Paranormal Archives - Patti Starr

Tortured Victims, Murders, Drowned Child in Basement

by Patti Starr | Apr 22, 2021 | Paranormal

The Bishop House, a Hotbed of Paranormal Activity.

A house of Grace, abandoned to a house of drugs, including murders, torture and more.

Back in the early years of 2000 I was asked to come and investigate an apartment building in Lexington, Kentucky for spirit activity. I was contacted by the owner, Stuart, who was concerned about what was going on with his tenets in his apartment building. Before agreeing to do the ghost investigation, I set up an appointment with Stuart so he would explain to me in detail what type of paranormal activity was happening. During this time, he also told me about the disturbing history of this building.

Stuart told me there were numerous accounts of his tenets calling him to complain about the weird things happening in the apartments. The first two levels of the building housed his tenets and he lived upstairs in the attic area. The activity seemed to be in all levels of the building including the basement.

One tenet said that when she was at home, she liked to burn the scented candles. She would light the candles in every room and during her meditations. She knew that when she left for work, she would have to make sure all the candles were out so not to cause a fire. Sometimes when she would come home some of the candles would be lit. This became a common thing and she worried that someone must be entering her apartment while she was at work. She contacted Stuart with her accounts and wanted to know if he was entering her apartment. He told her he would never enter her apartment without her permission let alone light her candles. To satisfy her concern he changed the lock on the door just in case someone else had a key. This made the tenet happy and for a while no problem until it started happening again. At this point she began to suspect paranormal activity. She was so upset about these candles being lit that she told Stuart she may have to move out.

Another tenet came to Stuart and told him that he had been wakened many nights to the sound of his bathroom faucet running water. He would get up to turn off the water and check out his apartment to see what might be causing the water to turn on. Then in a couple of nights later the faucet would turn on again. Stuart checked the faucet to make sure it was working properly, and he found it to be ok.

Then another tenet complained about someone running up and down the stairs. He could also hear them walking around in the foyer as well. His apartment was the closest to this location. He said that he would hear a little girl laughing and playing in the foyer. He would get up out of bed and open his entry door to see if he could see who was making this noise. He would walk down the way and look at the foyer and it was clear. No one there.

As the complaints continued to come in Stuart started getting these weird phone calls. He would answer his landline phone and hear some heavy static. He would say hello several times but never heard anyone on the other end. Then, on the day that I was scheduled to come to do the ghost investigation he got another one of these static phone calls. He started out by saying his hello and just as he was about to hang up the phone a little girl’s voice came through. She said, “Can Chloe come out and play?” Stuart was thrown back at this request. He asked, “Who is this?” and the phone line went dead.

He explained to me that the reason this upset him was because he had a small dog that he would let out and it would go downstairs and play in the foyer. He thought it was cute how this pup would play with itself, running in circles and jumping up and around. The kicker to this tale is that his dog’s name was Chloe. “Oh my! Could it be that Chloe has been playing with a ghost child all this time?”, he asked.

Stuart’s father was a hands-on work ethic type of Dad. He made arrangements to make some upgrades in the basement and Stuart was to help. At one-point Stuart ‘s dad asked him to pass him the hammer and the hammer was passed to his dad. Then he asked Stuart for another tool but this time he did not receive it in hand. He turned and looked to see why Stuart had not given him the tool and Stuart was not there. He yelled for Stuart to see where he had gone. Stuart came back downstairs and asked his dad what he wanted. He told Stuart that he was passing him the tools and then he stopped. Stuart told him that he had to run upstairs, and he was not passing the tools to him. While they were working together in the basement Stuart had to leave for a quick errand and went upstairs. So, who was handing the tools to his Dad?

Stuart told me that the history started when the original building was the home of a Bishop back in the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s. The Bishop and his wife could not have children, so they decided to adopt a young girl around 5 years old. Shortly after she joined the family the Bishop felt she was quiet a handful and decided that there was the need for a nanny. The child was rather difficult and acted out many times. As he continued the story, after a while the child seemed to be missing from the family. Speculations started what might have happened to her. It was believed that the little girl was thrown down a deep well located in the basement, by the nanny. Some thought it might have been the Bishop and they blamed the nanny. Back in the 1800’s there was little concern for a child’s wellbeing and when they went missing a lot of times there was no investigation.

For years, the house went from owner to owner and in the 1970’s it became abandoned. It was known as a crack house where drug addicts and drug dealers would hang out. People in the neighborhood knew of its reputation and to stay away from this house.

Another episode developed when a man moved to Lexington from Texas, who bought the house and turned it into small apartments. Somehow, he would lure homeless and drug addicts back to the house and imprison them. He would take them down into the basement and restrain them. He would beat them and harm them through disgusting acts until they died. He had even set up a gynecologist’s table with a long chain assembled with handcuffs that hung down over this medical table to hold them captive.

I am not sure how or why the police got involved but they discovered the murdered victims in the basement, and they arrested this man. When they put him in the system, they learned that he was wanted in the state of TX for multiple killings. He was released to the Texas authorities and as of 2002 was till serving his sentence in a Texas prison.

If that was not enough another man bought the building and improved the apartments to be rented out for income. He fixed up the attic and lived there while running his apartment business. Unbeknownst to his tenets he wired all the rooms, including the bathroom with cameras. He would then go into one of his rooms in the attic and watch his tenets in their most private moments. This man was not caught but when he sold the building the new owners found all the cameras and his watching station.

This all leads up to the current owner, Stuart. After the purchase of this promising building, he also renovated each apartment in hopes to keep it rented for his income and to finance any repairs or improvements that might come up. In the beginning, Stuart had no idea about the history of this place. After he started receiving so many complaints about these unexplained activities, he imagined that this old building might be haunted. At this conclusion he started doing the research and learning the history of this building.

Once Stuart called me and I agreed to do this investigation I named this case the Bishop House. If you try to google it, since I created the name there is no information available about the Bishop House in Lexington, KY. I did however found a link from Chip Coffey’s website where he made a page dedicated to this investigation.

