From The GRIM Society Haunted History Tour, posted by on 4/15/2012 (20 items)

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Below is our final report on our first investigation at the McCarty House .There are a few unique aspects to the location; most importantly, the construction of the building created an unusual acoustic situation. A person could be speaking on the first floor in a normal conversational voice and be clearly heard in the attic-two floors away. Our first concern was contamination, but, as we were to discover later, it allowed us to match every conversation and movement of team members by comparing audio and video from different floors.

Investigation Overview

Date of Investigation: August 27 and 28, 2010
Team 1: James Dourney, Samantha Dourney
Team 2: Tamara Dourney, Elizabeth Sockol
Start Time: 7:00 p.m.
End Time: 12:00 a.m.
Temperature: 85° F
Relative Humidity: 75%
Wind Speed: East 10mph
Barometric Pressure: Steady
Weather Notes: Partly Cloudy
Lunar Status: Waning Gibbous, 91% Full
Solar X-Rays: Normal
Geomagnetic Field: Unsettled

The group arrived at the location at 6:30. After an initial walk-through with the owner of the building, equipment locations were discussed. Set-up began at exactly 7:00.

Team One

Team 1 installed stationary equipment, placing the JVC camcorder on the first floor, the RCA cassette recorder in the attic stairwell and the Flip camcorder in the eastern attic room. Team 1 also placed the motion detector in the western attic room. After Team 1 left the area, the detector began to indicate motion, so they returned. They made several attempts to discover the cause of the alarm, but were unsuccessful. After relocating the device and trying to muffle the natural vibrations of the building, it was determined that the sensor would not be viable for the investigation. It should be noted that, prior to the investigation, all equipment was tested in good, working order- this included the motion detector.

After removing the motion detector, Team 1 returned to the first floor. Taking the Sony Handycam, Team 1 proceeded back up to the attic, then began a walk-through of the upper floors. At approximately 8:20 pm, Team 1 was standing in the central room on the east side of the 2nd floor when they heard what they believed to be the sound of a woman. Unsure of the source, Team 1 contacted Team 2 via the radio and queried them regarding the sounds. When Team 2 reported no sounds, Team 1 proceeded to the first floor in an attempt to locate the source.

After meeting up with Team 2 at the entrance to the building, the teams separated and did a perimeter search. Team 2 proceeded around the building to the west while Team 1 proceeded around the east. Unable to locate any reasonable source for the sound, the Teams returned to the entryway to further discuss the incident. At this time, Team 1 proceeded back to the third floor to change tapes in the RCA cassette recorder, then continued on their walk-through. At 10 p.m. both teams met outside to empty memory cards from the digital devices. After removing the data from the cards, Team 1 remained downstairs in the entry room. After thirty minutes, Team 1 proceeded once again to a walk-through of the building. At approximately 11 p.m., Team 1 moved upstairs to the attic where they once again changed the cassette tape. They also relocated the Flip camcorder so that it covered the attic stairwell. During the final trip through the home, the Sony Handycam began to malfunction. Just before midnight, the team began to break down the equipment.

Team Two

Team 2 took initial outside temperature readings with the laser temperature gauge. These readings were measured at 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00 and recorded. After the set-up was completed, Team 2 took the Sony Handycam and did a complete walk-through of the building, starting outside at 7:30, then proceeding to the interior. The team arrived on the second floor at 7:40, then moved on to the attic. Pictures were taken during this time using the Fujifilm S3100; after the walk-through was completed, Team 2 stationed themselves in the western porch area with the Olympus digital recorder.

While sitting on the porch, Team 2 took pictures of the area. After taking only 25 photographs, the FujiFilm A210 flashed the low battery light and shut off. The batteries, which were opened and installed just prior to the investigation, were measured at full power once the camera was removed from the building. Team 2 continued taking pictures with the Panisonic Lumix. Less than five minutes
later, the Lumix experienced the same battery drain; it was also fine once removed from the building.

