THE GHOST THAT HAUNTED ITSELF - The Mackenzie Poltergeist Pt 1

THE GHOST THAT HAUNTED ITSELF

The Story of the Mackenzie Poltergeist.

An Interview with the Author - Jan Andrew Henderson

By Alison Oborn

Edinburgh Kirkyard

“If somebody collapses next to you…. Don’t Panic!!” instructed Jerry our tour guide in his rather appealing, soft Scottish accent. “Remember, the poltergeist will only pick out ONE person,” he continued reassuringly “If the person next to you has just collapsed…” Jerry paused for effect. “Then it ISN’T YOU.. YOU are safe!!” The tour nervously looked around at each other, trying to pick out the weak one and hoping to God it wasn’t going to be themselves.

This was the 4^th time that I had come on the Black Harts City of the Dead tour through Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh. Each time I hadn’t been disappointed. Although nobody on my previous tours had ever collapsed, for entertainment value alone, these always stand out as being the highlight of my trips to Edinburgh. The tour started as it meant to go on, with an energy and enthusiasm from the tour guide that would be hard to match.The history of the Romans and the Picts will always be remembered as well as the TRUE story of Greyfriars Bobby, recounted in such a way it would be hard ever to forget them. So much so that a lady on our tour gasped in horror as the true story of Greyfriars Bobby was revealed.

“Oh don’t … there is a child present!” She glanced worriedly across at my 11-year-old son. I tried to hide the faint smile of amusement, after all here I was about to take this same boy into a dark and poltergeist infested mausoleum, which, apparently was ok to do just as long as we didn’t shatter any illusions about cute and faithful Bobby! Even after the 4^th retelling, these stories were as fresh and as amusing as the first time I had ever heard them. Jerry especially has a wonderful way of expressing these tales and having had him twice now, he comes highly recommended, if not by the locals living around the cemetery who aren’t quite so appreciative of his loud enthusiasm, then definitely by me!!

Finally the finale of the tour arrives and so do we at the Covenantors Prison gates, and this is where we get introduced to the Mackenzie Poltergeist for the first time. A poltergeist, which is apparently responsible for a multitude of attacks upon the unsuspecting public. In fact so many that the council finally locked the gates and refused public entry… that is until the founder of Black Hart tours came along and offered them money and a good indemnity policy… after all, how could they refuse??!!!!

The Covenantors Prison in Daytime

Since then over 400 people on these tours have reported various sensations ranging from cold/hot spots, scratches and bruises right through to the ultimate attention seeking affect of being knocked totally unconscious. Most of these occurrences seem to happen in one particular mausoleum, now known as the Black Mausoleum that resides inside the Covenantors prison. There have even been two failed attempts at exorcism only to have one of the exorcists, Colin Grant, die a week later from a heart attack.

Inside the Black Mausoleum

As it happens, my own sister may have been one of the victims of the Mackenzie Poltergeist! Being more on the sceptical side, she was more then happy to follow along in my trail of enthusiasm. She wandered merrily into the Black mausoleum totally unconcerned but thoroughly enjoying the entertainment of the tour. It was when she awoke the next morning that she got a surprise. “Look at this!” she said distracting me from my Internet surfing to point out marks just below her shoulder. I took a further look but it wasn’t hard to make out the 3 deep grazes surrounded by a bruise that sat there. She told how the night before in the mausoleum, she had felt a prod in her back. She hadn’t thought anybody was behind her at the time, but still she remained unconcerned thinking that somebody must have bumped her then stepped away before she could turn around. I quickly asked to inspect her back and indeed there were faint scratches in the same area where she had felt the prod. Needless to say this peaked my interest in the case even more! If the gouges on the front were a natural accident then she should surely have felt them happening. Two years later there are still red marks on the shoulder where these gouges had been.

Marks that appeared on my sisters shoulder and back.

But what of the Mackenzie Poltergeist and more importantly the man behind the tours and author of the book ‘The Ghost that Haunted Itself?’

The MacKenzie Poltergeist – who in fact was George Mackenzie?

George Mackenzie

In reality the Mackenzie Poltergeist doesn’t seem to fit in with true Poltergeist activity, which often only lasts anywhere from a few weeks to a few months and usually focuses around one person. Instead the energy referred to as the Mackenzie Poltergeist has been around for many years and seems to have taken on a life of its own. It has also been known to move locations, having been experienced also in buildings that George Mackenzie was known to have lived as well as in homes that surround the cemetery itself.

The continuing phenomena that is being reported, has been put down to Sir George Mackenzie, who lived in the 1600’s. His nickname of Bloody Mackenzie became well established after he started a relentless and inhumane persecution of the Covenantors, a large group of Presbyterians who were against the king’s wishes for them to change their religion. In1679, 1200 Covenantors were rounded up and brought to Edinburgh many of who were imprisoned in a section of the graveyard now referred to as the Covenantors Prison. Here they were subjected to inhumane conditions, having to endure the coldest winter months with minimum shelter and very little food. Many died due to this harsh treatment and those that didn’t were executed or sold to slavery. Their only way out was to swear an allegiance to the King, which they refused to do. Those that died in Greyfriars remain there to this day and ironically share their final resting place with Bloody George Mackenzie.