Yes, I had the greatest honor to have Chip Coffey join me and my Ghost Chasers International team on the Bishop House Investigation. In 2001, Chip Coffey and I met over the phone one afternoon. Chip had been searching the net and he found my website and started to read my bio. He told me that he was a psychic medium and he was extremely interested in ghost hunting. I asked him when he became a psychic and how did he know he was psychic. We shared stories about our experiences in the paranormal. He saw that I grew up in Spartanburg South Carolina and was excited to know that we had that in common as well. At one time he lived in a little town just outside where I lived. We discovered as children we had gone to the same park to play and picnic with our parents. This was it. Since he had never been on a ghost hunt, I asked him if he wanted to come to stay with me in Lexington and I would take him with me on his first investigation. That way he could see firsthand how we did things. He agreed and within a few days he was visiting me in Lexington.

When he arrived and after showing him where he would be sleeping, we went into the living room to meet my team. That was 20 years ago and most of the team that he met that day are still friends. As we sat down the eat lunch and go over details of the investigation one of my team member, Jason, received a phone call on his cell phone. He looked at the number and refused to answer it since he did not recognize the number. In just a minute or two Jason’s phone rang again. He checked it and once again he did not answer. When his phone rang for the third time, I asked him to tell me the number to see if I recognized it. When he told me the number coming through Chip said, “What? Are you kidding me? That is my phone number”. Now remember, Chip had just met my team and there is no way he would know Jason’s number and he had been sitting on the couch eating lunch and had not called anyone from his phone.

I asked Chip to check his phone and when he reached into his pocket to get his phone it was not there. We all started searching for Chip’s phone and found it in the next room over on the dining room table. Chip checked his phone and there was not an outgoing call registered.

After the Jason and Chip Coffey weird phone calls my phone started to ring. When I looked at my phone answering machine, I could see the number coming through was Stuart’s number. I was thinking he might be needing to tell me something before my team and I arrived for the ghost investigation. I answered and all I could hear was a heavy static. I repeatedly said hello, but no answer came through. I hung up the phone and called Stuart back. When he answered I asked him why did he call? He was confused at my questions and said that he had not called me. I told him that his number come up on my answering machine but when I answered it was only static. He assured me that he did not call me. Wow! What an awesome beginning to a super ghost hunt!

As the day started to wind down, we all got in our cars and headed to the Bishop House. Once we arrived and completed our group prayer we decided to start in the basement. Stuart being our guide led us to the entry of the basement. The basement entry was located out back of the building. It was a bit grown over with ivy and at the base of the steps were dead leaves. As we stepped down a few steps to reach the opening of the basement I noticed what looked like a weird fountain on the outside wall to the left of the basement door. That was a red flag. Why did someone put that there just as you are about to enter the basement. Was that something installed by the Bishop? It did look extremely old. When I asked Chip about this strange vessel, he said it was a holy water font. As soon as I returned home that evening, I looked up the meaning of the holy water font; A holy water font or stoup is a vessel containing holy water which is generally placed near the entrance of a church. It is often placed at the base of a crucifix or religious representation. I have no idea why it would be placed at the entrance of a doorway that led into the basement. Did it have anything to do with the story that the little girl was thrown down into the basement well? Or could it have been originally installed at the front door entrance and the Serial killer removed it and put it on the wall entrance to the basement to bless himself before committing the tortures and murders?

As we continued into the basement it was larger than I expected. You walked into a large main room and there were two smaller rooms to the right. It was very dark, but we had plenty of flashlights and there was one main light in the entry room. It was the most eerie place that I had ever investigated. The energy was dark and thick but in some other spaces not so bad. When we entered the side room to the left, we found a gynecologist examining table. It was not as shocking as when I saw a chain hanging down from the ceiling with two hand cuffs on the end of the chain swinging down over the center of the examining table. What in the world did his twisted mind cause him to do to his victim can only be horribly imaged?

Shortly after going into the basement while walking through each room we found the closed covering to the deep well where the little girl was supposed to have been thrown down. As we walked around in this area Chip began to feel the little girl’s presence. I looked over to the side of the room and noticed a light bulb hanging down from the celling and it was barely lit. It started to flicker. At that time, I asked Chip if he would ask the little yes and no questions to see if she would use the light to blink on for yes. He agreed and started asking questions. Are you the little girl that haunts this place? The light flickered as a response for yes. Were you happy when you were here? The light did not flicker as a response of no. Were you afraid of the Bishop? The light flickered as a response of yes. Did you die here? The light flickered as a response of yes. As Chip was answering these questions, I started checking out the light and followed the cord that ran across the top of one of the beams. To my amazement I noticed that the electric cord was severed and there was no power going to the lightbulb. I pointed that out to Chip and the communication with the little girl stopped and the light hung dark.

During the time we spent in the basement one of the team members froze in her stance and would not move. She stared out into space and started to shake. When we noticed the strange behavior and approached her, she blurted out, “Don’t touch me!” I became concerned for her and called for Chip to come over to us to see if he could help. As he approached her, he slowly lifted his hand to reach for her and asked her if she was ok. She turned to look at him and at that time we took a picture of her to see if we could capture anything around her in our photos. As Chip continued to talk to her, she seemed to come back to reality, and he asked her if he could lead her outside and away from the basement. She agreed and a few of us walked out with her. She told us that she was overcome by a horrible feeling of dread and fear. She had a roar in her ears and for a few seconds she could not hear us talking to her. She continued the investigation with us, but she refused to go back into the basement. When we looked at the photos that we took of her she had a red glow around her eyes. We checked with a few professional photographers to see if this was a red flare that you sometimes get when you would look into the camera straight ahead. They call it the red eye. She was looking to the side and not into the camera. This is what made the redness seem strange and very unusual and should have not caused the red around her eyes. I have included this photo below.

There was so much paranormal activity that we knew we would need a second investigation to cover the apartments, the attic, and the basement. I will continue with our investigations to let you know what type of interaction we were able to capture on the other investigations.

