Return to Shackelford Corner

Shackelford Corner is a quaint Queen Anne style home in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee. It is also a house with a long history of disturbing events that have happened within its walls. The house itself was built in 1905 by the Shackelford family, who controlled most of the concrete industry in the area. As a result, the family was responsible for a great deal of the construction projects in the region, and they employed a large number of African-American workers during that time period (early 1900's). One of the stories told of the family and the house is that one of the daughters of the Shackelford family had an affair with a black worker, the result being a mulatto child. For a prominent family such as the Shackelfords, this would have been a great social scandal, so the child was hidden in an upstairs room in the house for the first three years of his life. The story is told that the embarrassment of this child was so great that the family did not even give him a name. During a party one evening, the child apparently came out of his room from upstairs. Because the boy was supposed to be kept out of sight, he was caught on the stairs and allegedly beaten to death in the process, although it was later claimed the boy died of dysentery.

This was just one of the sad stories of this house.

We went back to this house for a second time on evening of October 8th (having gone previously in the spring) to further investigate some of the strange things that we encountered on our first visit. After a quick sweep of the house, we decided where to put our equipment.

One of the stranger things that happened on our first visit happened in the basement of the house. The basement was once used as an illegal speakeasy in the 20's and 30's, so we were told it was a hotspot for strange occurrences. On our first visit, several of our team members experienced marbles either being dropped or thrown at them. A search of the basement revealed no apparent way these marbles could have been dropped down the stairs without being heard, or rolled down somehow from the ceiling. So, for our second visit, the first thing we did was scour the basement for any possible holes in the ceiling or pipes, or anything that might dropped or roll marbles down into the basement. The floor was also examined to make sure there were no marbles already there. Satisfied that the basement was clear, we placed one of our DVR's down there.

Another area of interest was the front sitting room (the room that was once used as a funeral parlor). A strange toy monkey was sitting near the entrance to the front hallway. This monkey (pictured below). . .. . .was one of those old "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys whose hands would move up to cover his eyes. In some of our pictures, the monkey's arms were in the "up" position, and in later pictures they would be in the "down" position. Therefore, we placed one of our video cameras focused on the monkey to see if it moved. Below is a picture of the monkey with his arms in the "down position"

We had several instances of televisions turning themselves on and off in the house, the first time happening when we immediately walked in. One of the televisions that switched on was in the master bedroom, the other one was upstairs in the the boys' bedrooms. In order to avoid the risk of the upstairs television being turned on remotely, we made sure the infrared remote sensor was unplugged from the wall (this is important). We placed DVR's in the crawlspace of the house, upstairs in the boys' bedrooms, and of course, down in the basement. We also had a DVR we carried around with us to catch E.V.P.'s as we traveled around the house.

We decided to go inside the house in pairs of two (there were six of us) while the others waited outside on the front porch. This was done to avoid contaminating the recordings inside with a lot of ambient noises as people moved around the house.

Each team went in for about 30 to 45 minutes apiece. We had two women in our group and they were paired up. Remarkably, the most interesting things happened to them as they went through the house.

About 9:45 in the evening, the team of two women was inside the house. They had gone down into the basement. We had gone in after to check on one of the video cameras when we heard them calling for us from downstairs. We came down there stairs and were immediately told to watch our steps and stay close to the stairs. It was immediately apparent that something strange had happened and the two women were agitated. The lights had stayed on in the basement while the women were down there. They told us what happened.

They were away from the stairs near the side door of the basement that led outside. A loud noise was heard of something falling, and when they turned around, there were three objects on the floor, two buckeyes and a large marble. The objects were arranged almost in an exact straight line almost equal distance from each other. The objects did not bounce (as would have been evidenced by the DVR recording we had in the basement) nor did they roll. It was literally as if someone had placed them in a straight line on the floor. We called the other team members down to see the objects. The owner of the house said that it looked as if they were pointing to something (maybe the well beneath the house). If you look at the picture below, you can see the objects circled with arrows pointed at them and see how they are lined up.
We tested out the sound the objects would have made if they were dropped. They all made a distinct sound and would have bounced or rolled if dropped. So how did they get there? The lights were on, but the women did not see the buckeyes and the marble until after they were on the floor. While we were all in the basement pondering the mystery of the marbles, the owner of the house said the thought he felt something near some of us. He reached over to the table and grabbed one of our cameras and snapped a picture. In this photograph shows a weird, white, hand-like "thing" coming down from the ceiling. And, yes, it looks like it's about to drop a marble on the floor because you will be able to see a marble in the photograph.