At approximately 8:20, Team 2 was contacted via radio by Team 1, who reported the sound of someone unauthorized possibly outside or entering the building. Team 2, unable to hear the sounds reported by Team 1, nonetheless moved towards the entryway to investigate the sounds. The teams met up at the main door to the building and, having discovered nothing to that point, proceeded to move outside the structure. While Team 1 moved east towards Indian River Drive, Team 2 took a western route towards the back of the building. Unable to locate any person or persons outside the structure, the teams met up at the entry once more.

Before the teams split up again, Team 2 reported hearing an unexplained sound, similar to a sigh. Team 1 did not hear the noise.

Team 2 then proceeded back to the porch, moving from there into the office area. While reading an old newspaper clipping on the shelf, they heard the sound of bottles rolling on the porch. Moving into the front room, they took several pictures of the porch through the doorway, but were unable to locate any bottles in the area. Team 2 then took several pictures in the office; during this time, the camera’s flash refused to fire on two separate images. As the team moved from the office past the JVC video camera,
they heard what appeared to be a male voice speaking from above them. Proceeding up the stairwell, they tried to locate the source. As they reached the rooms on the west side of the second floor, they radioed Team 1 and requested they stop speaking, hoping to isolate the sound, but were unable to locate the source.

Team 2 continued to walk through the house, using the Olympus digital recorder while they explored the upper areas of the home, until midnight, when they began to break down the equipment.

Equipment Malfunctions

Motion Detector – Tested and working prior to investigation. Once installed in the attic, it began to continuously fire. After several attempts to remedy the problem, Team 1 removed it from the building. At this point, they covered the motion sensor with tape, blocking it completely. It continued to register motion and was determined to be broken. Removed from the remainder of the investigation.

Cameras – Two separate cameras experienced battery drain (one after 8 images, one after 15) within five minutes of each other. Both cameras worked fine (with full battery) once removed from the house. One incident of the flash not firing. At the end of the investigation, the Sony Handycam stopped working, yet continued to record at odd intervals for several minutes.

EMF Reader

Though the EMF reader was used throughout the night, it never registered any fluctuations. All readings for electromagnetic fields turned up zero. While this is encouraging for the investigation (since strong fluctuations can interfere with other equipment) it is somewhat unusual, given the proximity of power lines and other large electronic equipment to the building.

Flip Video Camera

The Flip video did not record any visual anomalies. However, the entire video is rife with audio anomalies; there are 18 separate instances of banging, bumping or knocking within a 35 minute time frame. Here are a few of the more remarkable instances:

Timestamp: 21:20

The first remarkable sounds appear at this point. A double knocking sound is made by a car moving over a nearby manhole; this is followed by what sounds like the noise made by walking and shuffling feet.

Timestamp: 1:46:45

The very odd noises that are recorded here go far beyond the more simplistic sounds in the other locations. The sounds are so loud they are heard by the group, which is confirmed by Team 2 downstairs.

Additional banging, bumping and or knocking can be found at the following timestamps:

22:06, 25:11, 29:40, 31:55, 32:09, 33:31, 39:02, 47:45, 1:27:50, 1:27:58, 1:41:10

Sony Handycam

The Sony Handycam provided several interesting anomalies, most of which documented on other investigative equipment. The two most impressive instances are described below.

Timestamp: 28:05

The Handycam picks up what appears to be the sound of a woman crying. This is the sound reported by Team 1 which spawned the sweep of the property as the group searched for any unauthorized persons.

Timestamp: 58:40

The entire group is gathered downstairs near the entry way. As they discuss the next steps they will take, Elizabeth sighs. The sigh is caught clearly on video, but is followed immediately by a second sound, which is reminiscent of either a sigh or of someone blowing onto a microphone. Tamara responds to the sound, searching for the source, but there is no obvious explination.

Additional anomalies can be found at:

27:57, 35:48, 40:55, 45:22

Digital Voice Recorder

There are several unexplained incidents captured on the Olympus digital voice recorder. Because this device was recording nearly without stop throughout the entire investigation, we have broken the sound files down into more manageable sections. Both these shorter clips and the full, original audio files are included on the data disk.