In one of our sessions, while down in the basement, Chip decided to kneel to see if he could get the little girl to approach him. As he was holding out his hand, I took a picture of him with my camera. I was able to capture a big bright spirit orb to the right of him. I use a technique that I taught my student when taking pictures with a flash. I instructed them to not look at the viewfinder or screen but to look into the flash as they took a picture and at times you would be able to see the orb, apparition, shadow people, or other paranormal images with your natural eye. Another thing that made this picture so convincing was the spirit orb was also captured on video as my flash went off. Anytime you capture an image in two different mediums it gives it more credibility. This session turned out to be another learning lesson for me and my ghost hunting team.

When we planned our time inside the building we started in the foyer where the sounds of a little girl laughing and footsteps running up the steps had been heard. This was also the favorite area for Chloe, Stuart’s dog, to play. We were not sure what we would find so with cameras, videos, and audio recorders in hand we stood in silence to see what might happen. One member of the team was holding a cell sensor meter, EMF meter, that began to slowly beep indicating a disturbance in the electromagnetic field. Within a few seconds Chip jumps back with amazement after seeing the image of a little girl standing beside the team member with the meter. I am including this short video Of Chip down below.

While I was on the second floor, I had one of the tenets come out of their apartment to see what was going on. She wanted us to come inside her apartment so she could show us where the candles were. She explained to the group how they would be lit again when she would return home. While I was in the apartment my camera batters died so I put them on recharge. As you hear me explaining about the batteries, I managed to pick up an EVP on my audio recorder of a little girl who says, “He so sorry, I’m sorry to”. Upon reviewing my audio, I was more than delighted to have captured this message. I thought that maybe she was telling us that the Bishop was sorry for what he had done to her and she was saying she was sorry for being such a difficult child.

I wish that someday I could return to this place just to see if it is still as active as it was almost 20 years ago. Since that time, we have improved on ghost hunting equipment and different techniques of communication with the ghosts and spirits. It would be so exciting to try these to see if we could capture more evidence of paranormal activity there. My connection to this place is gone since Stuart sold it and moved away.

To find out more about the amazing Chip Coffey, World Renown Psychic Medium, please click here www.chipcoffey.com At the moment he is a regular cast member to the very popular paranormal show, “Kindred Spirits” on the Travel Channel. Also, I have this story on my YouTube channel as well. Please click the URL to view the Bishop House video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCG2fMi_vjw&t=174s

He's so sorry, I'm sorry.

by Artist Name

A Playful Little Boy Ghost

by Patti Starr | Apr 7, 2021 | Paranormal

During the early summer months, I loved going to downtown Lexington to the Farmers Market. My husband, Chuck, and I would try to go every Sunday to buy the fresh tomatoes, peppers, peaches, and watermelons. One Sunday while collecting my favorite fruits and veggies a young woman approached me. She began by asking me if I was Patti Starr, the ghost hunter. When I agreed, she asked me if I had a minute to talk to her about some strange things involving her family. To be specific, she started telling me about these weird incidences happening in her child’s playroom and other rooms in the house. We found a corner bench to sit while she explained to me what was going on.

She said that occasionally, at night after putting her 2-year-old son to bed, she would hear a child laughing and it did not sound like her child. She would walk down the hall into her child’s bedroom and could see that her little one was asleep. She passed it off and thought maybe he was laughing in his sleep.

Sometimes she would be sitting in the sunroom while her child was playing beside her and she would hear what sounded like a small child running down the hallway behind her. She would quickly turn around to see what was causing the sound and she would see nothing.

One evening, while finishing up the dishes, she heard the sound of one of his toys coming from his playroom. She thought that was strange since her son was in the living room at the time. She went into the playroom, turned the toy off, and returned to her chores.

Again, another night around midnight, she was awakened by the toy sounding off again. She went into the playroom, found the toy in a stack with other toys, and turned it off. The toy continued to wake them up and play in the middle of the night until they decided to remove the batteries. She thought the toy must have malfunctioned. A few quiet nights passed and then one night it went off again. She was a bit more concerned now since she knew she had removed the batteries and there is no way this toy should be sounding off. Now she thinks that maybe for some unknown reason her house might be haunted by a child.

She talked to her husband and they decided that she would talk to me and see if I would do a ghost investigation. He was not very supported of the idea that the house was haunted so he decided he did not want to be at he house when I came to do the investigation. He took their little boy out to the park and then later, for some ice cream.

In June of 2002, I made an appointment to do a ghost investigation for this young family. I decided to invite three of my former students who had just completed their Certified Ghost Hunter course to join me on this investigation. These students were eager to use the dowsing rods as a means of communication on their first ghost investigation since graduating. I was hoping we would also witness some activity with the EMF meters as well.

We arrived about 6pm and since most of the activity was in the playroom we decided to start there. The room was packed with more toys than can be imagined. You could tell that this room would thrill any child, including a ghost child. I took my EMF meter and walked all around the room to see if by chance I would get a hefty reading. There was no EMF disturbance, so the meter remained quiet. While Chuck was putting the camcorder on the tripod, we heard the sound of a child running down the hall. I turned to look in the direction of the sound. Then my EMF meter started to beep. I stood frozen to see if it would go off again. It did! When it stopped, I started talking to the child. I said, “I think there is a small child here with us and you like to see the red light go off. You can make the meter go off.” Then the meter started to beep. I asked the child if he could make the meter go faster and he did. I asked if he could make it go really fast and he did. It was amazing and then I asked the child to stop the meter and he did. The meter was quiet.

This was the day I had discovered digital dowsing. I was delighted to have learned that I could communicate with the ghosts and spirits through using the beeping sound of the EMF meter. After this investigation I continued to use the meter as a digital device to dowse for answers to my yes and no questions. I have improved my use with the meters by asking the spirits to slowly beep out how many spirits are with us. This method has validated as many as 13 spirits being present with us during the electronic dowsing. Going forward. I added this discovery to my lessons of the Certified Ghost Hunter course.

