Investigate reports of hauntings at the Mansion at Griffith Gate Restaurant.

Follow Up at the Mansion

Mansion at Griffith Gate Restaurant

Patti Starr is the President and owner of Ghost Chasers International, Inc., which is based in Lexington, Kentucky.  She leads an experienced, accomplished, group of investigators with a goal to prove that life goes on even after death.  Patti sets out to find and document paranormal activity in the field of ghost hunting with modest equipment such as the Dr. Gauss EMF meter, Multidetector II Profi, Cell Sensor meter, and the Raytec Mini Temp.

Her investigative research for ghosts includes electromagnetic field detection, observing electrostatic field disturbances, capturing anomalous images with infrared videography, 3-D photography, digital photography, 35 mm photography, recorded EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena) with audio recording devices, monitoring the temperature with laser thermal scanners, along with other advanced techniques to collect data.  Patti substantiates these findings by catching anomalies in her photos and videos, in addition to EVPs being captured on audio recorders and videos, along with the recorded results of the devices she uses to measure temperature changes and electromagnetic field disturbances.

Jul 07, 2001 Get Out of Here

Get Out of Here

submitted by patti

We arrived at the Mansion just a little past 1:00 PM to meet with David, the Mansion Restaurant Manager. He and Lori, the Marketing and Sales Director, were getting pretty anxious about having a ghost hunt and asked if some of the employees could join us during our investigation. My feelings on this is, “The more the merrier”, especially when it is young adults. They seem to give off lots of energy and we always get good results with a crowd of positive spectators. A lot of times the ghosts will even interact with someone in the group as well.

As we gathered our equipment, as always, I went with my gut feeling and decided that we should start upstairs on the second floor. To determine where I wanted to set up my video and audio recorders I visited each room and service areas with my EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) meter. Through judging the results of the meter readings, it helps me to choose which areas where I think we will get the best effect from our video and audio recording equipment. According to our plans, while I’m taking the readings, Chuck, my husband, will start to dowse in the rooms where it is quiet so he can get an idea of what type of energy that might be present. Once he gets his information from his “yes & no” questions, he records his results and keeps them to himself until we can see how compatible we are once I have dowsed the same area. This helps us to confirm our findings.

After locating what I call the “Hot Spots”, meaning where the best readings were received for possible paranormal activity, I start setting up the video and audio recorders. We decided to put the video recorder in the dining room where I got the highest readings and that was the room the employees call, “Gretta’s Room”. (Gretta is the name that the employees affectionately gave to the prankster ghost.) We decided to take one of the mini recorders along with us while we dowsed to see if we could get EVP’s (Electronic Voice Phenomena) while asking the “yes & no” questions during the dowsing.

First, I started my dowsing in the main hall on the second floor to see where the rods would lead me. It didn’t take long until I started to feel the vibrations and tingling sensations in my hands to let me know that I was picking up an energy. With “yes & no” questions I was lead into Gretta’s room. Once my rods crossed I knew that the entity was ready to communicate. My first question was, “Is there a spirit in this room and I got a “no” response that made me laugh. That’s like knocking on someone’s door and the person inside yells out, “There’s no body here.” Anyway, after I had a good giggle, Chuck came to my rescue and suggested that I ask it if it was a ghost. I knew that. I was just taken back at the sense of humor I was dealing with. When I re-phrased my question and asked, “Is there a ghost in this room?” I got a “yes” response. (Just to clear you up on the little inside joke here, let me explain. Before I do explain, just remember that I have never died and come back as a ghost so my explanations here are theory and speculations from my own experiences and the research I’ve gathered. There is a difference between Ghosts and Spirits. Here is the short definition. A ghost is someone who died and has not completed the cross over and is stuck between the earth and spirit world. A spirit is someone who died and has successfully crossed over into the spirit realm and then decides to come back for a visit.)

