The Southern Mansion

Jason and Grant take team TAPS to Cape May, New Jersey to investigate the ‘Southern Mansion’. Bruce Tango, the father of Dave Tango, is the Guest Investigator in the episode. Bruce also has visited the ‘Southern Mansion’ on a few different occasions, and has been tapped, prodded, and poked. Will it happen to him again in this episode?  The team is greeted by Barbara Wilde, the owner of the mansion. She brings the team around to all the hotspots before sending them off on their way. Steve leads the tech setup, and the team goes lights out.

Jason feels cold spots and Grants picks up activity on the K2 meter.

Jason and Grant open up the investigation on the 3rd floor. Many of the claims revolve around a ghostly spirit named, Esther. The spirit is said to leave the scent of gardenias around; a flower that grows on small trees. While they are up on the third floor, the two immediately begin to smell gardenias. Down the staircase they begin to hear footsteps, and voices. The continue asking the spirits questions, and it continues to respond. The smell begins to follow Jason, and cold spots start to pop up around him. Grant pulls out a K2 meter, and it begins to show some activity. It’s still early in the night, and the team is already seeing, feeling, and hearing some activity.

Kris and Amy are investigating the kitchen. The Chef has claimed of seeing wine glasses completely disintegrate into a fine white powder; almost like a sand substance. As Amy and Kris are investigating they suddenly hear a guy’s voice. Amy didn’t hear the voice so they try and make contact and get another response from the spirit. With no success the team move onto another area.

Dave investigates the ballroom with his Father.

Bruce and Dave sit down in the ballroom. Bruce tells his son that they should bring the party to help the spirits come out. Dave pulls some glasses from the bar, and the two try to see if the spirit will come over for a drink. While the two are sitting down, Bruce gets touched. The investigation continues. Dave does the old ’shave and a haircut’ knock in hope of receiving a response. They don’t manage to hear a response while they are in the room. With all their audio recorders going, they hope that something will pop up during analysis.

Steve and Britt are on the bottom floor of the staircase trying to listen for the footsteps and voices that Jason and Grant heard earlier. They begin to hear some sounds and Britt even sees some shadow play happening when he looks up toward the third floor. The noises they hear just solidify the sounds that Jason and Grant heard earlier in the night.

Jason and Grant and in Room 9. This was once the room of the spirit that still lingers, Esther. They hear some sounds, and the smell of gardenias continues to follow Jason.

Britt and Amy have moved to the Ballroom. The hear several noises and Britt sees something in the mirror. They sit down and eye the mirrors hoping to catch it again. With little success the team only hopes that one of their dv cameras have captured some movement.

Jason and Steve sit down with Barbara to reveal the evidence.

Jason calls a wrap for the night, and the team packs it up. Dave and Steve set up for analysis in their hotel, and start reviewing the evidence for final reveal with Barbara. Grant had some family matters to tend to so Jason and Steve sit down to show Barbara the evidence. The team presents two major pieces of evidence. The first is Dave’s ’shave and a haircut’ knock. Although the team didn’t hear a response while in the room, the audio recorders manage to pick up a response. The second piece of evidence is a video clip of a random door closing all on it’s own. Between the two pieces of evidence, and all the experiences that the team had during the nights investigation, it is quite easy for Jason to title the ‘Southern Mansion’ haunted.

You can also follow Pilgrim Films through Twitter and Facebook.

TAPS heads to the state of New Jersey to investigate the Absecon Lighthouse.  The lighthouse was built in 1854 and first lit in 1857.  The team arrives with the possibility of a storm happening.  Stephanie Carr takes the team around the lighthouse and explains all the strange activity that has been going on inside.  Jason, Grant, and the rest of the team set up their equipment based on what they’ve learned from Stephanie, and they lights out.

Jason and Grant open up the investigation by slowly climbing the lighthouse to the top.  When they are closer to the bottom it sounds like they are hearing footsteps and conversation above them.  As they begin to climb further toward the top they soon realize that what they are hearing is created from the wind, and loose windows.

