3: you know, the hospital itself. So yeah, you you know,
Speaker 3: it depends on where you're at on you know, the
Speaker 3: emotions in the feelings you're going to experience.
Speaker 1: I liked how it seems well. Last time I was there,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm trying to remember when it was. I
Speaker 1: think it was probably about ten years ago. I do
Speaker 1: feel like at that time there was I felt like
Speaker 1: there was a lot of exhibits in history being displayed
Speaker 1: that gave a really good kind of background of what
Speaker 1: went on there in a very respectful way too. And
Speaker 1: I feel like there was also I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's still there, but there was a lot of art
Speaker 1: displayed by past patients. There is that still in that
Speaker 1: big hallway.
Speaker 3: It is not in that hallway now, but we do
Speaker 3: still have our patient art museum room. We REDOI at
Speaker 3: our museum rooms, so it's a little more time. It's
Speaker 3: easier to follow timeline wise to see the history of
Speaker 3: the asylum.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Our layout is so that you can go from the beginning,
Speaker 3: you know, the rooms start with all the way back
Speaker 3: to some of the Civil War history that we have
Speaker 3: on the property and then goes up until the later
Speaker 3: years of the asylum before it closed. So now you
Speaker 3: can kind of walk the timeline of the asylum. And
Speaker 3: we do still have a patient art gallery within the
Speaker 3: museum rooms.
Speaker 1: That's great, that's really fascinating. So what do you tell
Speaker 1: people when you're about to take people in there for
Speaker 1: panormal investigation? What is kind of the pep talk that
Speaker 1: you give them before you go inside.
Speaker 3: We usually like to tell people, you know, try to
Speaker 3: stay calm, definitely not to feed the building with your fear.
Speaker 3: I do believe that, you know, the more intimidated you
Speaker 3: go in, the more you know raveled you may get
Speaker 3: throughout the experience.
Speaker 2: Open mind.
Speaker 3: Respect is a major thing with the asylum. The spirits
Speaker 3: and their respect goes a very, very long way. It's
Speaker 3: very different than investigating a prison or a lot of
Speaker 3: other locations.
Speaker 2: When you're in a.
Speaker 3: Former hospital, especially a former asylum, so respect goes a
Speaker 3: long ways. And you know, if you give the building
Speaker 3: respect a lot of the time, even if you have
Speaker 3: a scary experience, it hopefully or usually isn't something aggressive.
Speaker 3: It's just you know, maybe, like you said, something that
Speaker 3: doesn't want you in its in its space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, It's funny. When we went back there
Speaker 1: with Panormal Lockdown, they remembered us, so we actually got
Speaker 1: an EVP of them saying Adam's name. Do you find
Speaker 1: that they kind of that the spirits start to recognize
Speaker 1: people that are there more often and start to kind
Speaker 1: of develop like relationships with them or kinships with them.
Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely.
Speaker 3: I thought that was a really really cool piece of
Speaker 3: evidence that you guys captured on that. I found that
Speaker 3: quite interesting because the building does remember, and especially if
Speaker 3: you go in, you know, in a respectful manner, the
Speaker 3: way you guys have and the way we do as employees,
Speaker 3: and you know, we expect our guests to they absolutely
Speaker 3: will remember. And yeah, they remember us as employees. Obviously,
Speaker 3: I've been there a long time, so they like to
Speaker 3: mimic me. They have said my name through spirit boks
Speaker 3: and things like that throughout the building, and it definitely
Speaker 3: has you know, the building has a memory.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean I feel like some of these
Speaker 1: spirits are getting more respect in death and they might
Speaker 1: have in life, you know, the way that investigators are
Speaker 1: going in there now, and so I could see them
Speaker 1: opening up a bit more over time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it does matter, and you know, I've had a
Speaker 3: lot of teams come in and tell me that, you know,
Speaker 3: going in with a respectful approach makes a huge difference
Speaker 3: in their level of activity. And you know, if one
Speaker 3: thing that we like to practice at the asylum is
Speaker 3: that if we don't learn from our past, we're doomed
Speaker 3: to repeat it. So even though the history, you know,
Speaker 3: isn't the prettiest, we have to teach people about what
Speaker 3: it was like for these patients. And you know how
Speaker 3: far the treatments and you know, health care has come
Speaker 3: for mental illnesses compared to back then.
Speaker 1: So absolutely that's so important. Kind of going through the asylum,
Speaker 1: it's very large. You can get lost in there very easily.