File: VoiceRecorder-McCarty2-Team2
Timestamp: 01:23

This section of the audio recording provides a secondary transcript of the incident with the possible intruder. As Team 1 contacts Team 2 via radio to determine if both teams are hearing the same noises, Team 2 is clearly unable to hear the sound. When the audio was loaded into Audacity (the audio software used to enhance the files) it became apparent that there is an additional sound on the
recording, one heard by neither team, which sounds distinctly like a voice.

File: VoiceRecorder-McCarty2-Team2
Timestamp: 18:54

As Team 2 investigates the second floor, they pause in the room that occupies the northeast corner of  the structure. Tamara, standing in the doorway to the raised bathroom, asks Elizabeth to pause so that the height difference between the bathroom and the main room can be documented. At this point in the audio recording, a very loud knocking sound is evident. The team, unable to hear the sound, continues with their investigation, moving out into the hallway.

In an attempt to replicate the noise, the team recorded the sound of someone tapping/banging the digital recorder. The resulting sound file did not match the audio recording.

Tape Recorder

There are multiple unexplained bumps and knocks; however, due to the odd acoustics, the group was unable to determine their sources or rule out the teams as the cause of the sounds. At the end of tape one, side A, there is an unexplained sound which builds and has no obvious source.

JVC Video Camera

Even with the addition of a light in the room, the area the JVC camera was placed in proved too dark to allow the camera to focus. However, using the audio to place the team (since it can be matched to the video from the Sony Handycam), an anomaly occurs at time stamp 14:20, roughly 8:20 pm. This incident is approximately two minutes after the group has left the house to sweep the outside in response to odd sounds heard upstairs by Team 1. While the JVC’s audio recording clearly shows the team is still outside of the building, near the entryway on Boston Avenue, a strange light appears on the camera.

This light has the appearance of a flashlight, yet comes from the southwestern corner of the house. After returning to the house during the daylight hours, we discovered that, in order for the light to appear in the location it does on the video, it would have to have come from inside the concrete block addition at the southwestern corner of the structure. An individual shining the light would have to point the flashlight through the door of this concrete block room into the back porch area of the house. However, the outside door to that room is screwed shut; additionally, the door between the two rooms, which is a solid door, is and was closed. Anyone opening the door would have caused a noise easily discernible on the audio from the JVC.

Summary Analysis

After reviewing the data collected during the investigation, the team attempted to locate a reasonable source for all unusual sounds. Explanations were located for two of these sounds; the double thump heard across all the audio equipment was determined to be the sound of cars as they drove over a manhole located just down the southbound lane of Indian River Drive, while a noise that resembled the sound of a horse was determined to be caused by cars moving over both decorative brickwork on 2nd street and the Citrus Overpass.

Despite these successful efforts, there are many instances where no plausible source can be determined.

This is the video we provided to the home owner after our first investigation:

We initially assumed that the flash of light you see in the video is from a team member’s flashlight, but once we reviewed the video and audio, we determined that all teams were on the outside on the northeast side of the building while the camera was inside on the southwest corner. We tried on multiple occasions to recreate the light but were unsuccessful.

Here is a cleaned version of the audio from the “Crying Woman” provided by our friends Jayde and Crow at Guilty Creatures Productions:
Crying Woman – G.C. Studio by theGRIMsociety
 

McCarty House under construction 1905-Florida Photographic Collection

The McCarty Family has been one of the most influential families in both Fort Pierce and the state of Florida since they arrived in the region. They boast a long line of lawyers, councilmen, civic leaders, state representatives and even the only governor to hail from Saint Lucie County. Along with the many public offices they have held, the family was also instrumental in creating the pineapple, citrus and cattle industries which this area was famous for long before condos on the beach.