After a series of questions, in this room, with the first female ghost that I contacted, I soon lost her and then picked up a male ghost who led me out of the room by responded to my “yes& no”questions. Chuck told me later that his dowsing and mine were very similar in the same room but he was able to hold the female ghost a little longer and he asked her several questions. The first one was, “Are you a spirit and the response was “no”. So he figured that it was a ghost and when he asked if it was a ghost it answered, “yes”. He asked if it was a female and the answer was “yes”. Chuck’s next interest was to find out how long the ghost had been passed over. He started a process of elimination by asking questions like, have you passed more that 50 years, “yes”, more than 100 years, “yes”, more than 150 years, “no”. So he was able to determine that the ghost that he was communicating with had been passed over more than 100 years but less than 150 years. Then he asked if she was the ghost “Gretta” that everyone refers to and the response was “yes”. He continued by asking her if Gretta was her real name and she responded, “no”. He asked her if she minded being referred to as Gretta and through a group of “yes & no” questions his message was that she did not like being called Gretta but wanted to be called by her real name. She did, however, tell Chuck that she liked the people working there at the Mansion. He also found out that the male ghost in the room was the man that she was in love with while she was alive and her parents were very much against this love affair. A lot of what Chuck was able to pick up during his dowsing in this room, I also got a lot of the same information as he did. This is how we confirm how accurate our dowsing is when we get similar results.

After leading me into the hall I asked the male ghost if he wanted to show me something and he responded “yes”. I followed my rod, which led me into Lori’s office. Once there I began another set of “yes & no” questions to find out what the ghost wanted to show us. The rod moved and pointed to the monitor on the computer. It held that position until I asked another question. Then it moved and pointed to a calendar. Again, holding that position until I would ask more questions. Unfortunately, I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere by trying to find out who he was or what he was trying to show us so I asked him if the messages had anything to do with Lori and the response was yes. We continued trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together with a few more questions but then the rod became still and I lost contact.

At this point, I reassured Lorie that the ghost that we had contacted has good intentions toward her and in no way is a threat. He will most likely protect her or any other female working there. I felt that he was very sincere in his attempt to make her feel better about working in a haunted building with many different ghosts.

A Secret?
As we were leaving Lori’s office and walking back to the second floor hall, Brandon asked if I would play the tape back to see if I had picked up a voice while in Lori’s office, so I agreed. I took my recorder and rewound it back only far enough to listen to the questions that I had asked while dowsing in Lori’s office. At the part in the cassette tape, where I ask if this message had anything to do with Lori you can hear a very distinctive male voice whisper, “Secret”. Lori, Brandon, and the others in the group gasped in shock and Brandon said, “Oh, my God, did you hear that?” Now more people were coming up to join the group and so I played the voice over again. More gasps and nervous laughter came from the growing group of curiosity seekers.

Now, while I was playing the tape for everyone to hear the ghost voice, David, who was working downstairs in the lobby area, interrupted us by yelling at the top of his voice. He had become a little hysterical and shouting something about the lights going off and on downstairs and we better not be messing with him. Just as he hit the landing, about halfway up the stairs, I turned to face the commotion, when I noticed the sconce on the wall. The lights in the sconce blinked on, then off and did this three more times. The sconce was blinking after the lights downstairs had stopped. Also, the lights downstairs were on but the lights and sconce upstairs were not turned on. I can understand how lights that are already on might blink on and off due to an outside interference, but how do you explain a light coming on and off repeatedly that has no power going to it. The light switch was turned off to this light source that we witnessed going on and off.