Mackenzies' Tomb

Although stories of unusual happenings and attacks had been reported for many years, we are told that it seemed to intensify after a certain incident back in 1998 when a homeless man for whatever reason, decided to break into the Mackenzie tomb one stormy night. It was whilst he was trying to break into the casket itself that he stepped backwards, falling into an old pit containing the remains of plague victims. Fear brought him rapidly screaming back out of the tomb only to come face to face with a groundsman that had come to investigate the unearthly knocking noises coming from Bloody Mackenzie’s last resting place. Now both men were in a state of terror and so in lies the theory of what the Mackenzie Poltergeist could actually be and why it became more active after this event, according to the author Jan Andrew Henderson.

But rather then trying to explain it here myself, I will give Jan a chance to explain it as he sees it, and also ask him if after the 6years since the book was written, whether his views have changed in any way.

Meet Jan Andrew Henderson

Jan Andrew Henderson, an Edinburgh based historian, not only founded these unique tours but is also a talented author with many books to his name. Having bought his book The Ghost that Haunted Itself when first in Edinburgh back in 2004, I was hooked on his writing style for this was the first paranormal book I had read, that both entertained whilst making me think at the same time, thus making it hard to put down. Believe me, I have many books on my shelf… most of which remain largely unread from beginning to end. He has finely woven together the fascinating but gruesome history of the cemetery along with actual accounts from people who have experienced attacks from this poltergeist and put it forward in story form, which again makes it all the more readable and enjoyable. Having read several more of his books recently, I would probably have to say that Jan brings to history what Bill Bryson brought to travel. From my son?… the highest praise indeed, as Jan brings the joy of reading at last to him. There has only ever been one other author that has captured his attention long enough to encourage him away from a computer screen… now there a two!! Like myself with The Ghost That Haunted Itself, Crash was rarely put down until completely finished by him.

On my last trip up to Edinburgh we arranged to meet. Sadly we only got to meet up briefly but the good news is that the reason for this was that his tour company had just scored another venue, the Underground Vaults. This was joyous news to them as well as to myself, as it gives me something more to look forward to when I return to Edinburgh next time!!

However, despite this I did manage to put some questions together for him and the following is a short interview with Jan.

Q. Hi Jan and thanks for your time. Now it has been 6 years since you wrote your book, The Ghost That Haunted Itself, obviously the first question people who have read the book are going to ask is, what updates have there been since then? Has the activity quietened down or increased in your opinion?

A. This phenomenon seems to have followed the same pattern over the years and it doesn’t look like changing. There are short periods of intense activity followed by gaps where not much happens. Then, occasionally, there’s a major outburst. Not long after the book was published my house and the tour offices – which overlooked the graveyard - were completely destroyed by fire. Insurance investigators couldn’t figure out how it started (it wasn’t me, honest.) and none of the surrounding buildings were damaged. I guess the book wasn’t to the poltergeist’s taste.

Q. Hmmm... well I hope it doesn't take the same dislike to this article!! Now, you have stated publicly in your books that you are not a great believer in ghosts but you do have another, more interesting theory on what could be causing this activity. Would you care to explain to people, who are unaware of it, just what this is?

A. In the 1970s it was discovered that human beings produce pheromones – a type of hormone commonly found in ants and other social insects. Ants use different pheromones to communicate – they coordinate behaviour using the Mandibular Pheromone, attract each other with an Attraction Pheromone and, most interestingly, to trigger alarm with an Alarm Pheremone as a defence mechanism. We wondered if a poltergeist might be a pheromone cloud, released by a mass of alarmed or disturbed people,which then transmits. It works as an explanation for mass hysteria too! Poltergeists are often present around adolescents who are angry or disturbed and at the age where their hormones go into overdrive

Q. So after six years, this theory remains intact or have you changed your views since the book was written?

A. The Pheromone Theory is probably wildly off base, but it’s better than most explanations I’ve heard. Ghosts are souls that can’t pass on to the next life? What are they waiting for? A bus?

Q. How would this theory fit in with the fact that it seems to swap venues from time to time or seems to possess, according to your guides, some sort of intelligence? An example of this would be that we were told that it now moves people by producing cold spots seemingly knowing that they have been told to step away from these, until a single victim is cut out of the herd so to speak.

According to lore, poltergeists often revolve around a person (the focus) not a place, so I guess ours could show up anywhere we take our tour – especially if it’s their fear causing the entity. And ants and bees can use pheromones for extremely complex instructions. It’s a sort of chemical telepathy. So it may not be the case that the poltergeist has intelligence. It may be that someone in the crowd who is afraid or angry is subconsciously using the pheromone cloud to take their displeasure out on the others. Eh…. Maybe.

Q. Would this theory also fit in with physical cuts and bruises that these people seem to experience or would you say this aspect could just simply be more psychosomatic? I ask this, because my sister, who was untroubled and sceptical in the Black Mausoleum actually did experience these scratches and bruising the next morning.

A. Now, that I don’t have an explanation for.

Q. Do you find that certain tour guides seem to elicit a higher percentage of people experiencing things on the tour then others? I think what I am asking here is that after experiencing tours with several different tour guides, I find some of these guides can bring the fear factor up in people much more effectively. Would this ability be more consistent with more activity on the tours, hence fitting in more with your theory about fear pheromones being released?