Another instance happened with the two women upstairs in the boys' bedroom. These bedrooms were not where the mulatto boy died, but two other boys who had died later on in the house. As soon as they women walked into the second boy's room, the television turned itself on and the volume shot way up then turned itself back off. Needless to say, the two women were startled by this. They ran outside to get us and when we went back upstairs with we checked the room. The remote sensor that we had been so careful to unplug had mysteriously been plugged back into the wall. It was unplugged again to see if the television would turn on without it (a side note: the owner of the house was outside with us or around one of us almost the entire night. He never went upstairs the entire night, and all of our team insisted that no one had plugged in that remote sensor). So one of the biggest unsolved questions of the night was how or who plugged it into the wall? We moved the camera away from the monkey (who had decided not to move while the camera was on it, of course) and placed it upstairs to monitor the television.

By now it was drawing towards midnight, and with two very strange occurrences happening, we were curious to what would happen next. Several of us decided to investigate the back of the house near the garage area where a strange squeaking sound was heard by three of us but the source was never located.

When we came back into the house, we were treated to a strange sight. The ceiling light above the kitchen table was swinging wildly (we caught this on video, which will be posted later). Quickly, one of our team ran upstairs to walk around to see if the vibrations of someone walking above could cause the swinging (it didn't). Another strange sight in the kitchen: a lot of the kitchen cabinet doors were wide open. Again, everyone was accounted for, and no one opened any of the cabinets because everyone (even the owner of the house) was with someone else. Some of the cabinets were opened fully, others were just cracked.

Very odd, indeed.

We cannot account for the reasons these things happened. We still have hours of audio recordings to shift through. The owner of the house has had several paranormal groups investigate his house, and each one leaves with new evidence and new stories to tell.

The Old Curiosity Shop. . .

There has always seemed to be a strong link between antiques and the paranormal. When you think about the items that define us as people, the things we hold on to but refuse to throw away even after their value is questioned, it would seem that some just don't want to let go. Walking through any antique store is like walking through a room full of ghosts. When you think that these were the items that someone once owned and probably cherished, you think about the ties that they had to the person. Perhaps this item was a gift from a grandchild, and maybe this one was passed down from a great-grandparent, so you think about the original owners of the items.

Psychometry is a paranormal phenomenon that allows one to detect associations by handling objects. In other words, if you pick up an item, you can "feel" its energy field and then know its history. This has been shown in countless Hollywood films. A "psychic" is working with the police department to solve a murder case, she picks up a knife or some other object, and there is a big flash and she sees the killer using the object. Entertaining, yes. Is there any truth to this? As with anything else, it's subjective. Some people, after all, believe they can see Mother Teresa in a cinnamon bun, so anything's possible.

Antique stores, therefore, would seem to be a prime breeding ground for the residual energy of those who are clinging to objects after they pass on. So, if one believed in psychometry, it would seem that walking through an antique store and randomly picking up objects would open up a flood gate of knowledge and feelings of the previous owners.

Which brings us to the Spotted Dog Antique Store in Dickson, Tennessee. The Spotted Dog is located just off of Main Street, and is home to the castaway items that people have abandoned or left behind in their homes as they move on. According to Dickson County history, back when the city of Dickson had the name of "Sneedsville" ( the name was changed to Dickson after the people in Dickson discovered there was already another city named Sneedsville) a fire raged through a row of houses and, as seems to be typical of folklore and history, some children were apparently killed. Could the spirit of the children who died be lingering around the antique store? Could the residual energy of the antiques attract spirits who might think some of the items look familiar to them? Well. . .

One of our investigators had gone to the store the weekend before. She had told us that there may have been the spirit of a young girl, approximately fourteen or so, named Angel, who haunted the store. A motion detector had been placed in one of the spots where activity had been reported. What was strange was that the motion detector keep sounding in response to certain questions, even though no one was moving, and there was no other activity in the store. Could the spirit of the girl have been setting off the motion detector? Also, some loud thumping was heard as well.

So, we went in, set up the cameras, and did an EMF sweep of the store to get a reading before the power was cut so we could compare it to another reading after the power was cut. We set up a camera in two areas of the store. The first camera was placed pointing at the area the motion detector was set up, and the second camera was placed at the area where the loud thumping was heard. We did several tests with the motion detector to make sure that it would not go off unless someone was directly in front of it. Everything was set, the DVR's were placed, and the power was cut.