We continued the investigation by going into the sunroom. I thought this would be a good place to use my dowsing rods. One of the first things I do before dowsing with my rods is to get permission from the spirit to ask some yes and no questions. On this evening, when I asked for the permission to dowse, I got a no response. I rarely ever get a no response but when I do I respect their wishes and put away my dowsing rods. Later, when I was listening to my audio recorder, it was at that moment I captured an excellent EVP. It was the voice of a little boy who said, “Boring.”, as I was putting away my dowsing rods. As I discovered this EVP upon reviewing the audio tapes it made perfect sense why he said, “Boring”. The little boy had more fun with me while dowsing with the meter. He was thrilled to hear it beep and to see the red light at the top of the meter flash on and off. Not so much going on when dowsing with two “L” shaped brass rods. I guess he was telling me that the dowsing rods were, “Boring.” That is why I got a no response when I asked if I could use the dowsing rods.

The next day I was pleased to see the same students visiting my Ghost Hunter Shop and they bought the Cell Sensor EMF meter. This was the same meter I used when I got the child ghost to come through. They were looking forward to using the EMF meter as another method in getting answers to their yes and no questions during a ghost investigation.

Once I had reviewed all the evidence, I set up a reveal meeting and returned to their home in two weeks. I was pleased to have her husband present when I played the audio of the meter going off and the EVP of the child saying, “Boring”. Her husband was a bit more receptive of our efforts to conclude that they had a small little boy ghosts sharing their home. It was a beautiful home that housed a loving family. They agreed since they did not feel any threat to their son that it was ok to have visits from this ghost child. We all admitted that there were plenty of toys for both to share.

For a while I stayed in touch with the family to make sure all was well. They let me know that activity became less and less and finally it stopped. I later learned that her husband was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. It broke my heart to hear this news because they were such a happy young family. After that I lost touch with this precious family. I think of them often and felt blessed that I got to meet them and help them with their positive paranormal activity.

I would like to invite you to subscribe, like and hit the bell icon to my YouTube Channel. I have the story about this ghost child posted on my Patti Starr’s Supernatural Chronicles.

If you have any questions or would like to share your idea about the story of the child ghost, please comment below! Thank you!

Child Ghost Makes Meter Go Off #1

by Patti Starr

Child Ghost Makes Meter Go Off #2

by Patti Starr

Are you a little boy

by Patti Starr

Boring

by PattiStarr

A Sweet Spirit speaks to her guests at Talbott Tavern

by Patti Starr | Mar 23, 2021 | Paranormal

When I moved to Bardstown in 1994, I was so thrilled to be living in a place that seemed to have stopped in times of long ago. As I parked my car for the first time to visit some of the historical downtown buildings, I hesitated to cross the street to watch a stagecoach ride passed me on one of the main streets. I later learned that Jonsie was the owner of Around the Town Carriage & Gifts, 223 N. Third St. Bardstown, KY 40004. (502) 348-0331. https://www.kentuckytourism.com/bardstown/attractions/family-fun/around-town-carriage I was so entertained by the unique atmosphere the horse and buggy rides created on the streets of Bardstown.

As I headed towards the Tourist center I watched as a gentleman and three ladies came walking through the doors after me. Oh my, they were wearing clothing that reflected the 1800 period of history. After meeting the manager of the visitor’s center, I was told that they were part of the Stephen Foster Story performed every Saturday night at the amphitheater from June until August. https://www.stephenfoster.com/

As I continued to travel down the main streets, I came upon what look like a vintage train parked at what seemed to be a museum. Once I entered the main building, I learned that it was called the Dinner train. It was a RJ Corman 1940 train that took you on a two-hour trip into the beautiful countryside of Bardstown and surrounding areas. During the two-hour trip you were served a delicious meal while listening to music that was popular during the 1940’s. https://www.kydinnertrain.com/

Then to top off my first day exploring this amazing little town I found the American Civil War Museum with one of the biggest selections of Civil War items and memorabilia that I could ever hope to see. There was also a Women’s Museum that chronicles the achievements of women of all backgrounds, races and creeds during the 1800’s and Civil War. The Museum’s buildings are adjacent to the Old Bardstown Village, a collection of ten original 18th and 19th Century log structures that form a Colonial period settlement along Bardstown’s Museum Row. I loved walking down the path that led to a blacksmith shop, a tavern, an inn, a church, and a beautiful water mill with swans swimming in the sun. https://bardstownmuseumrow.org/

As I continued my search through this awesome town the visitor center pointed out the rich history of the bourbon country. They told me that Kentucky is where 95 percent of the world’s bourbon is made. A few years later after living in Bardstown Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center was built. They now provide a tour of tasting and learning the history of Bourbon. They also offer an excellent gift shop for an unforgettable experience. https://heavenhilldistillery.com/bourbon-heritage-center.php

William Heavenhill was the original owner of the distillery. He was born on September 15, 1783 and died June 6, 1870 at the age of 86. Around 2004 I was granted permission to visit the gravesite of William Heavenhill. I had been asked by management of the Bourbon Heritage Center to do a ghost hunter presentation for the center’s visitors. I told them it would be great if I could do some investigation of the grounds in case, I could capture something paranormal while using my equipment. As I visited Heavenhill’s grave and looked at the date of his birth I noticed that the day I was doing this investigation was September 15, the day of William’s birth. As I walked around the representative told me an interesting story about the birth of William. She said that just as his mother went into labor there was an Indian attack on the property. The family was fighting off the attack as William was being born. When I returned home and was reviewing all my photos, videos, and audios I was thrilled to discover I had captured a very eerie screams of a woman. In the recording you can hear me walking around the grave and asking questions of the sweet spirits. I can assure you that during this time none of us heard the screams of a woman. I was thinking that it might have been the screams of his mother as she gave birth to William during the Indian attack.