A. It does seem to be the case that the guides who ramp up the fear factor get more attacks on their tours. But we had a guide called David who was great at what he did but just not scary. And he had lots of attacks! Eventually he came to the conclusion that he, not the tour, was the poltergeist’s focus. So he left. And none of this explains why attacks come in bursts and then stop for a while.

Q. Congratulations by the way on getting the tours for the Underground Vaults! I am looking forward to participating on them when I come back over on my next trip. How are these going at so far?

A. At the moment we’re still bumping into walls and falling over things in the dark. But it’s a great creepy location and it’s nice to take tours somewhere nobody can run from when they get too scared. That includes the guide.

Q. Back to your books. Are you contemplating any follow up book to The Ghost That Haunted Itself?

A. I’d love to but I write novels for young adults under the name J. A. Henderson now. And since they’re more successful, my publishers aren’t interested in me doing anything else. They’re very dark though. Got spooky stuff in ‘em.

Q. Apart from on the tours and through your shop, is there any other outlet overseas that people, especially in Australia, could purchase a copy of this book and your other titles?

A. Only on Amazon.com. My last book, Bunker 10 came out in the US, but it’s a thriller – not a ghost in sight.

With that I thank you Jan for your time and don’t forget I still owe you that beer when I next come over!!

And I never turn down an offer of beer.

So if Jan's theory is correct, that it theoretically could go wherever the tours go... then it will be very interesting to catch up with Jan again down the track to see if the Vaults are affected by the same energy, now that they are taking the tours there. I will try and keep you updated on this one.

So did anybody collapse on this final ghost tour of mine? Sadly, much as I hate to say it, no, we were collapse free again. Do I personally believe in the Mackenzie Poltergeist? At this stage, I remain firmly open minded, after all, I have had no personal experience with it as yet to judge. However, I would like to think that it did exist, after all, there are more then enough victims, including my own sister, that would suggest that there could well be something powerful going on there. One thing is for sure, I will certainly be purchasing further titles by Jan Andrew Henderson and will definitely be back on the tour the very next chance I get…. only this time I look forward to including all Black harts other tours too!!

To learn more about these tours then please visit:

BLACK HART TOURS

Or to learn more about Jan Andrew Henderson and his published works:

JAN ANDREW HENDERSON

IS THE OLD ADELAIDE GAOL REALLY HAUNTED - PT 2

THE OLD ADELAIDE GAOL – IS IT REALLY HAUNTED?

PART 2

THE INVESTIGATIONS

For those who have just joined us in this blog, I covered a brief history of the gaol and its ghost stories in the previous blog. So please feel free to go back and have a read if you want to get a feel for the place first and hear some of the more traditional stories.

As I sit here, I wonder how to best present this evidence to you and the stories we have accumulated over the years. Do I present it possible 'ghost' character by character? Or do I neatly bracket it as EVP… Photographs… video. I feel maybe the best way will be to take you by the hand and take you on a tour section by section. This way I can still introduce you to our characters, tell you some of our experiences and present our evidence and at the end leave it to you to maybe make up your own minds.

For those who have been reading this before, you will notice I have now condensed these experiences due to the length it was becoming. I am going to put just one story from each area here. Remember for each story written, there are many more to accompany it. We will put more reports up on the website as it is rebuilt.

THE SALLY PORT

As you first enter the Gaol through the front door, you enter the Sally Port. Although staff told us that they have had experiences in this general area, offices, shop etc, we really over the years, collected no hard evidence to back up any of the claims.

We say that there was never any hard evidence taken there. But one night on one of our paranormal workshops that we conducted for the gaol, we were allowed up into the old governors residences. The old staircase was feeling a little uneasy at this point but felt ok to continue. There was a curious photo captured by one of our guests, Susan Moon who has kindly allowed us to use this photograph on our website etc. It shows a strange distortion and shadow on the staircase itself.

Photo showing distortion on stairs - Camera fault or something more unusual?

WALKWAY

As you exit the Sally Port you find yourself in the walkway that either goes to your left or to your right. One night we were there seeing if thunderstorms really did increase paranormal activity and were huddled just past the Sally Port in the walkway chatting. Suddenly our photographer, Megan looked up and asked who that man was. We all looked across but by then whoever it was had disappeared down the tunnel (this leads to 'A' Wing). Assuming somebody might have broken in, we dashed over to the tunnel, knowing that there was no escape due to the end gate still being locked. It should be noted that when we do witness a solid figure… our first reaction isn't that it is a ghost but assume it is a person. The Gaols problem now is not keeping people in, but keeping people out!! On arriving at the tunnel, you can imagine our surprise and pleasure at finding it was completely empty. There was however, one single wet footprint halfway down the tunnel… none leading upto and none after. There are no doors leading off and the big gate was shut at the other end so this person had nowhere to go but back past us. Megan described him as solid, shuffling along, wearing the old style short black duffel coat and wearing a beanie. We tend to nickname our characters, especially for the tours and for our own quick references so this poor man was forever known as 'Beanie Man'. It is interesting to note that he was seen by another tour of 21 people a month later. 21 people witnessed him shuffling down the other wall and straight through the old metal staircase before disappearing.

Figure in tunnel not seen by investigators at the time

One photograph taken by Anna shows what seems to be a figure lying in the tunnel. Is this just a trick of the eye or could it be Beanie Man?