With such an illustrious past, it should come as no surprise that the family was responsible for building the well-known house stationed on a high bluff overlooking the Indian River Lagoon, originally positioned just south of what was then the town. C.T. McCarty (the local patriarch of the family) commissioned the building as a wedding present for his oldest son, Daniel, and Daniel’s new bride. The year was 1905, and the undertaking quickly gained the attention of the community, as seen in the clipping below, taken from the front page of the St. Lucie Tribune in June of 1905.

July 21st, 1905 St. Lucie Tribune

Though little information is known about the building, much of the history of the family who resided there is of interest. Only two years after the completion of the house, the first in a string of tragic events took place involving the home. Early on a January morning in 1907, local resident W.C. Rawlinson waited calmly in the street  for P.P. Cobb to show for his daily breakfast. Angered over a land deal gone bad, Rawlinson planned to kill Cobb, but as fate would have it, Cobb had risen early and had eaten before Rawlinson arrived to carry out his plan.

Frustrated when he was unable to locate Cobb, Rawlinson’s attention was drawn by the arrival of C.T. McCarty, who was walking into the barber for his daily shave. McCarty was Cobb’s attorney and, in Rawlinson’s eyes, just as much to blame for the current misfortune Rawlinson found himself facing. When McCarty exited the barber’s shop, Rawlinson moved into place behind him and coolly shot him in the back three times.

C.T. McCarty Assassinated by W.C. Rawlinson-St Lucie Tribune 1907

His deed done, Rawlinson casually walked down the street whistling while twirling his gun. He proceeded directly to the butcher’s shop, then owned by the county sheriff. He set his gun on the counter and surrendered to Sheriff Dan Carlton. Amazingly, McCarty was not killed instantly, even though one of the bullets had entered his brain. He was attended to by two local physicians. In an attempt to make him more comfortable, McCarty was moved from the doctors office to his son’s home, where the doctors continued to operate in a desperate measure to remove the bullet from his head. McCarty was awake and talking during their efforts. In a tragic ending to the day’s violence, C.T. McCarty succumbed to his wounds and at 1:45 p.m. died in the home of his son.

In 1909, a mere two years following the death of the family’s patriarch, a small announcement in local paper highlighted another tragic event which had taken place in the home: the birth and death of an infant. The McCarty’s baby girl lived only four short hours.

Infant Death -St. Lucie Tribune, 1909

Thirteen years passed before tragedy once again struck the family. In April of 1922, C.T. McCarty’s son, Danial McCarty Sr. had been feeling poorly for a few weeks. On Friday April 14th, he woke and, as was his norm, went to work in his citrus groves, only to return home shortly thereafter complaining of chest pains. At around 2:00 p.m. the doctors was called, but it was to no avail. Daniel T. McCarty passed away at 4:15 p.m. on Friday, April 14th in his home at the age of 42.

30 years later, his son, Daniel T. McCarty Jr. would die while holding office as governor of the State of Florida. He was 41 years old and died of a heart condition.

Despite the tragedies they faced, the family continued to flourish and the stately house on the bluff remained in their possession until the mid-1980′s. It then became a series of law offices, surviving all that life threw its way until, in 2004 and 2005 the area was subjected to a series of hurricanes that, combined with old age and odd building additions dealt a death blow to the grand old home.

Several attempts were made to save the house, which had long been accepted by residents as a local landmark, but estimates to move it from it’s location were well over $1 million; the cost to modernize, renovate and restore the structure would have far exceeded that amount. After several years of legal struggles, the owner was finally given permission to have the building razed.

I can tell you that no one wanted that building saved more than our group, but after spending countless hours inside, we came to realize that it just wasn’t feasible. The cost was too high and the structure itself was not sound enough to give a base to start from. In order to restore the structure, the entire building would have had to have been dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up.

The house was torn down on a cold December morning in 2010. The owner, Curtis Boyd, took a lot of heat in the local news and from local historical groups at the time for allowing the demolition, yet after several discussions with him, we can state—without a doubt—that if another option would have presented itself, the house would still be standing today.