Look at me, I digress. Anyway, getting back to the Talbott Tavern, after visiting the historic downtown of Bardstown I knew that I wanted to get a job at the Tavern. My first visit convinced me that the Tavern was haunted. I was so excited to have felt so many spirits there as I walked around the halls before I had my first meal. During my meal I asked the server if the Tavern was haunted. I got a definite yes as a response to my question. At that point I told myself that I wanted to work here, and I was going to apply for a position. I’m happy to say that I was hired as a secretary and within a couple of months I was promoted to General Manager of the Talbott Tavern. I was there from 1995 until 1999.

It was an amazing 4 years and then there was the fire. In March of 1998, the tavern caught on fire and was devastated. The inside was destroyed, and the roof was burned away … I got a call at 5am on a Saturday that the tavern was on fire and the fire department needed to know how many people were staying the night to make sure they had rescued everyone. I gave them the number of guests and then dove in my car to get to the tavern. I was so shocked to see the building on fire and the roof caving in. I just sat down on the sidewalk and cried.

A few days after the fire I was able to go back into the building to see how badly it was burned. There were barriers around the first and second floors to keep anyone from falling through the floor and other hazards. After checking and feeling confident that it was safe in the other areas, I decided to do a ghost investigation. I wanted to make sure that they were all still there despite the fire.

I invited a few friends of mine to come with me to see if I could capture any evidence that the spirits that I had encountered before the fire was still there. I had 3 analog mini recorders that I distributed to three different rooms and let them record on both sides of the tapes while we were there. We spent most of the night monitoring our crude ghost hunting equipment. We had a compass sitting on our camping table we took with us. We took turns checking the compass to see if it was reacting in a way that would indicate that the magnetic field was being interrupted. We had an outside thermometer that we checked and then record the time and temperature to see if there was a spike in the temperature. We also sat up analog video recorder and several analog audio recorders. Back in my earlier ghost hunting days it was very boring to sit and watch the compass and the outdoor thermometer. Occasionally we would walk around and talk to the sweet spirits to see if they would come through as an apparition or a shadow person that we could capture in our photos and videos. After about 3 hours into the investigation, we gathered and packed up our ghost hunting equipment and said goodbye to the spirits.

The next day I took all three of the recorders from the investigation and as I ironed my clothes with my headphones on, I began to listen for the EVPs. Most of what I heard was a slight static with no sounds of life or motion. Then I was thrilled to hear a voice with a full sentence. It said, “Welcome to the Talbott, I will seat you”. It was such a clear voice, at first, I thought it might have been Melody, one of the ghost hunters in my group. She is one to have fun with all of us and I thought maybe she had gone into the room to play a funny on me. When I called her and asked her if she had done that, she totally denied it. Another reason that I believed her is before the EVP came through there were no footstep sounds to indicate someone walking up to the recorder and speaking.

The next thing I wanted to do was figure out who was speaking. I did have a clue to who it might have been through some of my historical research. In 1886 George Talbott with his wife Annie Spalding Talbott purchased the Newman House. They lived there and over the next few years they had 12 children. Annie had 3 sets of twins and that is how their family grew so fast in numbers. The family continued to live and work at the Newman House and during that time they lost 7 children to disease and flus. Then in 1912 George Talbott died. Annie decided at that time that she and her older children would stay on to run the Inn and restaurant. In George’s honor she changed the name from the Newman house to the Talbott Hotel.

Annie was in charge for another 4 years and then in 1916 she sold the Hotel and restaurant to T.D. Beam, Jim Beam’s brother. When T.D. Beam took over he changed the name from the Tavern Hotel to the Talbott Tavern. In today’s world most of the locals refer to the inn and restaurant as the Tavern. For years, the tavern has been the hot spot for most locals to go for a good meal, relax in the pub, or enjoy music on Saturday nights at the bar. By piecing together this timeline I felt that since it was not a tavern until T.D. Bean took over that there was no way Annie would refer to it as the Tavern.

Another interesting tidbit I learned during my research was the reason why alcohol was never served at the Talbott Hotel. When George was young lad one of his favorite uncles got into a fight during an evening of drinking in a bar. During the fight he was shot and killed. George blamed it on the alcohol and decided then to never drink alcohol or allow it to be served in his restaurant. So again, it made sense to me why Annie would not have welcomed her guest to the tavern. She would likely say, “Welcome to the Talbott, I will seat you.”

I hope you enjoyed my story and will make a comment or share an experience you might have had while visiting the Talbott Tavern.

Please check out the Youtube video about this story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZM-AI18qJM&t=111s

Welcome to the Talbott, I will seat you.

by Patti Starr

Why the Ghost of Henry Haunted the Ghost Hunter Shop

by Patti Starr | Mar 14, 2021 | Paranormal

Having a ghost to hang out at my Ghost Hunter Shop was a rather good deal. Over the many years that I taught my Ghost Hunter Certification class there were many times Henry would come through and assist by sending us messages that we captured on audio as an EVP or appear as an apparition in a photo and guide us to other ghosts that needed our help crossing over.

Shortly after I married Chuck, I became Marketing Director of his Art Gallery Business. I managed his website, I was a representative to his retail clients, I organized and created his catalog which included equine horse art along with equine sculptures and other home décor items. After about a week of coming into the gallery and working I started to feel that there might be a spirit lurking in the background of the building, especially up at the front desk. Finally, I went to Chuck and asked if he had noticed any kind of weird, unexplained activity going on up at the front desk or down the halls. He thought and responded with a no. I explained to him that I had seen a figure out of the corner of my eyes appearing around the front desk and down the hallway. He looked at me and said he just remembered that sometimes in the evening when he would work late and by himself, he could hear someone walking down the hall and thought someone had entered the gallery. Once he checked it out there would be no one there, just himself in the building.

