Busy Time of the Year

This has been an extremely busy week for RTPS. Last Saturday night the group went in with board member Donna Haire and guest Heather Bangert, to the Villa Kathrine for a mini investigation. It was good to have a board member go in with us with her own equipment because each and every time we go to the Villa Kathrine we pick up something. We haven’t heard from Donna yet but our mini IR camera picked up her voice asking questions and a man’s voice answering, sometimes before the question is asked. Our group had the same thing happen, a voice saying exactly what we are going to say in the next second. For many people this is probably unsettling, for our group we explore that with zest. Psychical research and scientific research can work hand in hand even if our logical minds say this is impossible. Is it?
Heather Bangert was our guest because of her devoted work to the Underground Railroad in our area and her unfathomable knowledge in the hot spots of Quincy. We have talked about John VanDoorn and his brothers who owned a sawmill in Quincy in the early to mid 1800′s. the sawmill was located on the riverfront area down the bluff from the Villa Kathrine. We are researching the possiblity of the property of the Villa Kathrine being an important part of the route for escaping slaves. It was great to have Heather accompany us while we explored the basement of the Villa where we have been told a tunnel used to exit some thirty years ago. We are told the tunnel had chains in it, could it have been a tunnel for the slaves??? Or maybe as Heather suggested, a tunnel to hang the meat at the turn of the century. We did not find the opening to the tunnel but our ghost meter picked up a strong current of energy on the stone foundation footing for the Villa. Is it proof??? No but it was interesting and our ongoing research leads us to many exciting different paths to investigate paranormal activity.
Not only did we have Donna and Heather with us for this investigation but one of our local television stations came in with us. WGEM came in and filmed us while investigating and did a couple of short interviews. We look forward to this airing this week and will post the link to their website when the video is up. Brian Shoemaker , website director and reporter for this night was wonderful and we thank him publicly for doing such a great job!
As a final note, we did bring in all of our equipment with this investigation. We may have only been there four hours but again we pick up more acitivity on all of our audio equipment. Video is still not turning up much but we aren’t giving up. Sooner or later we will bring in the right piece of equipment or Mr Metz will be ready to appear for us and we (or someone else) will be lucky enough to capture this. We have been honored by Mr Metz and whoever else lives in the etheral world of the Villa. We have said it before and we will say it again, Mr. Metz and his friends of the Moorish Castle on the bluffs of the Mississippi have something to tell us. They are respectable, friendly souls, nothing to be afraid of. They are as interested in everyone who visits as we are in them. There are plans in the works for haunted night tours of the Villa but until then you can visit anytime during their visiting hours for only $3 a person. Our group believes this is one of the best bargains in the Quincy area at a time when everyone is looking for bargains. Just make sure you tell Mr Metz hello when you come in and ask Bingo if he would like to play!

Jul 9, 2009