We did some E.V.P. sessions, which is simply just asking questions out loud and then playing back the recording later to see if you caught any voices on tape. As we sat there, the motion detector started beeping, and then it went off. We were asking general questions and asking for a response by asking if someone was there, to set off the detector with a beep. Sure enough, as if on cue, the detector would go off with a shrill alarm each time (we'll know more about this after we analyze the DVR recording to see if there are any sounds before the alarm goes off).

We turned on our E.V.P. box which is supposed to let you hear sounds in certain frequency ranges that approximate the ranges that E.V.P.'s are caught at, but you don't need headphones. After certain questions, there would be a pronounced hum and shift in the tone of the box, as if someone was saying "no." or sometimes there would be a shift in frequency and it would sound as if there was a two syllable answer to our questions (again, we'll know more after the evidence is completely analyzed).

It might be that there was no spirit of a girl named Angel. It might have been a little boy, or there might have been several spirits there. The motion detector kept going off, but it wasn't randomly going off. It was going off only in response to questions. A logical mind would say that if there was a short or something in the detector, it would be going off randomly, like in the middle of a question, or in the middle of a conversation. But no, the detector only went off after a pause for an answer to a direct question. Very odd.

We wrapped up the investigation about 1:00 in the morning, and the long process of breaking down the evidence began. . .

So, did this antique store hold residual spirit energy? All we have to go on is its history (a great fire, a tragedy), the reports of the owners and those who have been in the store, and our motion detector that keep going off in response to questions. We'll know more after we listen to our audio recordings. If spirits are drawn to antique-like objects, it would make sense to say that they are lingering. Or perhaps the objects in the store themselves hold ghosts. If the things we own reflect ourselves, who's to say that they still don't reflect us after we're gone?

Selmer, Tennessee. A Nice Place to Visit. . .

Last night (January 2, 2010) part of our team was invited to investigate a private residence in Selmer, Tennessee. When most people think about haunted houses, the old, gothic mansions dripping with cobwebs and mist (the kind you see on Scooby-Doo) come to mind. But they are mostly Hollywood images. This house, on this night, was a normal house, on a normal street, and it could have been literally Anyhouse, USA.

The history of the land and the house that sits on it is an interesting one. Apparently, in the early part of the twentieth century (about 1912 or so) a school sat on the property that this house now sits on. Being a predominately African-American part of town at the time, the school itself was an African-American school. According to county folklore passed down through the years, a little black girl was murdered, her body put into the school, and the school then burned down to conceal the crime. Historical accounts of this incident are sketchy and because of the time and place, it apparently didn't get a lot of press attention.

Which brings us to the house we went to. Part of the house had burned down several years ago and had to be rebuilt (remember this is on the same land as the school). When the house was rebuilt, most of the flooring and bricks remained. The owners of the house began hearing things and seeing things in and around their house. They would hear sounds of a baby crying, the water would turn itself on and off inside the bathrooms, doors would be found opened and closed on their own. When the owner of the house would lie on the couch, she would sometimes awaken with a tickle on the nose. There were also reports of the television volume mysteriously turning itself up and down and changing channels, even though a repair technician said there was nothing wrong with the television itself.

She (the owner of the house) also reported seeing three little black girls in period dress (common around the early 1900's) moving through the house. There were also sounds of singing "ring around the rosey." The apparitions of the little girls would float through the house, not acknowledging the owner's presence, and then exit out the back where the laundry room was located. The owner of the house's daughter (approximately 5 or 6 years old) also reported seeing a man in an orange hat and clothes in the back yard and complained about things being above her bed in her room.

All of this activity had the owner concerned, although she didn't seem too frightened by it. She mostly wanted someone to believe these things were happening in her house. The people around in her neighborhood (who are mostly African-American) were also convinced her house was haunted, and they were reluctant to speak about the incident that happened in the early 1900's. The neighbor across the street even claimed to have seen figures floating out the side door of a nearby church and then vanishing towards the backyard of the house.

The owner of the house was gracious enough to leave us in her house without being disturbed while we set up our equipment and went to work. The first thing we did was make an E.M.F. sweep of the house to determine any strong magnetic fields in the house. We noticed very quickly that there were very high E.M.F. readings in the master bedroom and along the southern side of the house. (A quick note about E.M.F.'s: high levels can cause a feeling of dizziness, unsteadiness, queasiness, and just a weird-all around feeling. In extremely high levels, it could lead to hallucinations). This side of the house was part of the original house that was still standing after the house burned a few years back.