Kris and Amy investigate the Keeper’s Quarters in hopes of hearing some footsteps.  Kris tries to prompt the spirits into making any kind of sound to display their presence.  The two leave without hearing a sound, but they hope to have caught something in their digital audio recorders.

Steve and Tango are at the top of the lighthouse.  They begin an EVP session asking the spirits to bring oil up to them so they can light up the tower.  As they get further into their EVP session the wind begins to pick up outside.  The storm has arrived.  This definitely begins to hinder the strength of the investigation.  Steve and Tango don’t hear anything personally, but you never know what is present until you further review the evidence.

Kris and Amy are on the second floor of the keeper’s quarters and they are investigating some claimed sounds of a person clearing their throat.  They have Steve and Tango walk outside and try to clear their throats from the outside.  Amy and Kris can hear them and draw the conclusion that the sound that is claimed could definitely be coming from outside rather than believing it to be a spiritual entity inside.

The rain continues to pour, and the wind rushes its way through the lighthouse tower.  Kris and Amy head up the staircase.  They hear sounds that are different from everything they’ve heard so far.  Kris and Amy get to the top of the lighthouse and try to find the source of the sounds they are hearing.  Kris tries to open the door to the outside of the lighthouse, but the wind is so strong that it nearly prevents her from opening it.  The lighthouse begins to sway, and Amy begins to freak out.  They can’t pinpoint the sounds that they heard on the way up so they leave as the night is called to a wrap.

Steve and Tango take over analysis, and spend hours reviewing all the evidence.  Steve finds a piece of footage that he is excited to bring to Jason and Grant.

Jason and Grant meet up with Stephanie to reveal all of the evidence.  They immediately explain that the investigation was very tough due to the wind and rainy sounds happening outside the lighthouse.  They did manage to capture the sound of a footstep, but they do discover that it is from the windows being loose, and they rattle when the wind picks up.  Jason and Grant show one final piece of evidence to Stephanie.  The camera that was placed at the top of the lighthouse moves on it’s own.  The movement is slight, but it seems out of the ordinary.  They leave the opinion up to her, and the investigation is left a bit open ended.  Due to all the storm elements, it made it very difficult for TAPS to capture the highest level of evidence.  This may be a location that they have to return to in the future.

The second case begins right away.  This time TAPS will be investigating the Stephen Crane house.  The late author is best known for scribing “The Red Badge of Courage.” There have been a lot of deaths in the house, and a lot of claims have been made.  The claims range everywhere from seeing full body apparitions to hearing sounds of crying.  They arrive at the location and are greeted by Tom Hayes, a former homeowner of the Crane residence.  Tom brings the team around the residence, TAPS sets up their equipment accordingly, and the team goes lights out.

Jason and Grant start on the first floor with their regular audio recorders and a full spectrum camera.  The camera captures everything from infrared to ultraviolet light.  Jason begins an EVP session and they immediately hear a sound.  They go over to a door at the other end of the room.  It almost sounds as if someone exited through the door.  They tag the sound of the doorway on their audio recorders.

They continue their investigation in the parlor room.  The claim is that the fireplace shovel fell off its stand and hit Tom Hayes’ son in the head while he was laying down near the fireplace.  Grant goes over to the tool set and shakes it in hopes of the tools falling off easily.  After giving it a good shake the tools stay in tact, and the two note the claim as something unexplainable.

Steve and Tango investigate the attic on the top floor of the house.  The claim is that someone once saw a woman in the window.  They start an EVP session and don’t get any response.  They notice that there is a mannequin in the shape of a woman on the second floor.  The thought is that maybe the mannequin was seen through the window.  With no other explanation or personal experience, the two move on to another area.

Kris, Britt, and Amy are in the theatre room on the first floor.  The big reports are that someone feels ‘creeped out’ while they are in the room.  As Kris begins to talk the EMF reader begins to jump up.  It keeps raising as Kris continues to talk.  The three sat there for a few minutes before the reader began jumping.  There was no other evidence to really back up the presence of something paranormal, but it is definitely something the team has taken note of.