Speaker 1: What is kind of like the most common type of
Speaker 1: paranormal activity that people experience there?
Speaker 3: I would say the most frequent activity or the reports
Speaker 3: are being followed, especially if you're, like you said, if
Speaker 3: you might get confused turned around and you're trying to
Speaker 3: find your way out, maybe walking through a ward or
Speaker 3: a hallway by yourself, the most frequent report is that
Speaker 3: someone was following you out of that ward. Has happened
Speaker 3: to myself many many times over the years, So that's
Speaker 3: probably our most common is they do like to follow us,
Speaker 3: watch what we're doing here, what we're saying.
Speaker 1: So that is so interesting that you say that, because
Speaker 1: I talked about it in the first half. But when
Speaker 1: Adam and I left one night from filming there, we
Speaker 1: were both like, we walked all the way down this
Speaker 1: long hallway, went out the back door, and we were
Speaker 1: walking toward our rental car, and both of us just
Speaker 1: stopped and looked at each other and we were like,
Speaker 1: there's someone following us. Like we just we felt it.
Speaker 1: And I remember we turned around and we were like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, much respect to you, but we will be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow, but you know, you can't come with us.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they ever follow people home, but
Speaker 1: it certainly felt like, yeah, feeling like someone's like right
Speaker 1: behind you. And that's so funny because he and I
Speaker 1: talk about that to this day. We bring it up
Speaker 1: in lectures and everything. And I had no idea that
Speaker 1: it was such a frequent report there.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it happens to me quite often. When I'm
Speaker 2: locking up at night.
Speaker 3: I'll walk down through certain areas to lock up, you know,
Speaker 3: while the guides or my other staff are out in
Speaker 3: the lobby or in our break room, and yeah, I
Speaker 3: often will hear some either footsteps or like you said,
Speaker 3: I'll get that feeling like someone's following me. And a
Speaker 3: lot of us also practice you know, the hey, we'll
Speaker 3: be back, we'll see you next time, we'll bring you
Speaker 3: whatever you need. If maybe they, you know, bribed us
Speaker 3: for some cigarettes or something like that during a session.
Speaker 3: And yeah, we've never had any problems with anything following
Speaker 3: us home. It's always just a matter of following us
Speaker 3: down the hallways, maybe around the property.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and they might not have even followed us home.
Speaker 1: It was almost like we were being escorted, like you know,
Speaker 1: like maybe they were just kind of seeing us out
Speaker 1: or something. But we both the fact that we both
Speaker 1: felt it at the same time was so wild, and
Speaker 1: we haven't had that happen since. Oh wow, okay, so
Speaker 1: we've got that. And then obviously, like you were saying,
Speaker 1: those footsteps, which I experienced there firsthand quite a bit. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting when you're in there and you know,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a very controlled environment.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I think people they have this idea that when TV
Speaker 1: shows are filming, there's this huge crew or something, but
Speaker 1: paranormal TV not a lot of budget there. Most of
Speaker 1: our crews are very small, smaller than the paranormal teams
Speaker 1: that go in a lot of the time, and you
Speaker 1: know where everyone is, you know what they're doing, and
Speaker 1: so it's pretty wild to be in there, which is
Speaker 1: like you know, you like me and Adam and then
Speaker 1: maybe like a camera operator and a sound person and
Speaker 1: you're hearing clear life like loud footsteps down at the
Speaker 1: other end of the hallway, or you hear doors closed
Speaker 1: like that. Just does that happen constantly there?
Speaker 2: It does.
Speaker 3: We just had a filming a couple of nights ago, actually,
Speaker 3: and I was the only staff member there with you know,
Speaker 3: the crew, Like you said, very small crew, and yeah,
Speaker 3: we while just while we were doing our walkthrough, we
Speaker 3: were hearing doorknobs rattling, one of the doors closed. We
Speaker 3: were hearing footsteps following us and even murmuring or talking
Speaker 3: as we were walking through. And once they went to
Speaker 3: investigate and I was, you know, out of the way
Speaker 3: so they could do their investigation.
Speaker 2: I was constantly hearing things. I do. I hear things
Speaker 2: all the time.