I happened to be working in my office one day and the electric adding machine beside me started to sound out as if someone was entering figures to be added. I must say that I jump a bit and turned to watch to see if it would happen again. It just sat there quiet. Hum, I thought. I moved over close to the machine and asked, “If there is a sweet spirit here that would like to communicate with me please make the adding machine go off again.” Within seconds the adding machine made the sound again. I looked at the paper in the machine and there were no figures printed as the sound would indicate. I thought that maybe there was some sort of electrical problem, so I unplugged the machine and then plugged it back into the outlet. Once again, I asked if the spirit is still here please answer by making the machine go off again. The machine sounded out again as if someone was entering a figure and again there was no printed numbers on the paper. I then took a closer look at the adding machine and saw where the paper had been turned off. At this point I was so excited that I went down the hall and gathered everyone in Chuck’s office and took them back to my office. I explained to them what had happened and explained that I thought it might be the ghost that I had been seeing over the last few day. So, while I had everyone there, I asked the sweet spirit to make the adding machine go off again and it did. The staff just looked at me and walked out of the office. They were still adjusting to me being there let alone that I was going to show them that the building was haunted. No way was that going to happen.

Chuck was very supported of my skill to communicate with ghost and spirits. Shortly, after I started teaching Ghost Hunting classes at our local Lexington Community College, LCC, he encouraged me I to open the first brick and mortar Ghost Hunter Shop in the US in 2000. His gallery was over 8,000 square feet so he gave me a small area and I created the Ghost Hunter Shop. This was a great idea. Now after my ghost hunter classes I had a shop where my students could come and collect the necessary items for ghost hunting. I supplied the shop with vests and other ghost gear, ghost instruments that included EMF meters, laser thermometers, audio recorders, books, and more. I also included metaphysical items such as sage for smudging, stones for grounding, and rods and pendulums for dowsing just to name a few.

After 8 years of teaching both ghost hunter classes, Into to Ghost Hunting and Advanced Ghost Hunting, at the college I decided to leave the college and just teach the classes at my ghost hunter shop. We had a large board room with a huge mahogany table that would sit ten people. I invested in a 42” smart TV and hooked it to my computer with the PowerPoint presentation and it made the most awesome classroom. The ghost hunter shop was just down the hall and was full of equipment that was not always easy to find at that time. It was a real plus to have the Ghost Hunter Shop for the students.

As my classes continued, I met a wonderful psychic medium, Victor Paruta, the owner of the Victory of Light. His URL https://www.wvxu.org/term/victory-light He decided to take my Ghost Hunter Certification Class. After the completion of the class, I would include a 2-hour ghost hunt inside the entire building. During the ghost investigation I told Victor that our building was being haunted by a black man and when I would see him, he would be dressed in overalls. Victor tapped into the ghost’s energy and told me that at one time he was on this property back in the 50’s. Now this building was not build until 1985 so he had nothing to do with the building, just the property. Victor said that he died of a heart attack when he was in his 50’s and strangely enough he said he was getting information that he died in the 1950’s. He also said that he worked with animals. He took care of them. Since the building was so close to the Red Mile Racetracks, I thought that he might have worked with the horses. When I mentioned this to Victor he disagreed and said he did not think it was horses. He felt like it might have been more exotic animals, like lions, elephants, bears. That was certainly a strange suggestion. I told Victor that I had gathered that he was in his fifty’s and he was a black man, but I could not pick up on a name. Victor said his name was Henry.

After learning his name, we started saying good-bye to Henry every evening as we were leaving the shop. On the holidays we would say things like, “Merry Christmas Henry” or “Happy New Year Henry”. If we notice anything out of place or hear strange noises we would ask, “Is that you Henry”. After a while I began to include talking to him during classes and I would ask him to join us.

On one occasion, during one of our ghost hunts after class, one of my students, Vicki Hogan, was walking down the hall and decided to turn around and take a picture of the front desk at the end of the hallway. We were so thrilled to see the photo of an apparition. As we observed the image and had it enlarged you could see that the apparition was dressed in black and had dark brown skin on the face and arms. Since this is the location where I saw Henry the most, I felt sure that this photo of an apparition was Henry.

At another class, I had just started our investigation when we got this awesome EVP and after listening to it, I felt sure that it was Henry. He was becoming more active as we continued having my classes at the shop. We had cleared the hallway and was about the enter the area of the employee lounge. In the EVP capture you can hear me laugh and say, “This is my favorite room, the employee lounge” and then I laugh at myself for saying a funny, when I heard with my natural ear, “Look behind me”. I turned to look at the group of 6 women and I asked if anyone was whispering. I always tell my student before we start a ghost investigation not to whisper. If they want to express themselves do it in a regular voice so we will not think it is a ghost speaking. I then admitted that I heard a voice that said, “Look behind me”. At that point I turned off my audio recorder and rewound it and sure enough we heard the EVP of a male voice say, “Look behind me”. It is so important to me that anytime I do a ghost investigation I record the entire hunt. This is what I advise my students to do because I always get so many more EVPs this way.

One day I was in my shop restocking and around the corner I saw someone walked in. I went over to greet them and there was no one there. I had this hair on the back of my neck rising and felt that Henry was present. I asked him, “Why do you stay here? At the end of the ghost hunt we always do a cross over session, but you do not go, and you remain here. Can you tell me why?” He told me that he was helping me with the students to learn firsthand how to cope, communicate and understand some of the ghost and spirits that we had encountered at the shop. He said he was a facilitator and would find the troubled spirits and bring them to us. This made good sense. I did wonder how it was that no matter how often I did these ghost classes and hunts that we always got such good evidence. We always had a good variety of spirits that would come through and tell us their stories through EVPs or dowsing. I felt so blessed to have Henry helping me with my students. What a great way to learn about these sweet spirits.

I also had created a Mystical Paranormal Fair back in 2010. We had vendors and psychic and different therapist to join the event happened once a month. This was another place for my students to come and learn more about the metaphysical side of life. One day during this event I had a former student show me a new phone app that she had downloaded to her iPhone. It was called Ghost Radar. As she was walking down the hall she asked if anyone was with her that would like to give her a message. Within a few seconds a dot appears on the radar and a word flashed onto the screen. It was a name, and the name was Henry.