Jason and Grant move up to the attic, and Jason walks down and outside to see if Grant can be seen through the upstairs window.  Jason can’t see anything until Grant turns on the light in the attic.  They try to draw a conclusion, but the attic apparition is left a little unexplained.  The team packs it up and calls it a night.

Steve and Tango begin the analysis.  They roll through tons of audio and video before prepping Jason and Grant for the reveal.

Jason and Grant meet up with Tom Hayes to reveal the evidence.  There was a lack of evidence to reveal, but the experiences that they did capture leave Tom Hayes with some answers.  The two share their personal experience of the backdoor making the sound of being opened.  The sound is unexplained but they thought it was worth noting.  Grant then begins to explain about the attic apparition.  The final conclusion is that from the corner of someone’s eye they may think they have seen a ghost.  Jason and Grant then pull up a piece of audio in which sounds like someone is singing in the attic area.  They leave Tom to draw his own conclusions about the sound bite and the episode ends with the hope of TAPS returning to find more evidence.  It’s onto the next case for TAPS.    

The Ghost Hunters hit the city that never sleeps to investigate the paranormal – in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day. They are at Paddy Reilly’s in New York City. The Irish pub is managed by Steve Duggan. He takes the team around to all the hotspots, and both Jason and Grant believe that the claims are quite unique. They range from everything to seeing figures atop exercise bikes to seeing ghostly figures that resemble Gene Hackman; yes he is still alive. The team goes lights out and starts their investigation.

Paddy Reilly’s is inside of a 5 story building. The top floor is an apartment where the tenant claims to have seen a Gene Hackman-esque figure from outside the window. Jason and Grant open up the investigation in this space. They are conducting an EVP session and noting the window for any strange activity. The two of them hear a thump tight sound come from the kitchen. They go in to see if they can find the source of the sound, but can’t seem to find one. The make note that the reflections on the windows could be from the glares created by the busy street below.

They move to the basement of the building where some band members have been said to have seen full body apparitions. Jason and Grant step down with their EMF readers. They immediately tag the location as a fear cage. The electro magnetic fields are so high that it leads to one of two possible theories: The fields create nausea and hallucination effects on humans, or the physical energies leave a place for the paranormal to feed off of. The place is either filled with paranormal energy, or just the electro magnetic energy having an effect on humans.

While Jason and Grant are in the basement, Kris and Amy are upstair investigating the bar area. It has been said that glasses have slid off the bar, and that an old water pump has been said to pump itself. They don’t get too much action from their EVP session other then someone trying to open the back emergency door from the outside. They are in the big city after all. Kris and Amy wrap it up and Steve and Tango take over in the bar. A small box truck passes by outside and shakes some of the bottles a bit. Steve begins to theorize that the vibrations that a large truck create could make the bottle shakes, and the metal pump handle could even fall a little if caulked when a truck is in passing. Jason calls it a night, and the team wraps things up.

After a bit of analysis, Jason and Grant sit down for the reveal with Steve Duggan. They manage to debunk a lot of the claims, but certain things leave them with no answers. They discuss that the basement is a fear cage, and that the reflections off the windows upstair could be the cause of the Gene Hackman look alike. They don’t have any evidence to either prove or disprove the exercise bike apparition. The let it rest, and deem the place inconclusive. Steve Duggan thanks the team for their time and energy put into the investigation. For TAPS, it’s off to the next investigation.

It’s off to Hartford, Connecticut for the team; this time without Jason. He is off on family matters. This proves to be an exciting investigation for the team. They will be investigating the past home of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Famed author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and by Abraham Lincoln himself, “the little woman who helped make this big war,” in regards to the Civil War.  The team arrives to meet Shannon Burke, Director of Education.  She takes the team on the tour of the house, and guest house while informing TAPS that Harriet actually had séances at her home, and was actively involved in the hunt for paranormal activity.  She, for her time, acted much like today’s Ghost Hunters.  The lights go out and the investigation begins.