This situation was a sure indication to me that the ghosts were validating the fact that they were definitely getting in touch with us. Since I had the only audio device in my hand not recording I decided to set up a second audio recorder so we wouldn’t miss any more possible EVP’s. I put the first recorder away so not to accidentally record over the voice “Secret”. As I was setting up the second recorder we had more people join our group. They wanted a recap of what had just happened and they were curious about the methods we were using to get these results. By now the investigation had pretty much come to a stand still while I answered questions. I find that when we gathered in an group and are talking among ourselves about what is going on, the video and audio recorders will continue to pick up the paranormal activity that will show up on the tapes. The ghosts seem to feed off of this type of situation and they sometimes will actually say things that pertain to what we might be talking about. We covered several subjects including, “how to use the dowsing rods”, “the ghost of Gretta”, to “what happened when the lights were blinking on and off”. As my devices were recording I continued my conversation in “Gretta’s dining room” while Chuck and another employee sat at a table just outside the room in the hall. During this time the audio recorder picked up several other voices. Some were very clear and made sense while others you couldn’t understand or the sentence just didn’t make sense.

Before ending the investigation we decided to go down into the cellar to see if we could pick up anything by dowsing. With no luck, we decided to return to the second floor and check out Lori’s office one more time. I tried the EMF meter and got some really strong readings indicative that there was a ghost present. Lori decided that she wanted to try the dowsing rods. I instructed her on how to use them and what to expect once she picked up an energy. She waited patiently for a few moments and then her eyes grew wide with excitement as the rods began to vibrate in her hands. The rods began to move and they led her in a circular motion, which meant that the ghost was there and ready to communicate. What impressed Lori so much was how strong she could feel the vibrations of the rods. She said she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder that also guided her to walk in the circular motion along with the rods. She was just thrilled to be part of such a discovery. Unfortunately our audiotape had run out of space so we lost the chance of picking up another EVP at this time.

Once I got home and started the long tedious task of listening to the audiotapes to my amazement there were 14 voices. They consisted of male, female, and even a child’s voice. Some of the voices were clear, strong, and monotone. Others were more of a whisper and some were just plain garbled and made no sense at all. I tried my best to make out what they were saying and when I couldn’t I just wrote it out phonetically.

Watch ch ch ch ch...
The second cassette tape that I listened to was allowed to record to the end and I was fortunate enough to get 12 more EVP’s. I had started this recorder shortly after the episode with the blinking lights. As I pressed the record button I asked the ghosts to speak into the recorder and ask if they had a message for us. At this part of the tape you can her a female voice whisper, “Yes”.

Later, while entertaining the other employees by re-playing the ghost voice, “Secret”, David joins us to tell us about some computer problems he was having while try to access a disc. He said he took the disc out and decided to come up and work on Lori’s computer and found us dowsing in the same spot he was drawn to. We started telling him about the voice we had gotten while dowsing Lori’s office and he figured that the ghost might have been causing the problem on his computer so David would have to come upstairs. While we were standing there I begin to explain to David that I was sure that the male ghost was not a threat to Lori and he was very chivalrous and wanted to protect her and the other females in the building. Just as I was saying this, another EVP is heard on the recorder in a whisper that says, “Dave”.

While we were talking about the EVP two more employees joined us, Allison & Pam. We left the group and walked back to Gretta’s dinning room and over the next few minutes I answered questions about some of our ghost hunting methods. When they asked me about the dowsing rods, a strong voice says, “Watch, cha, cha, cha.” It reminded me of the movie I once saw many years ago. I think it was Friday 13th, where a voice would say, “Jason, son, son, son.” or something like that.

The Snitch
After showing the employees how the dowsing rods worked we started talking about how the lights were going on and off earlier and as we were discussing this event a little girls voice clearly speaks over our voices and says, “Daddy was causing the lights”. She says it in a way that makes you think that she enjoyed snitching on her daddy.

This is my...
As we continued our conversation another EVP comes through pretty loud and speaks over our voices. The only problem is that the words sort of run together in a rhythm and I just couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. This is what it sounded like to me, “This is my tra ba bay and it will pay low out. It just doesn’t make any sense. It reminded me of the movie “Nell”, about the country girl raised in the hills that had developed her own language. It also reminded me of how a deaf person speaks with the sound coming from deep back in the throat.