Most of the ghost hunts you hear about or watch on TV have something that I notice was a common link. In some hauntings you might have an idea of who the ghost might be by local stories or folklore that is connected to the location. Sometimes you go into a haunted place and have no idea who it might be and why they are haunting it. Also, when you do get some strong evidence of a haunting of a location what comes next? Do you just leave knowing that it is haunted, or do you try to help lost spirits that are stuck in that location if that be the case? I guess what I am getting at, it is exceedingly rare to have a ghost hunt that will include a beginning, middle, and an end. At the beginning would include the history, the middle would be what activity it has created, and the end would be how the fate of the ghost haunting the place is helped. This combination makes the best lesson learned while ghost hunting paranormal activity.

One day a gentleman came into the building to visit the art gallery and he needed a frame for one of his aerial photos. When Chuck began to talk to the man, he noticed that the 1950 aerial photo was in fact Chuck’s property where the gallery building stands. He noticed that in the center of the property, instead of his building, there was a big top circus tent. Chuck asks the man what that tent was used for. He told Chuck that years ago the lion’s club would bring in the circus that was featured at the Red Mile Racing Tracks. Since the property was so close to the Red Mile, they put the tent in this clearing for all the large animals. What a wonderful discovery. Now it made sense what Victor said when he explained that Henry took care of exotic animals. What an awesome validation.

LEX 18 News contacted me in October 2013. They needed a good ghost story to air so I told them about Henry. I think because we had all three elements that makes a good story, beginning, middle, and end, I knew Henry’s story would be the best.

The story of Henry was featured on the Mystery Monday LEX 18 about the story of Henry who haunts the Ghost Hunter Shop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWdcsDDBOPc

It was a melancholy day when I had to close my doors to the Ghost Hunter Shop in 2016. The last time I left the building I turned and said, “Goodbye Henry. Thank you for all the love. Now you are free to leave and complete your journey. I hope you find joy and peace as you go and join your loved ones.”

Look Behind Me

by Patti Starr

Ghostly Orbs – True or False

by Patti Starr | Mar 9, 2021 | Paranormal

Let’s talk about orbs. First, among paranormal investigators, the subject of orbs is highly controversial. Are they related to what, exactly? Is an orb a simple contaminate floating in the air like dust, fuzz, pollen, snow, rain, bug, and other particles creating an illusion by the reflection of light source resulting in a globe shaped anomaly? Through testing purposes, these orbs can be created depending on the form of light used during photographic attempts. For example, many times when I was videoing or taking photos in a ray of light, I would always get that little green orb. This was not a spirit. This orb was created through the spectrum of light. On the other hand, some orbs can be transparent or white, because of a light source reflecting off a particle when appearing in photos and videos. These orbs are not part of a paranormal experience.

On a rare occasion, sometimes these orbs are seen with the natural eye and appear to be intelligent energy orbs that communicate and follow instructions. This type of interaction with an orb is harder to explain away that it was dust caused by a reflection of light that resulted in a sphere anomaly.

Some paranormal enthusiasts believe that orbs could be manifestation of energy that is connected to spirits, ghosts, spirit guides, and angels. Over my years of ghost hunting, I have seen orbs with my natural eyes and watched them move while filming. I have noticed that some orbs will drift or travel in a group going into the same direction. When this happens, I think that I am witnessing contamination in the atmosphere and that is not a spirit or ghost. But when I notice that the orb seems to have an intent on motion then I pay close attention to that orb. If I notice that the orb is moving back and forth, slow then fast, appearing in and out of the frame, I will ask questions, “Sweet Spirits, can you please go to the right hand of Betty so we can capture your energy on film. I will not harm you or exploit you and any way. I just want to prove that you exist. Thank you.” Then when I start taking snap shots or if I am videoing and capture an orb near or on the right hand, I feel I have communicated with an intelligent energy. This could possibly be a loved one that has passed, a spirit, a ghost, or a spirit guide.

For years I have received emails that would include photos of orbs that appeared at funerals, weddings, graduations, family reunions, hospital rooms, and other gatherings. The questions they asked in these emails were if I could confirm that the orb or orbs was a certain loved one that had passed on and had come back to the visit them during the event. I would like to think that in these gatherings when the energy is so charged with love and joy that they would attract our loved ones form the spiritual realm and they would come back to be a part of the wonderful events. During other times like funerals and hospitals maybe they come back to support us in our time of grief and assist the one that is passing over.

One of my greatest joys is to share my experiences of the spirit world with my grandchildren and nieces and nephews. Sometimes when I go to family events the kids would come and sit around me to hear some of my latest adventures with ghosts. I would pull out my iPhone and show them some of my favorite apparitions and orbs from previous ghost investigations. On one of these family events the kids wanted me to take them to the downstairs playroom and take pictures of them to see if I could get a spirit orb to come to them. I started out by asking if there were any sweet spirits in the room and then took some snapshot with my iPhone. We started to get orbs to appear and that thrilled them all. I told them that I wanted to see if we could get proof that they were good spirits so the children would not be afraid. I asked one of the oldest to hold out her hand and lean in for a kiss and as she held that pose, I asked the sweet spirit to give her a kiss back. Upon snapping the iPhone camera, I captured the most amazing shot ever for a spirit orb. The orb appeared in her hand just as she was in the kissing stance. When I revealed the photo to the kids they squealed with excitement.

Ghost hunting is not an exact science. Some of us depend on electromagnetic equipment, audio recorders, cameras, video recorders, and EVP apps, to mention a few, as means to collect evidence during a ghost investigation. Some of us like to tap into our psychic abilities to communicate directly with the spirits during an investigation. We also like to implement other metaphysical items such as semi-precious stones, smudging, dowsing rods, and pendulums to enhance our ability to communicate with the spirits. For me, I like to say that ghost hunting is at its best while working with the science and the sensitive.