Grant and Steve start in the front parlor of the home.  Grant places a K2 and EMF reader on the floor and begins to ask the paranormal to step forward.  Suddenly readers start lighting up with activity.  Grant asks a question that suddenly takes the energy away from the meters.  Steve asks for a sign, nothing takes presence so they move onto the next area.

Kris and Amy investigate the Dining Room of the house.  They begin to ask if there is any members of the family still present in the house.  They suddenly hear footsteps, and it brings them upstairs into the twins bedroom.  Once they got up there all goes silent.

Grant and Steve are in the master bedroom hoping to visit with Mrs. Stowe’s spirit.  They don’t seem to get any reaction either.  The investigation moves on.

Kris and Tango are working there way through the visitor center.  Apparently there is a bearded man that appears in the window from the outside.  Tango and Kris ask Amy from below to peak into the window from the outside.  They turn on the lights and Amy does admit that from the corner of her eye it may look like they are bearded if the light is just right.  They wrap it up and move to the first floor.

Kris starts the EVP session.  Tango asks for any movements or any sign that they are in the room.  Kris hears a thumping sound, but Tango mentions that it is a car.  The team wraps it up and moves to analysis.  Tango and Steve work their way through analysis, and Steve meets up with Grant for the reveal.

Grant and Steve sit down with Shannon Burke for the reveal.  They start by debunking some of the claims.  They give Shannon the idea that the bearded apparition could be the light playing off someone in the room and causing it to look like there is a beard on them.  They move onto showing her a very interesting tapping sound that Steve found during analysis.  Shannon believes that it sounds like someone is playing checkers on the checkerboard that is present in the room.  As Kris and Amy are investigating they mention they record the sound of a thump.  The thump sounds like a hard sole shoe hitting against the wooden floor upstairs – a footstep.  Shannon is convinced by the sound as well.

With the limited amount of evidence the team was able to leave Shannon happy with the  results.  In her words she says, “this just adds another mystery to the story here in the Harriet Beecher Stowe house.”

The TAPS team is back with their second investigation of the season.  Fort Ticonderoga is located in upstate New York and was home to several different military forces.  Many battles were won and lost, and thousands of lives were left for dead on the battlefield.  TAPS arrives at the location without Jason for this episode; he is away due to family matters.  The team is greeted by Christopher Fox, Curator of Collections, who then takes TAPS around to all the hotspots.  There have been several accounts of apparitions in the museum attic window, balls of light traveling through hallways, noises of footsteps, and several other accounts.  It’s going to be a very large investigation for the team so Chris let’s them go, and they are off to setting up their gear, and going lights out.

Christopher Fox briefs the TAPS crew.

Jason and Steve kick off the investigation in the Officers’ Quarters.  The place is full of old war weapons behind glass cases.  Steve tries his hand at speaking french.  It isn’t but a minute later that they begin to hear footsteps happening right above them.  Jason calls into the rest of the team to make sure no one is up above them – no one is.  Jason and Steve quickly hustle to the top floor to investigate the noise.  The upstairs portion of the Officers’ Quarters is completely empty.

Brit and Amy are deep in the Garrison Cemetery.  The cemetery is close to the outer perimeter of the fort.  All the graves are unmarked, and the number of bodies underneath remains a complete mystery.  There have been claims of full body apparitions walking around in the cemetery.  Amy and Brit are armed with an infrared camera and a couple audio devices to see if they can capture any sounds or movement just outside the tree line.  They are able to hear footsteps, and vocal sounds.  Amy points the infrared camera toward the tree line in hopes of capturing a visual image.  She has no luck at capturing anything on the infrared, but the sounds are inevitable.  The two note it as paranormal, and can only hope their audio devices picked up the same noises they heard out in the cemetery.

Jason & Steve witness a bright flash of light.