YARD 1

Again not much time has been invested into this yard by PFI. The times we have been in this yard we have had very little happen. I mention this yard only due to one experience by 3 members of our team in the early hours of the morning. They had been wandering around filming when Megan and Jeff suddenly heard piano playing. They described it as Edwardian/Victorian style playing and it came from all around them and not directional. It is interesting to note that our third investigator couldn't hear the music. He insisted it was just a dripping pipe. Megan said they could hear the dripping pipe also, but this did not account for the music they were hearing. I say that this is of interest as a few months earlier a large tour of people had also heard this music playing, or should I say… half of them heard it and half of them didn't. One half thought the other half was going mad, and the other half couldn't understand why the others couldn't hear such clear music. Are only some of us susceptible to this phenomena?

YARD 2

This was an interesting yard for one story in particular. In this yard you have a double storey cellblock and a smaller building attached to it that was originally the kitchen area. A newer feature was a small toilet block added in the more recent years of the Gaols working history. It is at this toilet block that we look at our next and very unusual story. Again we had 3 investigators in this yard. Megan was wandering near the toilet block taking pictures when she heard what sounded like somebody urinating in the urinal there. Now, it should be noted that the water has been disconnected from this block since the gaol closed its doors. Thinking it was one of our male investigators; she marched over to give him a piece of her mind, as she knew it couldn't be cleaned. She halted at the doorway to find the room completely empty. However, the sound of the urinating continued for a few seconds longer. She looked around and saw Jeff and Patrick at the other end of the yard and called them over. As they were discussing what Megan had just heard, more noises started up. Jeff could hear what sounded like pans being banged together whilst Megan could hear chanting, much like you would hear in a schoolyard when there was a fight and the eager crowd would try and egg it on. Could this possibly be a 'playback' of an incident captured in the atmosphere like a tape recording, only to be played back under certain conditions? If there was going to be trouble in a gaol, a toilet block would certainly have attracted it. We have been back many times, but this has never reoccurred. We even went back on the exact date but it resulted in nothing.

YARD 3

Now we start coming to what appear to be more active areas in the Gaol. Yard 3 was the women's yard. It was also a yard where the women could have their children with them in the early days due to no other care able to be provided. There is an old school house in the yard and a double storey cellblock. There is also an induction centre where prisoners were first introduced to the gaol. Here they would be showered and clothes taken away and burned if necessary due to lice, their uniforms given and in the latter years an overall search for drugs.

My first experience in this yard was conducting a tour. I had moved ahead of the tour, leaving Jeff to tell some of the stories, and crossed through into this yard. I was taking photographs quietly on my own when I sensed movement out of my peripheral vision up on the second floor of the cellblock. I got the impression that I had just seen a lady dressed in grey and that she had turned away from me. I thought I would keep quiet on this and just chat to Jeff later in the evening about it, as it would be too tacky to tell the ghost tour visitors…. 'Guess what… I just saw a ghost and you missed it'. I wasn't even sure if it had just been my imagination due to it being so fleeting. So I just quietly watched in the background as the tour came through. About a minute in, a lady suddenly spoke up 'omg… I have just seen a lady up there!' She pointed to the same spot that I had just witnessed it myself and I now felt comfortable to talk about it, relieved that somebody else may have witnessed it too. Since that time Megan has witnessed a lady walking down the length of the block before it disappeared.

And finally this is where we captured our flagship photo. This photo was taken by PFI's other co-founder, Jeff Fausch.

It should be noted that Jeff is a seasoned investigator and we all adhere to certain rules when taking photographs. This was a dry night, with no moisture in the air, none of our team members are smokers and we always hold the camera well away from us and hold our breath when taking photos. This is so we don't contaminate the picture with our breath. When looking at the photograph, out of the peripheral vision you can almost see what looks like a second figure behind the first.

YARD 4

This yard, as you enter has the old Gaol canteen and two double storey external cellblocks. It is on the second floor of the first cellblock that we will concentrate. When we first were given a quick tour around the Gaol, we were told that the light in the last cell on the second floor had a tendency to come on. The volunteers would switch off all the lights and close the door and leave, only to come back to find the door was open and the light to that one cell would be back on. We were told that there had been a suicide in that cell in the latter part of the gaols working life. A young man killed himself in there. Years later the man that had been sharing the cell with him returned and he took a self-guided history tour around the Gaol. He apparently went to sit in this cell quietly by himself and we don't know what he said, but the light stopped coming on…. That is until we arrived….. We started walking into the yard and frequently finding the cell door open and the light on. One thing we must point out is that when we first arrive for an investigation, we walk around the Gaol and turn off every light and close every door. This way we know it wasn't a volunteer or us that left it open.

It was on one of our early investigations that one of our investigators, Bill, went to take some photographs around this cell. He decided he would spend a little time sitting in the cell and experiment doing some meditation then take photos. As he was sitting in the darkened room, he was startled when he felt the mattress he was sitting on sink as though somebody had just sat down beside him. He quickly took some pictures then went to get another team member. Bill took Jeff back upto the cell and they both looked around and took measurements, photos etc, none of which revealed anything startling. They then decided to move on and they latched the door, made sure the light was off and walked back along the balcony towards the staircase. As they passed a cell that was close to the stairs, the grill on the door started to violently rattle. Both swung round to find the end cell door had reopened and the light had come on. Again instrument readings and footage show nothing. Since these incidents, the door is now locked firmly and nobody is allowed into this cell.

