And The Winner Is.....

WENDY!

Congratulations to Wendy, who will soon be the owner of the new documentary, The Haunted Boy - which examines the case The Exorcist was based on.

American Spirit: A History of the Supernatural

I enjoyed this episode of the Backstory:The American History Guys I thought I'd share.

Halloween – despite its solemn Celtic roots – has become a safe way for Americans to transgress social norms and toy with the idea of ghosts in a family-friendly fashion. But for some, spirits from another plane have always been a very real part of life on this plane.
http://backstoryradio.org/2010/10/american-spirit-a-history-of-the-supernatural/

You get to hear a partial story about the Fox sisters, but you can listen to the entire story on one of my favorite podcasts, The Memory Palace, right here:
http://thememorypalace.us/2010/03/episode-27-the-sisters-fox/

Museum Of Mystery

The Museum of Mystery is a collection of odd items that Pat Wheelock, (an electronics engineer that has always been interested in the paranormal. Pat founded Beyond Investigation Magazine to investigate claims of paranormal activity and to publish those investigations and associated research). Pat has displayed the collection at various venues over the years.

Life casts of horror film's most notable actors, haunted portraits, fortune teller machines, a reportedly haunted doll, a Bigfoot footprint casting from the Patterson film, Harry Houdini’s death certificate, macabre medical devices including a shock therapy device, the historic live radio broadcast of the JFK assassination, death certificates of Titanic survivors, and letters sent to Scotland Yard by Jack the Ripper are just the few of the displayed items.

I conducted an EVP session with the doll alas, as the placard states - she doesn't like to talk to paranormal investigators

Murder Ballads

Not many are familiar with the genre of murder ballads. Musical tabloids of the day recounting true crime stories of serial killers, horrific butcherings and of course...the supernatural.

He stabbed her in her heart till her heart's blood did flow
Down into the grave pretty Polly did go



They used to be just like me and you
They used to be sweet little boys
Then something went horribly askew.
Now killing is their only source of joy...



Of course, here at Blackwood, we have to give a nod to Shirley Jackson's character James Harris - The Daemon Lover - inspired by the Scottish poem -who is referenced in The House Carpenter.

There are many great covers of this song - Bob Dylan, Pentangle, Judy Collins and my favorite, Nickel Creek - also, this guy (whose name is unknown to me).



Tonight, at the Echoplex, the dark side of folk music is celebrated.

October 26, 2010, 8:00pm, $8
Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 413-8200

Greetings

Greetings, dear guests of our favorite pagan house goddess. Welcome to Blackwood. Since we are meeting for the first time, an introduction is certainly in order...

We used to live in a duplex when I was little. My mother's parents lived on one side of the structure and my father on the other side. My bedroom was in the middle of the two houses. While my father was out at work, which was every weekday twelve to eighteen hours a day, my grandparents were my primary caretakers. So, at bedtime if my father was still at work, I would be put to bed at the proper time by my grandmother.

On this particular night I had been put to bed and my father, just arriving home from work, came in to see me and tell me goodnight. I remember his silhouette moving across the room in the dark, around the bed and kissing me whilst reaching over to turn on the light. Turning on the light was a mistake.

As the light from my little lamp flooded the room and my eyes adjusted, I saw my father standing over me, covered , from head to foot, in blood.

I was told I screamed and cried. I don't remember that, (I was slightly more than a toddler and my family is amazed I can remember anything at all), but I do remember the feeling of fear. It took him a few moments to understand my reaction as he had forgotten all about his appearance.

My father had just come home from filming the famous pig blood scene in the movie Carrie .

As a child, and even now as an adult I have grown up among the most amusing images. Some tangible, some pictorial. There is a series of photographs, (my father has a couple of them and I know some of the others appeared in magazines), of my father and Sissy Spacek, covered in blood, arms around one another, big smiles, looking as though they are posing for their prom picture.

I am told that the following day, I begged to be taken to the set. So began the macabre fancies of a little girl, now grown, living in LA. Today, I hunt down evidence of things paranormal, and long for a place where its always Halloween.

Feel free to roam about as you like or you can select something from the list to your right, The Best Of Blackwood.

I also have a treat to offer. For those of you who leave a comment on this post before the day of Halloween, I will draw a name on the 31st. The winner will get a copy of the new documentary, The Haunted Boy. You can see the trailer below.

Happy Halloween!

Stay Human

UDAZ-DO is a system created by Gidmo Taylor, of the Taylor zombie wrangling dynasty, especially focused on self-preservation in a worst case scenario (unarmed encounter) with the walking, carnivorous dead. Seminars will be available in Los Angeles throughout October.

http://mma-losangeles.com/Zombie_Training.html






Dear Los Angeles, I love you.

M.B.

Hometown Haunt - The Haunted

There have been numerous weeks this year where I have spent more hours at Linda Vista than I have in my own home. We are friendly now, she and I and like all close friends we know each others secrets. As soon as I enter I know when she is agitated and when she is at peace. We still have plenty more to share...

Unexplained shadows, whispering, voices, full and partial body apparitions, growling, shuffling and walking are common experiences to those who venture inside these walls.