My sensitive capabilities work well when dealing with orbs during an investigation. One of my most complicated orb experiences was capturing colored orbs. They would show up in the color pink, purple, blue, green, orange, black, and red. One day I asked myself, “What could it mean to see an orb in a vivid color?” The answer came to me that maybe the spirit orb was exposing its aura. The color of the aura could reveal its personality, mood, or a condition. I liked that explanation. I began to notice the colors and if there were a direct association with the location, or if there was a connection to the situation at hand for the orb to appear in a color. If I saw a green orb, I would feel like I was meeting a spirit that was capable of healing. I would check the history and I would learn that there was a doctor that died in that location. This was a good confirmation for me. If the color was yellow, I would pick up that the spirit could teach, instruct, or council and again that would confirm who the spirit was. So, I began to ask the sweet spirit to show their aura or let us know how they felt that time. Once I explained this, I would start getting orbs in colors.

To give an example of this I had a wonderful experience with a color orb that involved a dear friend of my, Chip Coffey, world renown, psychic medium. For a few years Chip and I traveled over the US to universities and colleges performing lectures with a PowerPoint presentation of evidence captured on ghost investigations. During one of our Q&A sessions there was a professor standing in the back of the room. While Chip was answering questions, he stopped and pointed to the professor. He started a conversation with him and told him he had a message from spirit to share. After getting permission from the professor to share the information, he told him that he was going to have a child and it would be a little girl. The professor agreed that his wife had just found out that she was pregnant, but they did not know the gender of the child. At that point I decided to take a picture of the professor and on top of his head there was a big pink orb. I thought that was a rather good confirmation. We did find out that later that he did have a little girl.

The Dead Speak from Beyond the Grave

by Patti Starr | Feb 18, 2021 | Paranormal

The Dead Speak Beyond the Grave.

One of my favorite cemeteries is found in Lexington, KY and dates to the late 1800’s. The location is private, but I was allowed to take my students there for several ghost investigations. When I was teaching Ghost Hunting at the Bluegrass Community and Technical College, during 2001-2008, I chose this cemetery because of the constant ghostly activity. We would get great EVPs that were captured on a variety of analog audio recorders.

Over the many years of evaluating my ghost evidence I have developed an eye for catching anomalies in my photos and videos and, I have developed an ear for hearing the EVPs come through the audio recorders and video recorders. My talent for having great hearing skills was developed from my earlier years during my classes in my high school band. Our director would play musical concert pieces and then have us write down every instrument that was playing the tune. When doing this you have to listen to all the different layers of sound and pitch to figure out the different instruments. Sometimes the most difficult part of capturing EVPs is when the voice come across as multiple people are talking. This is where I must listen to all the different layers to catch the EVP. Sometimes the EVP message is relevant to the conversation and other times it is not.

As we were completing our investigation one evening, I noticed on the stone fence there was an audio recorder that was still recording. I wanted to make sure that the student did not forget to pack it up with the other equipment, so I asked the group who did the recorder belong to. One student explained that it was her recorder. After clearing that mystery, I asked for the students to return my meters. Part of the course was to let the students use my equipment so they could learn how to use each piece during a ghost investigation. As they were returning the instruments, I would say thank you and they responded thank you as well. To my joy, the recorder that was left on the stone fence was still recording and captured a great EVP that said loud and clear, “Thank you”. When I am asked to do Library or college PowerPoint presentations on ghost hunting this is one of my favorite EVPs to share.

I have had many other seasoned and novice ghost hunters ask me why I get so many EVPs during my investigations. I would like to think it is because I start my investigation by showing honor and respect to the ghost and spirits that we might encounter during this time. I start with a group prayer. I introduce myself and address them as Sweet Spirits when explaining to them why we are here. I ask them to help us prove that they exist by showing themselves or talking to us or use physical energy to move items as we record them. If a cemetery is our location, I take trash bags and encourage the others to pick up trash before we get started. A few times we have found smaller headstones that were broken off and laying on the ground. At that time, we would pick the headstone up and place it back onto the base. I honestly think that our actions and the way we speak to them shows our respect and they in turn help us by speaking and giving us that evidence we are hoping to collect.

While we were at the cemetery where we picked up the broken headstone and placed it back onto its base, I got a grateful EVP that said, “Thank you kindly”. Now this EVP was one of those that came through while a few of us were talking so you really must listen to hear him say his thank you kindly. I tell my students the more you listen the more you will learn to hear these background EVPs.

Another EVP that we were blessed to get during another class was from a little girl. Her voice sounds like maybe 5 to 6 years old. This was another EVP that was captured while we were talking. The name that came through loud and clear was Nonnie. Just as a heads up, Nonnie/Noni/Nonie is commonly a term of endearment for an Italian grandmother. The names on some of the headstones that we could read were Hull and Key and these names come from Anglo Saxon. I did not find any Italian sir names on the standing headstones. However, there were several headstones that were broken or too hard to read the names.

I found another cemetery, also located in Lexington, KY, where I could take my students. The first time I was there I wanted to make sure it would be active enough to have my students join me. At this time, it was just me and my husband, Chuck that was checking it out. While I was there, I walked over to a headstone that described a child. As I was talking about this headstone, I captured the voice of a small child say, “Mama”. You really must listen to hear it because of the heavy static that was recorded as well.

At this same cemetery, on another night, I was doing a ghost investigation for a local TV station around Halloween. While walking around reading the headstones I happened upon a small grave site of a child. To my surprise my EMF meter went off as I was reading the information on the headstone. I thought, “This is interesting”. You can hear me speak to the TV camera man about how strange it was that my meter went off. After reviewing my audio recording, I heard an EVP come through and it says, “Save me.”. Shortly after getting the EVP the meter goes off again. So, the meter goes off before and after I get the EVP, “Save me.”.

I am posting these EVPs below so that you can listen to each one as many times as you like. If you have earphones you might be able to hear some of the EVPs better.

If you enjoyed reading this article, please comment and/or share my post. Thank you.

I also created a YouTube on this same title of this post if you would like to check it out. I would appreciate it so much if you would like, subscribe, and hit the bell icon so that you will be notified when other videos become available. Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKcaapTfEs4&t=66s