THE CIRCLE

Each yard is like a section of a cake. All entrances to the yards are accessed from the Turning Circle. The turning circle got its name from when the prisoners were delivered in the days of horse and carriage. They would bring the whole carriage through the Sally Port and use the circular yard to turn the carriages so they could exit easily. The stories that we heard were more of the discomfort that the volunteers had experienced when walking through this area. They complained of the feeling of being watched all the time. There is a guards tower there, could it be somebody is still looking over the Gaol?

It is often joked amongst us, that if we have the cameras rolling you can guarantee nothing is going to happen. When the cameras have just been turned off, then you get action. This was no exception one night in the circle. We had been told that people sleeping in the dormitories often heard one of the big yard doors slam shut in the early hours of the morning. These are very heavy metal doors, that you would need a hurricane to slam them shut!! So at the time it was supposed to happen, we set up a camera and an investigator to monitor. The rest of us decided we would go to other areas. After an hour of sitting and nothing happening, the investigator decided he had had enough, so switched off the camera and walked back to join us. He had just turned the corner when… BANG!!!!…. The door slammed shut. Again it would seem that somebody or something has a sense of humour

THE REMAND CENTRE

Now we come to my least favourite area. If ever a place were to feel intimidating, this is the area. When we first came, there weren't many stories told about this area so at first we didn't concentrate too much on it. The area only ever held low security prisoners so didn't seem to have much history behind it. However, once we did concentrate a little more on the area, we found it wasn't quite as quiet as we first thought.

To enter the remand centre you have to first cross though the museum area. As you walk across the threshold the automatic sensor light will switch on. This is great for us to know if a person was responsible if anything happens, not so great when the cat sneaks in and sits hidden in a corner looking smug with itself, as the silly humans try and find the cause!!

You would remember me talking of the single footprint in the tunnel after Beanie Man went through. Well on the same stormy night, we then walked into the museum area only to find several bare footprints in the cement close to the whipping rack. They would have to be either female or a child as they were slightly smaller then my foot size and I am not large. My dog trotted past, leaving her own footprints for comparison. Hers did what you would expect with wet marks on cement and soaked in, blurred then started to dry. These footprints remained sharp and stayed for 3 days before disappearing as quickly as they arrived. If they had been wet due to rain, they should have dried within an hour. If they were staining in the cement then they should still be there to this day. We did find these footprints one more time in 'A' Wing around the hanging beam. This is an area that is always locked and because nobody really goes up there, the floor is coated in heavy dust. The little bare footprints started from nowhere and moved around the display dummies.

It was in the remand centre that our most startling incident was experienced and where we had slamming doors and shadow figures stepping through. We did manage to capture this on video at the time.

HANGING TOWER

On exiting the Remand Centre, you come to the outer walkways that travel around the Gaol between the buildings and the main outer walls. You will see archaeological digging areas where they are trying to find the bodies of the executed people that have been lost on the records. Before you get to the grave area you will come to the Hanging Tower. This originally was a guards tower which was converted to the hanging tower for the last 4 hangings ever to take place in Adelaide. We personally have never had much happen in the Tower, although I do get people on the tours who won't even enter the building due to feeling extremely uncomfortable. On one occasion in the early days when I was actually on a ghost tour instead of taking one, the coach driver decided he would come in too and take the tour. I have him on video in the Hanging Tower becoming more and more unsettled, he eventually had to leave and ended up sitting at the end of the walkway. Upon asking him what was wrong, he said he had felt a strong pressure around his neck and felt he couldn't breathe. This of course could have been psychosomatic, as we were in a hanging tower. As the tour moved on, I decided I too would stand in that spot. Another girl who I had never met before decided to do the same with me and we eventually got talking. It was then, when I wasn't thinking about it that I suddenly went pale. I could feel an enormous pressure moving into my back and through into my organs. My kidneys started to ache as did my stomach. The girl must have noticed as she asked if I was ok. We quickly left and as soon as I hit the end of the ramp it lifted. All in the mind? For a long time I thought yes and never told this story. However 6 months ago a lady was standing in the same spot and she too became uncomfortable. She complained of a pressure in her back and her kidneys and other organs were aching. Was she imaging the same experience too? Maybe

THE GRAVES AND SECTION 5

As you walk away from the Hanging Tower you start to walk past the graves. In amongst these graves you will find Elizabeth Woolcocks grave, which often still has fresh flowers laid on it. As she she was hanged a short way down the track on the portable gallows, she would have first walked past her newly dug grave and seen where she would lie for eternity. Although we have not ever had anything happen at the grave site, we did get one interesting photograph showing a strange mist over her grave. Again we are careful upon taking photos, and it wasn't a damp night.

NEW BUILDING 'A' WING

On leaving the dorms you will see The Tunnel. This is the long tunnel that leads through into the newer building. Even though it is nicknamed the New Building, it was still built back in the 1800s. Welcome to what is said to be the most haunted building in the Old Adelaide Gaol. We have touched on the stories that were told about this building so now we will discuss our own experiences and look at the evidence we captured there.