Jason and Steve are still in the Officers’ Quarters, but now they have moved into the attic area.  There have been claims of apparitions being seen in the windows from the outer courtyard.  While in the attic, Jason tries to pry any sound, movement, or sign of paranormal existence.  He physically asks for a sign, and moments later they get an answer.  Steve and Jason look to their right simultaneously when they see an entire room light up for just one second.  Tango calls in on walkie, and notes the light flash as well.  This is something completely out of the ordinary, especially with 2 separate teams accounting for the flash from different points of view.  Jason and Steve step into the room where the flash was seen, and they can’t seem to find a source.  With no explanation, and two teams witnessing the event, they mark it as paranormal activity.

Kris has Tango walk on the floors in effort to recreate the claimed sounds.

Kris and Tango are investigating the Soldiers’ Barracks where there are claims from Christopher Fox himself who once heard footsteps above him.  They decide to walk around a little bit and see if they can recreate the sounds coming from upstairs without actually being upstairs.  Tango finds a ramp just outside the barracks and makes his way down it.  Kris is spooked out by the sound – it sounds as though someone is walking around on the floor above her.  The discovery gives explanation to Chris Fox’s claim.

Jason and Steve are down in the Officers’ Quarters Casemate.  The area is a very long and echo-filled concrete chamber.  Steve analyzes the EMF reader and finds that numbers are jumping around just a little bit.  They hear a moan-like sound followed by an exhale, but they are unable to get another peep from the paranormal.  They can only hope that the evidence was captured on their digital recorders.

The teams switch themselves around a bit, and this time Steve and Tango are investigating the Soldiers’ Barracks together.  Steve begins to talk about his experience with a phantom smell just before the two of them hear of knocking or moaning type of sound.  They replay the audio right their in the room in hopes of discovering whether the sound was mechanical, or more human in quality.  They decide that the evidence sounds more like that of a person, and plan on further review during analysis.

Jason and Brit are on the 1st floor of the Officers’ Quarters with their new piece of equipment, a full spectrum camera, which captures in ultraviolet light.  The camera captures different patterns in a room that wouldn’t otherwise be captured.  Jason and Brit don’t capture anything of substance on the new camera, but they do hear some abnormal sounds.  It almost sounds as if someone is playing with the handle of the door in front of them, but no one is near the door.  The phenomenon is left unexplained.

Kris & Amy take a seat in the French Ovens.

Kris and Amy go under the barracks into what is known as the French Ovens.  The area isn’t like you would imagine, but simply a cave crisscrossed with support beams for the Barracks above.  The area is dark and damp, crawling with spiders and mosquitoes; not a very happy place for the two of them.  They take a seat on the ground and begin an EVP session.  Kris and Amy both try to poke a little at the hopeful paranormal by asking questions like why is the bread always burned.  They don’t manage to pick up any sounds while they are down there.

Brit and Amy finish off the night’s investigation in the Soldiers’ Barracks.  They begin an EVP session and suddenly Amy sees a dark shadow pass in her peripheral vision.  Suddenly they hear some sort of rhythmic tapping from right above them.  The sound was loud enough that it had to be captured on the audio devices.  Jason calls over on the walkie and calls it a night.  The team turns on the lights, and wrap up the equipment.

Steve & Tango finish the analysis on their own.

Steve and Tango manage to perform the analysis all on their own, and without Grant’s presence, Steve joins Jason for the reveal.  They sit down with Christopher, and share many of their personal experiences with Chris.  Steve and Jason bring up the bright light in the room that was also witnessed by Tango from a different perspective.  They get into the physical evidence, and show the many sounds that could not be explained through any forms of real world physics.  The tapping on the floor above is something that Christopher is really surprised by.  Jason ends by telling Christopher that many more investigations would have to take place to really capture the essence of the activity happening within the walls of Fort Ticonderoga, but that the place is indeed active with paranormal activity.

The episode ends with Jason and Steve driving away from the location and discussing the ghost hunt.  The team leaves another client happy with the final results and findings.  Christopher ends with welcoming the TAPS team back at any time.

You can also follow Pilgrim Films through Twitter and Facebook.