There are three entities most commonly experienced here - they are:

The Doctor(s) - most commonly referred to as "Dr. Edwards" In 1981 this doctor had a patient that was a gang member who was critically injured and because he wasn't able to save the man's life, members of his gang killed Dr. Edwards in the parking lot. One psychic told me that there was also an older, male doctor and that some workers called him Dr. Frank behind his back. He was nicknamed Dr. Frank because he had a habit of saying things like "Let me be frank with you," and "Be frank with me," a lot. He was generally disliked, or more precisely, feared. He sometimes touches people or "chases" people.

The Female Patient - A female patient is seen and heard wringing her hands and repeatedly asking for help, she is dressed in a hospital gown. She has been seen in numerous locations in the main hospital.

The Little Girl - The voice of a little girl can often be heard laughing, humming or talking on the first floor. People believe that she wanders the hallways and the surgical suite areas searching for her mother.

My favorite story involving the little girl comes from a local team. Two female investigators were walking around the the surgical suite and coming around a corner going from one room to the next and there was a small room off to the side and one of the women put her hand on the doorknob, and just as she did they started hearing a little girl humming. At this same moment the doorknob was forcibly pulled from her hand and slammed against the back wall. As the door was bouncing back toward them, the woman that had put her hand on the doorknob saw a shadow figure in the room. Both women say it then felt like an energy or force moved past them. At first they thought the other two male members of their team had played a trick on them but when, after hearing the women scream they came racing down the hallway toward them it was evident they had not. The entire thing, including, very clearly, the voice of a little girl humming was all caught on audio.



There are few locations in the hospital that do not have a story attached to them, however, this is a blog and not a book, so I am choosing to relate a few.

The Fourth Floor - There have been reports of people hearing water splashing on this floor. I have checked every single faucet, toilet, sink, bathtub or suspect water source on this floor myself and none of them run water. During one investigation. my team's boss was relating this information to some investigators and we captured an EVP of someone saying over him "water, water..."

While on the 4th floor one night, in a wing that looks like it is a radiology room myself, Mr. Blackwood and a fellow teammate conducted numerous EVP sessions throughout the night in this locale. Each time we would leave and walk a few feet into the hallway, we would hear a distinct shuffling/walking sound behind us as though something were trying to follow us. There was no evidence of movement, and we tried repeatedly to recreate the sound from where we heard it. We only did so when I walked very slowly, directly in front of the doorway into the radiation room allowing my too long pants to drag on the floor, (I'm a shortish girl so most of my pants drag).

We were here helping to facilitate an investigation a couple weeks ago. During the investigation of the 4th floor I was told by the lead investigator that everyone was hearing disembodied voices, shadows, that he saw a huge apparition starting to manifest in front of him and others saw it too, that there were very intense cold spots, and an empath in their group got so overcome near the nurse's station and was crying uncontrollably and had to be taken out.

Mental Ward – It wasn't always a mental ward. For periods of time this wing of the property was used to house family members of long term care patients. There is a little unattached staircase in the basement where members of my team have seen a little girl manifest.

A friend saw an apparition of a man walking down the stairway of the mental services building. Seconds after he saw it he and my boss ran onto the hallway and no one was there. The custodians were in their rooms and I was outside with everyone else on the premises and can account for everyone's whereabouts.

Friends from another team had placed an audio recorder on a little table that stands in the hallway of the third floor and have seen it move.

The Main Floor Lobby - One night, when we were conducting an investigation I had left some equipment up on the 4th floor and was on my way up to go retrieve it. As we were approaching the elevator to go up, something with a male voice audibly called my name at the end of the opposite hallway leading to the solarium.

During another investigation as we were rotating teams from the main building into the mental ward, a dear friend and investigator, along with members of the team that had the experience with the little girl, caught an incredible EVP of what sounds like a woman's voice saying, "Get me some medicine." as though she is standing right there.

While mopping up the main lobby, my team's boss saw the half apparition of a man, from the lower back up to the back of his head in the pink room, just off the lobby. He was the only person there at the moment so he ran to head it off at the doorway and when he got there, which was seconds after he saw the apparition, it was gone.


Another one captured just a couple weeks ago when we were here - two well known and seasoned investigators were leading a group that night and they were in the hall waiting for a couple people to come out of the bathroom. They had only gone into the hospital for a few minutes when the lead investigator was trying to prime everyone in the group for what they were going to encounter - and he got an answer from one of the "residents" who says, "I Could Tell You That!" This is one of my favorite EVPs.

Earlier that night, I had escorted a psychic to the bathroom who was visibly shaken. As she emerged, she told me that an entity was in the room with her and was watching her.





Although most likely not paranormal in nature, it disturbs me greatly. There is a resident clown in the form of a pinata. Every single time we go to Linda vista - which can be several days in a row sometimes, that horrid clown is not where it was last seen. The thought that it is moving around of its own accord is not something I like to think about.

This last story was told to us by the current caretaker - 22 years ago, the caretaker, Francis, while in the office, knowing he was alone at the time save for a single security guard - saw a woman dressed as a nurse walking by on the third floor and go into a copy room. As he listened he could hear the sounds of the old copy machine as if it were making copies. He called out to the security guard and as they arrived, they both could see a light on in the copy room and hear the sounds of the machine. The guard reached out to turn the door handle and all of a sudden the light turned off and the sounds stopped. When they entered the room it was empty.

Sadly, the scariest story I have to tell about Linda Vista is one I cannot yet tell. It will probably be many years before I do. My friend, who was also there at the time, just told me today that, months later, she is still having nightmares....