Speaker 3: When I'm in the breakroom or the lobby by myself,
Speaker 3: I will hear doors start to open or creak footsteps even,
Speaker 3: like I said, whispers sometimes, so they like to keep
Speaker 3: an eye on what's going on.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 1: That's really wild to think about. I one of the
Speaker 1: most interesting experiences that I had there actually was I
Speaker 1: can't remember what floor was. I feel like it was
Speaker 1: one of the upper floors. I think it was the
Speaker 1: floor where the bed incident happened, if I remember correctly.
Speaker 2: Maybe the violent Men's Ward on the third floor.
Speaker 1: Yes, And so I remember standing back and just watching
Speaker 1: shadow figures down at the very end of the hallway.
Speaker 1: One actually ran all the way across the hallway. But
Speaker 1: then you would also see them kind of looking out
Speaker 1: at us as well, like almost like they're wondering what
Speaker 1: we're doing. Do you see shadow figures there? Often we do.
Speaker 3: We have what we call our peekaboo shadows that do
Speaker 3: kind of like what you were just saying. They'll kind
Speaker 3: of peek out, look down the hallway at us maybe
Speaker 3: and then pull back into the room. We do have
Speaker 3: a shadow figure that we encounter in that violent Men's Ward,
Speaker 3: that probably the same one you encountered, and it's usually
Speaker 3: seen crossing either the width of the hallway or the
Speaker 3: length of it, and then especially up on the fourth
Speaker 3: floor in one of the wards, we always see a
Speaker 3: shadow figure walking back and forth in one of the
Speaker 3: windows up there. He's almost always there. I think there's
Speaker 3: probably only a handful of occasions over the years where
Speaker 3: I didn't see him when I was up in that area.
Speaker 1: So is this something that you see from outside as well?
Speaker 1: Do people report seeing people in the building when no
Speaker 1: one is inside the building supposedly no one living anyway?
Speaker 3: Now, we have had reports, of course, there's never been anything,
Speaker 3: you know, never been anybody in there when someone's checked.
Speaker 3: But most of the time we encounter it from inside.
Speaker 3: But we have the occasion where, you know, we go
Speaker 3: over even after lock up and myself and a guide
Speaker 3: are walking we know that the team is.
Speaker 2: Out of the building.
Speaker 3: We're just walking through making sure everything's secure, and hear
Speaker 3: footsteps in the ward above us. Go upstairs to check
Speaker 3: make sure that nobody you know who was accidentally being
Speaker 3: locked in with us, and sure enough, there was nobody
Speaker 3: left in the building, The cars were gone, you know,
Speaker 3: nobody in the parking lot, and absolutely nobody in that
Speaker 3: ward where we would hear very heavy footsteps directly above us.
Speaker 1: Do you ever feel like they're kind of into the investigations,
Speaker 1: like they're starting to kind of feel like a part
Speaker 1: of this and they want to assist in some way,
Speaker 1: Like I got that vibe there weirdly, just like they
Speaker 1: got kind of excited about it, like this is just
Speaker 1: you know what they could help with in some fashion.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, absolutely, And they're they're especially funny about the
Speaker 3: film crews and the film teams that come in. Just
Speaker 3: the other night, I had kind of forewarned the team,
Speaker 3: you know, I said, when we start moving to the
Speaker 3: upper floors, make sure you have some backup battery power
Speaker 3: things like that so you're not having to run up
Speaker 3: and down the stairs for you know, for the batteries,
Speaker 3: because the upper floors inventorious for draining batteries rapidly quick
Speaker 3: And sure enough, by the time we hit the third
Speaker 3: floor center section we started having It was a brand
Speaker 3: new camera. They said they were having all kinds of
Speaker 3: problems with it, just draining battery, not recording. I've personally
Speaker 3: had one of the areas wipe out part of my
Speaker 3: SD card on my camera, so I'd mentioned that to
Speaker 3: them prior. And we got up there and we were
Speaker 3: missing large sections of our walkthrough the building had apparently
Speaker 3: just decided that wasn't going to record. So so yeah,
Speaker 3: they definitely participate. I think that they find humor in,
Speaker 3: you know, kind of messing with us in that way
Speaker 3: a lot of the time.
Speaker 1: So they're like, that wasn't good enough, you guys need
Speaker 1: to shoot that again. Yeah, so let's help you with them.
Speaker 1: That's too funny. I see. I felt I feel like
Speaker 1: they're just so interactive and you know, and I feel
Speaker 1: like that just might be part two part of like
Speaker 1: how they lived there too. You know, it was just
Speaker 1: I imagine there were probably many activities for patients and things,
Speaker 1: but I think there was also probably a point, especially
Speaker 1: when they were overcrowded, that.