The Governor's House (McCarty House) Fort Pierce, Fl-March 2010

The Governor's/McCarty House, Fort Pierce, Florida

Having grown up in Fort Pierce, I had driven past the old Governor’s House countless times. It stood on the hill over looking the Indian River Lagoon and it made one wonder about the good times and the bad it had seen. Unfortunately, time began to take a toll on the house. The back to back hurricanes (Francis and Jean) in 2004 dealt a severe blow and Hurricane Wilma in 2005 was in “reality” the coup de gras. As the years past, the house began to take on the ominous look of a haunted house from a classic horror film.

Our interest in the house began to develop in 2007, when while conducting research on another nearby building we were given our first hint there might be something to investigate in this building too. This is from a post on our website in October of 2007:

The other night we were at our current extended-investigation location, taking pictures of the outside of the home when I was surprised to hear someone (female) say something that sounded like “Help Me” from the McCarty house next door. Let me set the scene….this is the McCarty House, built in 1905 and currently slated for demolition.

My husband, who was standing next to me at the time, did not hear a thing, which was interesting, but the oddest thing was that the sound came from the top of a tree in the back yard of the home. The tree is near a 2nd floor window, which is boarded up. We searched the area for about 20 minutes, but couldn’t find anything that would account for the noise. We finished up the pictures of the outside of the house we’re investigating and headed home.

The next morning a friend messaged me to tell me she had just had the chance to read our recently posted research. She also commented that she wished she were at work (as a 911 dispatcher), as they get a lot of calls from the area. I inquired about the calls and here is what she said:

we get “ladies of the evening” calling up that there are screams coming from that area but they never say its from that house you’re researching. they are about the house next door.

I of course ask if it is the McCarty house. She responds:

AAAHHHH yes that sounds right. they call to report a woman asking for help. they always say someone is calling from UP…..and we always get calls, can’t remember what time of the night or what nights are the “norm” but i do remember getting calls, and they are always drunk chicks and ‘ladies of the night’, always female now that i think about it and they always say it sounds like a female voice yelling for help. of course when the cops get out there the person calling it in is long gone and theres never anyone screaming

There is one officer that you cant PAY to go to that location- she REFUSES to respond to either house, flat out, unless someone is getting shot at she ain’t going

Now we’re really interested. The house has no history of paranormal activity that we can find, other than these people reporting the woman screaming. Well, last night we went back to our investigation house but also spent a bit of time investigating the McCarty house. While we were there, we couldn’t find anything that would account for the ‘screaming woman’.

Then we came home and started reviewing our evidence. Here is what we found:

Note the two feral cats in the bottom left of the image. You can’t see them when you’re there in person, but we’d be willing to bet $100 that one was in the tree the other night. In case you haven’t heard a feral cat cry, they can sound just like a woman.

At that point, we had relegated the McCarty House “haunting” to wild cats, but the reports kept coming. Some of them were just the sound of screaming, though one report was of a person in the building banging on the window as people were walking by outside. Our interest was cemented and we began to conduct in depth research into the history of the location and of those who lived there.

In March of 2010, one of our team was given permission to photo document the house before it was demolished. During the photo session, the gentleman working to salvage fixtures from the house, Dean Thomason,  stated that he daily heard footsteps, doors opening and closing, light switches being turned and the sounds of talking on other floors when he was the only one inside the building.

What will follow in the next few weeks is our research into the history, our investigations and finally, what we found during our many visits the McCarty House.

We have a few investigations on tap in the next couple of months that we are very excited about.One of the locations is a place we have been trying to get into for years now.

We will update with results as soon as we get the ok from the clients.

If you’re like us, you’ll love this upcoming event! Dr. Wentz is an amazing speaker who will keep you entertained and take the time to answer any questions you might have. We’ll be there- hope you will too!

Join Dr. Rachel Wentz as she explores the strange role the skeleton has played in human culture.

Tuesday, October 19 at 6:30 pm
Ft. Pierce Library
101 Melody Lane
Fort Pierce
(772) 462-2878

I just read an article about a group of hunters and enthusiasts waiting on a railroad bridge for the return of a spectral locomotive. Well, the tragedy occurred when an all too real one came down the rolling down the tracks.