The main character that has been seen frequently in this area was the prison guard. For all the years we have been investigating the Gaol, we have to admit that we have never seen him ourselves. However, we have had experiences there to suggest that he may be around. We may also have his name! It was 5.00 a.m. after a very long night investigating, and Jeff and Megan had gone upstairs to sit and monitor. At first it seemed like nothing had happened and the whole time up there was uneventful. It wasn't until much later, whilst Jeff was going back over footage that he realised he had a third persons voice on the tape. It was a loud whispery voice saying what sounds like 'Sergeant Murphy'. So from then on we gave him the name when we referred to him, even if that wasn't his name.

In a night we can take hundreds of photographs, most using flash photography. The question needs to be asked… we know constant flashing can be annoying to us, but if there is a paranormal realm, does it become annoying to them also? I do remember one incident that took place at the top of the staircase. Jeff had his hand through the bars gate leading to the guards offices whilst taking photos. I am well known for being able to have microsleeps anywhere on an investigation and in this instance I was sitting on the third step down tucked into my jacket in a half asleep/half awake state. I was aware of Jeff taking photographs one after another, after another, after another!!! … when suddenly I heard a male voice inside my head say 'Enoughs enough!'. At that very moment Jeff exploded backwards nearly knocking our cameras and equipment over. He said he had been photographing when he was startled by a cold hand clamping round his wrist and pushing his hand down almost as if to say Enoughs enough. Had we finally overstepped the mark with Sgt Murphy?

Top of the stairs where Jeff had his hand pushed down

Well that brings us to the end of our very short tour round the Gaol. You are probably all wanting the answer to that question… Is the Gaol REALLY haunted?

Well what we can say is that we have experienced a wealth of unusual occurances, only a few of which I have touched upon here. We do have some unusual footage and voices on tape. All this would indicate that there was definitely something of an unusual nature happening in the Gaol. But at the end of the day all we can do is tell you our experiences and show you the evidence and allow you to make up your own minds. Maybe come for a visit on your own and experience it for yourselves!!

ST JOHNS, KAPUNDA INVESTIGATION – 09.02.08

A quick history for those people out there who are unfamiliar with St Johns cemetery and reformatory here in South Australia. This area was actually known as Johnstown back in the 1850s and was an Irish farming community. A church was built up there with a house and Father Fallon moved in. He died there at the age of 40, as did the Father Ryan who followed him. Father Ryan died there at the very young age of 24. They were buried up at the church but later the bodies were relocated further down in the newer built cemetery.

In 1897 it was decided to convert the church and house into a reformatory for wayward girls and the Sisters of Joseph were asked to operate it. Problems were encountered from the very beginning, mainly due to the isolation of the reformatory and the fact that the girls were determined to escape at every opportunity.

There was also an insinuation that the girls were being improperly treated by the resident chaplain, Fr Martin. He was reported to be in poor health and at the time had a questionable state of mind. Finally in 1909 an 18 year old girl, Ruby Bland, died in hospital. The death certificate states that she died from complications from a gallstone operation, but rumours were rife that she had been pregnant and died in childbirth. Interestingly shortly after Ruby died, the reformatory was closed down. Rather then have any scandal, it was decided by Archbishop O'Reily to close the reformatory once and for all and the girls were moved out. It was finally demolished in 2002 with the excuse that because of vandalism, drug use and 'witchcraft' the ruins were deemed unsafe. Speculation arose that due to the airing of the documentary 'Kapunda – Most Haunted Town in Australia' it caused unwanted attention to the reformatory's chequered past, and so the church demolished it swiftly causing yet another historic site to be lost.

But what of the hauntings? Was there any truth to this documentary? Was the cemetery and reformatory site REALLY haunted? The reports we had were mainly centred around Ruby Bland. It was said that she still walked the cemetery and reformatory looking for her baby. Rumours were rife also of an angry Father Martin, who would patrol the reformatory and even push unsuspecting people around. And what of Sister Mary Mackillops letter that mentions that she had seen none of the ghosts yet. Was this to mean that rumours of haunting were happening long before St Johns became a reformatory?

We started investigating this area many years ago, and is probably one of our most active sites, next to the Old Adelaide Gaol. We have had our investigators witness fully formed enitites, orbs over headstones (with the naked eye), heard church bells, people walking on the gravel paths, and the list goes one.

For those that are interested, a more comprehensive overview of the history of our investigations will be found at our new website, which will be released soon. But for now we will just concentrate on last nights happenings.

We got to St John's before the sun went down, as two of our newer members had never seen this site. St John's is out in the middle of nowhere…literally. As the old Alien movie says, 'Out there, there's nobody to hear you scream!' There isn't a property for miles and it is down dirt tracks. So we just wanted to familiarise the new members before we lost the light. It was a new moon that night and it rapidly followed the sun down over the horizon, leaving us in total darkness….. just the way we like it lol.

We broke into 3 teams of 2 for the first shift. But this was very quiet with nothing unusual happening. There were some noises, but we tracked these down to a natural source. Brett's phone, which was fairly new, did suddenly display the numbers and time back to front when he first entered the cemetery, which was odd and something to keep his eye on in the future to see if it is a fault with the phone. It should be noted that it had not had a problem previously and has not been a problem since.

If anybody else knows of a known fault with these phones then please let us know.

We also had our TriField Meter sitting on one of the headstones. At one point in the night it started to activate and give off abnormal readings.

The second shift, left 2 teams down in the cemetery whilst Amy and myself drove up the hill to where the reformatory had once stood. And that is when the pace picked up!!