Devil Worker
As I continued to listen to the tape I heard a cute female voice that says, “You Who” as if trying to get out attention. Shortly after that the phone starts to ring and as if riding on the sound of the ring a strong, clear, monotone voice says, “Devil worker”. Then on the second ring he says, in the same way as before, “Jennifer”. When the phone rings for the third time he says, “Lady that we all know”. On the final ring what he says is completely confusing and makes no sense. The words sort of run together and this is what it sounded like to me, “Running my legs off in here”. Like I said, this may not be exactly what he said but this was as close as I could make out. You can understand the first three statements clearly but the last one is not clear enough and I don’t really know what he is trying to say. This is a common occurrence when you start recording a long message. When an entity is speaking, the longer it speaks the less energy it has and the last things that they say will not make sense or they can’t say it clearly enough.

Hurry...
As we were about to end our investigation we decided to go down stairs into the cellar to see if we would have any luck there and as we are going down the stairs a male whisper comes through and says, “Hurry”. When we got down in the cellar I asked if there was anyone there that would communicate with me and the rod responded, “yes”. There is a voice just at that point in the tape that says in a whisper, “yes”. But shortly after that I felt the rods go limp and realized that I was no longer picking up the ghost. I guess that’s why the ghost said, “hurry”, because it was loosing its energy to communicate.

To our disappointment we did not get any anomalies in our video. The next time we do an investigation at the Mansion I’m going to take the video with us as we dowse and ask questions to see if this might work better at getting anomalies on film. As I was checking for more anomalies in the photos I found a face of a little girl. It was in a picture hanging on the wall where Brandon was standing. You can see the face of the little girl just over his shoulder as he stood by the wall where the picture was hanging. When Chuck looked at the picture he thought it was a reflection of my face but I wasn’t in that room at the time he took that shot. After looking at the picture with a magnifying glass you can see the face of the little girl in the mat of the picture that was hanging on the wall.

Here is the picture of Lori, at the mansion in front of her office, as I was demonstrating to her how to dowse. The rod led her around and stopped to show us were the ghost was resting. The EMF meter is going off and this is the same room where we got the voice, "Secret" when I asked him if the message had anything to do with Lori and the rods said yes. Here as Lori is dowsing I explained to her that the rod would turn and point to where the entity was standing. As she turned and then stopped she was astonished how she could feel the energy all over her. I took the picture at that moment while the meter is going off and the rod had taken her to this spot. Notice the ectoplasmic mist just in front of her. There is no door facing or anything in front of me that would have caused a flash to reflect back.

Jul 08, 2001 Introduction

Well, all in all I would say that this was a fantastic investigation and I was extremely pleased with all of our results. This case will definitely help in my research of ghosts and the paranormal.

To conclude with my results:

1. There are more than 20 but less than 30 ghosts at the time we held the investigation.
2. There were 8 male voices, 3 female voices, and one child’s voice.

EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon)

1. "Get out of Here!" Very clear and strong.
2. "Secret" a male whisper, protective, different from the 1st voice.
3. "Yes" a female whisper, friendly.
4. "Dave" twice in two different areas of the building, male, friendly.
5. "Watch, ch,ch,ch" male, sounds like the movie, "Friday the 13th when the voice would say, "Jason, son, son, son"
6. "Daddy was causing the lights", a little girl happy to snitch on daddy.
7. "This is my try ba bay and it will pay low out". I couldn't figure this one out. It reminded me of the movie "Nell".
8. "You Who", young female trying to get our attention.
9. "Devil Worker" Male and very clear and loud.
10. "Jennifer" same male and he was speaking in between the rings on the phone.
11. "Lady that we know" same male still speaking between rings.
12. "Running my legs off in here" same male, but I couldn't make out what he was saying so I just wrote what it sounded like and like the other it doesn't make sense.
13. "Hurry" male whisper" sounds like same male that said "Secret".
14. "Yes" male whisper.