‘Ghost train’ hunter killed by train in North Carolina

Please remember to use good judgment. Nothing is worth the risk of becoming a ghost yourself.

Sometimes a ghost story can be used to start an investigation that leads to a injustice being corrected. Hopefully, this will cause the record to be set right for these people and their families.

We spend countless hours doing research, digging through microfiche, squinting at census records and bouncing ideas off each other. Often, we uncover information that completely unravels the urban legend or debunks a ghost story, but it usually opens up doors to a more interesting story. Like they say “Truth is stranger than fiction”.

Grandfather’s ghost story leads to mass grave.

Likewise, I find myself often watching T.V. shows about ghosts. I enjoy the stories for what they are – entertainment. The problem comes when you start looking into the actual facts of these stories. Often, the tales are impossible to research because they fail to give important details such as names and dates.  Do stories that are unsubstantiated have less value than those with verifiable facts? I suppose it depends on your outlook.  If all you’re looking for is entertainment, then no.  But if you’re looking for something more, something deeper, you have to be able to weed out the urban legends and get down to the bones of a story.  That is where historical research comes in.

I know we don’t update the website very often, but that isn’t because we’re not active.  While you won’t find us posting endless hours of EVPs or countless orb photographs, that doesn’t mean we’re not hard at work.  We’re usually plodding away in search of a stray fact, some dusty truth hidden below the fantastic tales told by so many websites and books.  Here is where we conduct most of our paranormal investigations:

Yep- we do most of our investigating at the local library.  You’d be amazed what you can find in there! The items in that image are the tools of the trade that often get overlooked when you drop by a ghost hunting website and check out their recommended equipment. A pen, some paper, old newspapers on film and a microfiche reader. They pair nicely with HeritageQuest, NewsBank and Ancestry.com. In fact, it doesn’t need to get much more high-tech than that to debunk most ghost stories we come across.  Fact checking the tales is tireless, often unrewarding work.  Often, we discover some tidbit of information in an old newspaper article or locate a headstone that proves without a shadow of a doubt that the tale we’ve been investigating is, well, complete make believe.  It can be quite a let-down, and being the voice of reason when everyone else wants to hear a good story can be daunting at times.  It’s a bit like being a detective, a genealogist, a historian and a lawyer arguing an unpopular case all rolled into one.

Despite all that, there is sometimes a reward; a pot of gold at the end of the research rainbow.  A good example of this can be found in the Boston House.  We’ve been researching the claims attached to the building for years.  Many of them have proven to be nothing more than a really great story to tell around a campfire.  Yet as we debunked those tales, a different picture emerged.  The Boston House has been dubbed haunted for many, many years- something well documented in the local papers.  Those reported paranormal encounters pre-date the currently popular explanation for the hauntings.  Even more interesting is the fact that the home played host to a number of tragedies, any of which could have resulted in paranormal activity.  Finally, as if it were icing on the cake, many credible witnesses have come forward over the years to share their experiences.  These experiences create the perfect situation for furthering the investigation; specific claims that can be investigated on site.

I often wonder how other groups work through their cases.  I find it hard to believe we’re alone in the stacks, the odd group out as we sift through the sensational stories to find the gems that call for further investigation.   I can only hope there are, and that groups with this methodology prevail in finding out the truth behind all the ghost stories we love to tell.

]]> http://thegrimsociety.com/2010/08/11/ghost-stories-versus-historical-research/feed/ 0 http://thegrimsociety.com/2010/07/30/join-us-on-youtube/ http://thegrimsociety.com/2010/07/30/join-us-on-youtube/#comments Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:41:21 +0000 Grim http://thegrimsociety.com/?p=139 We recently create a Youtube Channel. Take second to subscribe and keep an eye out for a new video coming soon.

The Grim Society on Youtube.com

Here is a video of us using an EMF meter to track a high field reading.