No sooner had we driven around the corner, Megan contacted us on the two-way to ask if we had shouted. 'Erm we are driving… and the windows are shut, so no not us' I replied. From the corner of the cemetery where we had driven, Megan described hearing loud female voices. It continued with them hearing childrens voices on and off after that. Meanwhile we pulled up at our spot and suddenly froze. I have spent many years investigating, and am used to wandering in the dark or sitting on my own in places, and it doesn't really faze me. However, for some reason, this spot was different. My heart was suddenly racing and I could hardly breathe. I am not gifted with clairvoyance, and I like to keep things on a more technical level, but this time, all I can say is it felt like I had somebody standing close to my window, and he wasn't happy. It was so strong, that I felt that I didn't want to turn and look at that window, or over my shoulder. I turned to Amy only to find that she looked uncomfortable too. Upon enquiring what was wrong, she confirmed that she was feeling exactly the same and couldn't look behind her. As we were discussing this, I watched what looked like a shadow of a man cross through the beam of my headlights, in front of the car. After taking a deep breath we both got out of the car and walked to the gate after all that is what we were there for. It was then we heard footsteps of something large coming towards us through the undergrowth. 'It's just the wind', I told myself, and repeated this several times in my head whilst at the same time noting how there wasn't any movement in the trees. The footsteps got so close we almost expected to see a man walk out of the trees towards us. The feeling that accompanied it was very uncomfortable. We decided to call in the rest of the team and concentrate our efforts up there. But by the time they arrived, the atomosphere had gone back to being fairly pleasant. We spent another 20 minutes there, and decided to call it a night.

Why were Amy and myself affected up there, when the first team Megan and Brett had felt comfortable earlier. Was it because we had no male team member with us? If Father Martin exists could he have been attracted to the car because we were females? Or was it all just our active imaginations. Sadly, I wasn't filming when the shadow crossed in front of the car, however, we had audio running all night, so hopefully it may have picked up the footsteps. Now comes the hard part of an investigation… the hours and hours of going through audio and video. We will post if we find anything further.

UPDATE:

After going through the audio tapes that were present in the car that night, we came across an evp that seems to be saying Sinners. It is a male voice and there was only Amy and myself in the car at the time. The voice can be heard in the introduction to PFI blog as the video there contains this recording.

THE OLD ADELAIDE GAOL - IS IT REALLY HAUNTED?

SIX YEARS OF OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION AT THE OLD ADELAIDE GAOL - THE HISTORY

PART 1

A BRIEF HISTORY

Adelaide gaol started its life in 1841 and continued in service until it was finally closed in 1988. The Gaol was built in stages with additions being built onto it until 1847. It was questioned at the time as to why such an expensive gaol was needed, especially in a State that was a free colony not a penal. In fact the building of the gaol nearly bankrupted South Australia at the time, and questions were asked. However it soon proved its worth, and started to fill up fairly rapidly.

An old aerial view of the gaol

Over it's 147 years of service, an estimated 300,000 men and women have passed through its doors and 45 prisoners were executed on the premises, where they remain to this day. One of the more famous being Elizabeth Woolcock, hung in 1873 and the only woman to have been hung in South Australia. She was found guilty of poisoning her husband with arsenic. However, he was already a sick man and was being treated by several different doctors all of whom would have had small traces of arsenic in their medication. A retrial was held recently and the same evidence was presented, at which poor Elizabeth was found not guilty. Ironically she had tried to commit suicide a year earlier by hanging herself, but the attempt failed. Some people feel she should not be there now, and still leave flowers on her grave.

Between 1840 and 1964 one woman and 44 men were hanged at Adelaide Gaol in 4 separate areas. Portable gallows were used for 20 of these people; a further 21 were hung in the New Building and four in the hanging tower. All of these people are still buried at the gaol and their graves can still be visited along the walkways.

Graves at the Adelaide Gaol. The prisoners were only given initials, prisoner number and date of hanging which, were painted onto the wall, to be remembered by. They were not put in sanctified ground as it was seen as punishment for eternity.

BUT WHAT OF THE HAUNTINGS?

Stories have been coming out of the gaol for many years now. We had reports of staff working in the office on their own, who would hear footsteps crossing the upper floor when nobody was there and sounds of furniture moving around. Of another volunteer, who upon leaving the office to deal with the public in the shop, would return to find her paperwork strewn across the floor, even after she started placing mugs of coffee on them. At one point she told it to stop as it was scaring her, and it didn't happen again. This behaviour was maybe in keeping with the first Governor Ashton, who was known to have a sense of humour. He used to live upstairs and eventually died up there due to weight complications as he was a very large man. In fact he was so large that when they found him, rigamortous had set in,and they had to lower him out of a window with ropes as they couldn't fit him through the doors. Not a very dignified ending.

Then there were stories of a lady dressed in white. In fact one school group, after a sleepover, approached staff the next day and asked where the mannequin had gone from one of the yards as it had been there the night before. They were informed there had been no mannequin in that yard, but they insisted they had seen a lady dressed in white just standing there. The only lady on record that ever wore a white dress in the Gaol, had been Elizabeth Woolcock at her execution. Was she still haunting the place?