Other than the master bedroom and the southern side of the house, the rest of the house seemed to have normal E.M.F. readings and everything seemed to be shielded properly. After we did our initial E.M.F. sweep, we took average temperature readings throughout the house to see if we could pinpoint any abnormally hot or cold areas. The temperature all around the house seemed to average about 65 degrees.

We set up recording devices in the main areas of the house where activity had been reported. We put one in what we'll call the pink bedroom (the little girl who saw the man in the orange hat's room), one in the laundry room (where the apparition of the little black girls seemed to float out of the back door), one in the master bedroom (where the high E.M.F. readings were), and we left one in the living room (the main part of the house). We set up a motion detector near the stairs leading to the laundry room that would sound if anything passed by. We also focused a laser beam across the living room floor with our video camera recording to see if anything broke the beam.

A few of us went outside to investigate the nearby church and photograph the house and the yard around it, while the rest of us stayed inside to do some E.V.P. work and see if we could pick up on any usual sounds. We cut the main power off to the house (except for the heat: it was very cold that night, of course) and waited in the darkness.

Because it has been reported that spirits of children sometimes respond to items that they might have been familiar with in their lifetime, we had brought with us a few toys that might have been common around 1912 (a doll, some balls, a little marble board game that was said to have been popular at the time) to try to see if it would help in the responses. After the power was cut, we did E.M.F. readings in the high level areas again, and they seemed normal, indicating that the wiring in the walls might have been shielded property when the power was on.

The early part of the night was fairly quiet. We did some more E.V.P. work and then focused on the laundry room (where a large part of the activity was said to have occurred). We sat in there about thirty minutes, and then decided to move back out into the living room.

Approximately two minutes later, the motion detector sounds (remember it is set up in the laundry room stairs).

We turn off the motion detector and everyone immediately says "it wasn't me, I was over here. . ."etc. We are baffled about what could have set off the detector (even the dog who was in the house at the time was asleep on his pillow). We ran through the questions, did someone get too close? No. Did someone accidentally hit the button? No. The button was on the bed and no one was touching it. Well, how sensitive is this motion detector? We took one of the balls and rolled it by. We bounced it. We shined lights down at it. Someone or something else other than us set off that detector, and we remained baffled by it.

In the pink bedroom (the little girls room) two of our group reporting have cold spots independently of each other at the same time. We checked all the temperatures and they turned out normal. Nothing coming from the air vents overhead. No cold spots coming from our spot checks.

It was drawing close to midnight when these events occurred. We would have loved to stay longer and push the issue, but the owner of the house (who had been kind enough to leave for us to do our investigation) needed to come back home (and who could blame her, it was cold, and she had kids with her who needed to sleep) so we told her that would be fine and we began packing up our things.

As far as things go, we probably needed to be there a little bit longer to try to debunk some things. The strange feelings we could dismiss as high E.M.F. levels in the bedroom. The little girl seeing things floating in her room (she had butterflies and little bird things hanging on her ceiling that moved a little when the air from the vents came on, which , in a darkened room, could be a little weird looking to a small child). There were a lot of shadows outside from the street lights that could very easily be seen inside the house when someone walked around outside in the yard. Even the television could be explained as having power surges from being plugged into the same wall as the high E.M.F. readings.

But that motion detector going off as soon as we left that room we still can't explain. We can't explain those cold spots, either.

As far as the house being haunted, we're going to go with a nice, safe, "we don't know." Most things people see and hear can be explained away 99% of the time.

It's that 1% that will get ya.

We do want to thank the owners of the house for letting us come down. You were very kind and generous, and if you need us to come back, just give us a call.

Dispatches from the Undiscovered Country

There have been a lot of questions and speculations about the true nature of what happens after we pass on. Aside from the religious beliefs of an afterlife, let's assume that if Einstein was correct, that if energy never really dissipates, it just changes forms, then what is human life? If we go with the argument that human life is a series of electrical impulses, charges, and a mass of energy, what happens to all that energy after the body shuts down? Does it vanish? Or does it "go" somewhere? A lot of theories behind E.V.P.'s (electronic voice phenomenon) say that the voices and sounds that show up are captures of this energy that is still just kind of hovering around.

Whether or not one believes this theory, one must take it as just that: a theory. Tonight marks the first investigation of 2010 for us (and possibly the last, but more on that later). We are traveling down to McNairy County, Tennessee (not to find the ghost of Fielding Hurst) but to investigate the site of an old school fire that happened in the early part of the 1900's (around 1912) and the house that is near this property. We'll keep an update after the investigation.