Speaker 2: They were bored.
Speaker 1: You know, there was not a lot going on. They
Speaker 1: were locked in rooms, there were you know, they those
Speaker 1: were times where they just nothing exciting was happening, you know,
Speaker 1: and that's probably why they reverted. There was some really
Speaker 1: violent incidents at that time because there just weren't enough
Speaker 1: people on staff to take care of them. But it
Speaker 1: also makes me wonder if now they kind of are
Speaker 1: finding this attention enjoyable in some way or and maybe
Speaker 1: that's even keeping them there too. Maybe there's a reason
Speaker 1: why they're staying like they're they're enjoying it.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: And we've asked, you know, many times in many different areas,
Speaker 3: why are you still here?
Speaker 2: Or you know, do you want to leave?
Speaker 3: And most of the time we get the answers around,
Speaker 3: you know, something similar to that's their home. It's always
Speaker 3: been their home, and they have no desire to leave,
Speaker 3: you know, like you were saying, that's that's all they
Speaker 3: ever knew. So for a lot of them, they don't
Speaker 3: even I don't think they know where they would even
Speaker 3: go to leave at this point, and this was their home.
Speaker 3: This is where they're comfortable. And like you did say, absolutely,
Speaker 3: I'm sure that boredom was a you know, major factor
Speaker 3: and a lot of the things that went on and
Speaker 3: in some of the wards in the dayroom areas, you
Speaker 3: can see the carvings in the windowsills where they would
Speaker 3: watch the ball games that would take place on the
Speaker 3: front lawn, like the baseball games, and you can see
Speaker 3: the march where they would keep score from carving that
Speaker 3: into the windows sell and you can still see that
Speaker 3: to this day. So that right there was you know,
Speaker 3: something they would do to pass the time, because, like
Speaker 3: you said, it could get boring.
Speaker 2: I'm sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've found just in other asylums from similar time
Speaker 1: periods that I've investigated. You know, eventually they close, but
Speaker 1: then there are those residents that are still there, and
Speaker 1: I mean in some cases by the time they closed,
Speaker 1: they're very rehabbed, not the patients per se, but just
Speaker 1: the procedures that were going on. But they're just not.
Speaker 1: There wasn't need for like these massive structures anymore. So
Speaker 1: you have these patients there that suddenly end up in
Speaker 1: nursing homes and things like that, very different environments than
Speaker 1: what they're accustomed to. And they missed the asylums, they
Speaker 1: missed where they had been that whole time, and so
Speaker 1: you know, I could see some of them being, you know,
Speaker 1: afraid to see what's next. I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 1: them were in a very vulnerable state in life as
Speaker 1: it was. Now, have you ever been able to get
Speaker 1: specific names through investigating and then actually trace them to
Speaker 1: like a resident who was actually there at some point
Speaker 1: and find out their story or anything like that.
Speaker 3: We do have a few spirits that we communicate with
Speaker 3: that have been documented as patients of the asylum. One
Speaker 3: of them is down on the first floor and his
Speaker 3: name is Jacob, and he was around twenty eight years
Speaker 3: old and he believed that staff were hiding beer from
Speaker 3: him when he was alive, so we do still get
Speaker 3: interaction from him. We found historical documents that he was
Speaker 3: an actual patient, and we have, you know, a handful,
Speaker 3: but the most difficult thing is finding the records of
Speaker 3: you know, there are still a lot of privacy laws
Speaker 3: because we were open all the way up until nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety four, so there's a lot of stuff we can't access,
Speaker 3: and the stuff that we can sometimes that's very difficult
Speaker 3: to locate and trace back. We get so many names
Speaker 3: through our investigations, and a lot of times it's just
Speaker 3: a first name. We hardly ever get a last name
Speaker 3: or a surname. So that makes it a little bit
Speaker 3: trickier because even with Jacob, and if we had never
Speaker 3: got the name, got his last name, got Iyres from
Speaker 3: a session, we probably never could have narrowed it down
Speaker 3: to you know, this specific Jacob because that would have
Speaker 3: been a very common name. So it makes it tricky
Speaker 3: when you get the same name in different areas because
Speaker 3: we don't always know if that is maybe the same
Speaker 3: spirit just following us through the building, or if that
Speaker 3: could be a different spirit that had the same name.