'A' Wing

But the stories that interested us the most were the ones that were coming out of 'A' Wing where 21 of the hangings had taken place. It was regularly reported that a guard would be seen at the top of the old metal staircase. In fact records show that even when the gaol was working, prisoners and guards alike often found it uncomfortable in that block made requests to be moved. I interviewed a guard who used to work there and he informed me that a couple of the guards refused to do night duty in that block as they could hear somebody patrolling the gantreys, when they were sitting in their office. Finally the Gaol was closed and the Adelaide Council were called in to clear it out. We tracked down a couple of the workers and found that after a few days they refused to go back into to the Gaol, 'A' Wing in particular. They were hearing footsteps, doors slamming and they were getting increasingly more uncomfortable. Eventually they had to bring contractors in to complete the clean up. And what about the electrician who was up a step ladder adding some party lights ready for people who had hired the block for an upcoming celebration. If you can imagine yourself at the top of the stepladder and you glance up through the bars to the second floor, only to find a face smiling back at you through those bars. The problem was … it WAS only a face, there was no body. He ended up back at the office and told them that if they want lights… they can **@&(@ do it themselves!! He was determined he wasn't going back in there again. There was also the work experience student whose first job was to go into 'A' Wing and put up the new government No Smoking signs. It wasn't long before he too, ended up back at the office shaking. He said he had seen a guard come out of the top offices and run down one of the gantries and into a cell before disappearing. He was told that if he wanted to work there, he had to get used to the guard as he was part of the Gaol.

Top of staircase where old Office is and where the Guard is witnessed.

And the list of stories went on. So 6 years ago we were invited to come in and officially start investigating the Old Adelaide Gaol. We thank management for this and for the trust they gave us right from the start. Eventually we went on to become volunteers at the gaol ended up taking some of the Ghost Tours for them.

Over the 6 years we were investigating, our ghost tours went from 1 hr and expanded gradually into over 2-3 hrs. This is because we accumulated so much new material the more we investigated. There is probably too much to put here, but when we release the website we will have expanded versions there.

I will also give a condensed version with photos in Part 2.

GHOSTS OF A DIFFERENT KIND!

GHOSTS OF A DIFFERENT KIND

Many people have lost a parent or grandparent, and those who have and who are sitting reading this, will probably relate. For those who haven't had to face this loss yet, then please read this and act on it. Don't leave it until too late.

How often do we take life for granted? Our parents will always be there, even when they get sick with cancer, old age or even a sudden accident … it will never be today that they will be lost to us, it will be another day. And because it will be another day, we put off asking important questions, because we are far too busy today. Asking who they really were in life. What were their life's experiences? They have lived through so many historic events and changes, and yet we always feel that we have plenty of time to sit down with them and find out what these were. Sadly, time runs out for most of us, and we are left with nothing but unanswered questions at the end of it. And it isn't until they leave us, and you are going through their life's collection of bits that you suddenly realise, you didn't know this person… not really. There was more to this person then just a father, or mother and you never took the time to know them properly as anything but. As you sit sorting through their items and you start to wander through their lives you realise they had another life prior to you.

Why have I brought this particular subject up in a blog? Where am I going with this?

Well, over 5 years ago, I received a call here in Australia, to say my dad had died back in the UK. It was a surreal feeling to say the least. I knew he had cancer and was in hospital, but for some reason I always felt I had time to get back there and see him one last time. Next week.. next week… well you know how it is. Now before you are thinking… Awwww, this is not what the blog is meant to be about. Because of what I do, I was totally at peace with his death, although heartbroken I wouldn't see him again. I knew he was ok and I coped well. Nope, I am going somewhere else with this blog as I need some advice.

Because of the shortness of my visit, my sister and myself had to sort out his belongings fairly quickly. We had a LOT of strange things happen that day, but those are for another time. In a nutshell I ended up with all his WWII memorabilia and she with the family history.

Upon returning home, I had more time to look through his belongings. It was then that it hit me; I really didn't know this man. As I looked through the photos he had taken after his landing on the D-day beaches, through war torn France and Belgium, I wondered who this handsome young man I was looking at really had been. There he was with his mates smiling at the camera back in the 1940s. What had he seen, experienced, felt?? Who were these overseas ladies that had sent this young man love letters and that he had kept all those years since the war?? Are they still alive?? They were pretty, as the photos he had also kept showed. Why had he kept an insignia off a German uniform that still bore the brown of blood staining after all these years? My sister once stated to him 'I could never shoot somebody else' to which he quietly replied, 'Sometimes when somebody is shooting at you, you'd be suprised' and left it at that.

But the biggest unanswered question of all, the one that still haunts me… who was the young German soldier in the small photo my father had kept safe all those years?

Was this soldier still alive now? Was he just a prisoner at the time? Or was it worse?

So, two reasons for this blog….

1) Does anybody know a way of tracing somebody, just from a WWII photograph???

2) And the moral of this story.

Parents are people long before they settle down and have children. I know, I am one. It is sometimes only when it is too late, that we wished we had asked more questions and found out more about them. There is much my kids don't know about me, I am just good old mum. One day I hope they will ask, and even if they don't maybe I will write it down for them, so that when it comes to their turn to wander through my life's collection, their questions will be answered fully on who I was.

Don't live with ghosts from somebody else's past…. Ask now before it is too late. Alternatively, don't leave somebody with your ghosts, talk to your children/Grandchildren, tell them who you were then and are now. They may not want to listen at this stage, but they will hear and remember and when you are gone, they won't feel the regret at not having asked.