Speaker 1: So now, forgive me. I sometimes get my haunted asylums
Speaker 1: confused because I've been to so many. But is there
Speaker 1: a building up behind the main building of some sort?
Speaker 1: Am I remembering that correctly? Yes?
Speaker 2: We have three?
Speaker 1: Actually, Oh okay, good, because I feel like I went
Speaker 1: in there and it was pretty run down. I don't
Speaker 1: know that the public, I mean maybe back then. Maybe
Speaker 1: maybe it's been fixed since or people can go in
Speaker 1: there now, but it was very wet. I remember flooded,
Speaker 1: and I remember coming across actual patient records still, and
Speaker 1: I feel like that was part of the evidence we captured,
Speaker 1: was that some of them moved on their own on camera,
Speaker 1: because I had kind of flipped through them and I
Speaker 1: was reading names, trying to see if there was anyone
Speaker 1: there that was familiar with these people or were them,
Speaker 1: you know, And then I think we got on camera
Speaker 1: one of those sheets actually moving on its own, which
Speaker 1: was pretty crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And if I'm remembering correctly, I believe that you
Speaker 3: guys were in our ci building are criminally insane building
Speaker 3: when that happened and I think that you guys were
Speaker 3: also in medical center. My stuff also runs together, so
Speaker 3: I apologize as well. But yeah, the medical center, it does.
Speaker 3: It can get a little bit of standing water on
Speaker 3: the first floor. But we did also have medical records
Speaker 3: in criminally insane building, so I'm thinking that you guys
Speaker 3: got to check both of those out maybe, And I
Speaker 3: do remember that that was another really awesome piece of
Speaker 3: evidence that you guys captured.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was, you know, I just I think
Speaker 1: we just really went in there just being very conversational
Speaker 1: and friendly and trying to be understanding, and that really
Speaker 1: seemed to make a difference.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I think it's really easy to go into those places,
Speaker 1: especially when you're first investigating and it's a novelty. You know,
Speaker 1: it's easy to go in and kind of you know,
Speaker 1: try to get scared or try to like kind of
Speaker 1: make light of it or joke around about it. But
Speaker 1: then when you really think like who you're talking to
Speaker 1: potentially and who you know and treating them accordingly, you
Speaker 1: get so much more interaction and hopefully interaction that can
Speaker 1: help them or make them feel better in some way.
Speaker 3: Absolutely a perfect example of that, and it's one of
Speaker 3: the buildings that is very limited access. It's accessible on
Speaker 3: photography tours because there's a phenomenal staircase in there that
Speaker 3: we feature on our photography tours and we have it
Speaker 3: featured on our flashlight tours last season and this coming
Speaker 3: season as well, simply because we were trying to find
Speaker 3: new areas to introduce guests to and let them see.
Speaker 3: And the second oldest building on the property is the
Speaker 3: women's auxiliary building, and as most people know, the majority
Speaker 3: of patients were females, so that was, you know, one
Speaker 3: of the first necessities was an additional building for female patients,
Speaker 3: and that makes it the second oldest building on the property. Myself,
Speaker 3: my other manager at the time, and two of my
Speaker 3: veteran guides had went in there to investigate to see
Speaker 3: if we could get some kind of evidence that, you know,
Speaker 3: we could feature on our tours, something we could tell
Speaker 3: our guests about the paranormal activity in that building because
Speaker 3: it's so untouched, especially when it comes to investigations. And
Speaker 3: we went in there one night and it started out
Speaker 3: very very slow, but as we kind of between the
Speaker 3: four of us were trying to get you know, some
Speaker 3: kind of interaction from them somebody had mentioned, you know,
Speaker 3: that we were sorry for what had happened to them
Speaker 3: in their time there, and how you know, we imagine
Speaker 3: as women that you know, we we're appreciative of the
Speaker 3: rights that we have as women now, but how you know,
Speaker 3: we have so many freedoms that they didn't. And it
Speaker 3: immediately started increasing our activity to the point of where
Speaker 3: we asked them if they wanted like a manicure kit,
Speaker 3: like a kit that had some makeup and some hair crawlers,
Speaker 3: things like that that you know, would make them feel
Speaker 3: better about themselves maybe, and the equipment we were using
Speaker 3: just went absolutely It was the most intense interaction I've
Speaker 3: ever seen. The guide that was actually downstairs at the
Speaker 3: time heard a female woman whisper his name in his ear.
Speaker 3: He immediately came back upstairs because it shook him a
Speaker 3: little bit. He wasn't expecting it. And the more we
Speaker 3: tried to just relate and kind of help the spirits
Speaker 3: of this building, the better our activity got. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, there's definitely a big difference in you know,
Speaker 3: like we said before, asylums versus prisons and kind of
Speaker 3: trying to get on their level and offer them help
Speaker 3: and give them respect That goes a long long way
Speaker 3: with the buildings.
Speaker 1: That's great. I know, it's so interesting how they do
Speaker 1: have this fascination and sometimes with physical objects that you
Speaker 1: can bring them like I can't imagine they can actually
Speaker 1: use them, but they ask for them. I don't know
Speaker 1: how any of that works, obviously, but it is interesting
Speaker 1: that there are certain objects that they get very excited about,
Speaker 1: and I think that's I don't know, that's a super
Speaker 1: interesting story. So on that note, I love kind of
Speaker 1: just stressing that that respectful side of things. What if
Speaker 1: people want to come visit? It sounds like you do
Speaker 1: all kinds of tours, which I love. I love that
Speaker 1: you do photography tours because it is a very photogenic building.
Speaker 1: So what if people want to visit, how do they
Speaker 1: go about doing that?
Speaker 3: Especially for our paranormal stuff and our photography tours. Then
Speaker 3: you can get on our website transale any Lunatic Asylum
Speaker 3: dot com, talawv dot com, and you can book any
Speaker 3: of our overnight stuff. We have all kinds of events
Speaker 3: coming up for October. Our photography tours we run one
Speaker 3: per season winter, spring, summer, and fall, so we have
Speaker 3: one more coming up this year. And then we will
Speaker 3: resume those next season. Our daytime tours are going to
Speaker 3: go all the way until the beginning of November. Those
Speaker 3: are first come, first serve, So if you want to
Speaker 3: get into the history, and we also offer a daytime
Speaker 3: paranormal tour, you can just show up at the Asylum
Speaker 3: Tuesday through Sunday or our days that we're open, and
Speaker 3: you know, just go into the lobby, pick your tour,
Speaker 3: you know, get your ticket, and then you also get
Speaker 3: access to all of our new museum rooms, which are
Speaker 3: absolutely fascinating. There were some beautiful displays, some amazing artifacts
Speaker 3: that we have housed in there that people can check out.
Speaker 3: And if you have any questions, you're welcome to call
Speaker 3: our office and you know, our secretary would be happy
Speaker 3: to answer any questions that you don't find answers to
Speaker 3: you on the website or I may not have touched
Speaker 3: on here.
Speaker 1: That's great, and you know, I want to stress to
Speaker 1: people paranormal activity doesn't just happen at night, So you
Speaker 1: got and I can vouch for that building. You know,
Speaker 1: the Asylum in particular, things happen at all hours of
Speaker 1: the day, so visit whenever you can make time. So
Speaker 1: I really do appreciate you taking the time, Brandy. It's
Speaker 1: kind of kind of a walkdownlaying from me. I hadn't
Speaker 1: realized how long it had been since i'd been there,
Speaker 1: so clearly I need to get back soon.
Speaker 3: You didn't come back and see us, I'd love to
Speaker 3: meet you in persons, Yeah, that'd be great.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Amy.
Speaker 1: If there's one lesson to take away from the trans
Speaker 1: Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, it's that even the best laid plans
Speaker 1: don't always work out how you hope they will. The
Speaker 1: original founders designed the hospital in the hopes that it
Speaker 1: would be a peaceful, picturesque place for recovery. Instead, thousands
Speaker 1: of people suffered and sometimes died within its walls, and
Speaker 1: their specters linger to this day. Perhaps we can hope
Speaker 1: these spirits found a piece in death that they were
Speaker 1: missing in life. I'm Amy Brunei and this was haunted road.
Speaker 1: Are you tired of the same old vacation destinations and
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Speaker 1: Strange Escapes, a paranormal based travel company that takes you
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Speaker 1: which is ghosts, beautiful hotels, food and wine, and other
Speaker 1: weirdos like me. To be honest, If that sounds right
Speaker 1: up your alley and you want to learn more, then
Speaker 1: visit Strange Escapes dot travel and hopefully you can join
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Speaker 1: road is hosted and written by me Amy Bruney, with
Speaker 1: additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassandra de Alba. This
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