NCGH

Chicago’s Ghost Research Society (GRS) will be leading an overnight investigation of the haunted Waverly Hills Sanitarium on Thursday, June 11, from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.

GRS President Dale Kaczmarek said the group will be “using the most advanced state-of-the-art paranormal gadgetry with hopes of uncovering some real supernatural evidence.”

Kaczmarek is the author of a number of popular books, including Windy City Ghosts, Windy City Ghosts 2, A Field Guide to Spirit Photography, and Illuminating the Darkness: The Mystery of Spooklights.

Waverly Hills Sanitarium is in Louisville, Kentucky, and currently owned by Charlie and Tina Mattingly. They have a neat history of the place and great photos at their web site.

The Mattingly’s saved this structure and it appears they have a most interesting business and restoration project going there now. Several networks have done television shows here.

The site opened in 1910, but the large structure there today opened in 1926, built to house tuberculosis patients. In the early 20th century, Jefferson County had a huge outbreak of tuberculosis cases - and this site was used to construct the existing structure. There are many myths and legends about this property - and some of those can be read on this Wikipedia page.

Watch this excellent History Channel video about the place.

About Ghost Research Society
GRS describes itself on its web site: “The Ghost Research Society was formed as a clearing house for reports of ghosts, hauntings, poltergeist and life after death encounters. The society members actively research and investigate all reports that come their way including private homes and businesses. The society also analyzes alleged spirit photographs, video and audio tapes that they come across from ordinary people or society members.”

The group, based in south suburban Oak Lawn, has a variety of ways to become a member. In addition to the group, Kaczmarek and co-founder Jim Graczyk also operate Ghost Research Society Press, founded in 2004, which publishes books on the paranormal.

Graczyk is the author of several paranormal books, including A Field Guide to Chicago Hauntings, Field Guide to America’s Most Haunted, and Chicago Hauntings for Teens.

The group also operates Excursions into the Unknown - Haunted Chicagoland Tours. Find out more by calling them at 708.425.5163

http://www.examiner.com/x-2764-Paranormal-News-Examiner~y2009m3d20-Haunted-Waverly-Hills-Sanitarium-under-investigation

EXETER, R.I., April 23 (UPI) — Five Rhode Island men have been charged with giving ghost-hunting teenagers a real scare by robbing them in an abandoned state school.

State police said the suspects were students in the Job Corps at a building on the grounds of the Ladd School, The Providence Journal-Bulletin reported. They were allegedly armed with knives, clubs, BB guns and axes when they held up a total of 12 teenagers over the past three months.

They allegedly stole cell phones, money and credit cards from their victims.

State Police Capt. David Neill said the Ladd School, which opened in 1907 for people with mental disabilities, is closed to the public. But he said ghost hunters manage to get in.

Visitors claim they have heard voices and have been touched or hit by invisible hands. Some have reported cameras malfunctioning for no apparent reason.

The defendants were identified as two brothers, Kou Xiong, 21, and Benjamin Xiong, 19, of Warwick; Sidney Chay, 19, of Providence; Anthony Deloge, 18, of Warwick; and Jonathan Wilson, 25, of Charlestown.

They were ordered held without bail pending a hearing May 6 on charges of armed robbery and conspiracy.

For us in the Ghost Hunting world, our evidence is everything, it shows where we’ve been and what we found. A story is fine but having a picture, or video is even better. But sometimes bad things happen, a hard drive crashes, or a few disks are lost and suddenly half your collection is gone. But it can be prevented!

The first tip to preserving your data is to collect it into one place. Assign a person to be in charge of the data. At the end of the hunt, after analysis, they get all the data and put it onto one computer or external hard drive. If the data includes audio tapes or VHS they put them into a collected area. Try to put as much data into digital as possible. This allows the group to know where all data is at any time, no calling everyone who could possibly have it trying to find an important bit of info. This also keeps the originals out of harm’s way, no one can edit an original, thus it should always be there.

Next is to ensure losing a hard drive, or a computer crash or losing a cd or dvd doesn’t lose an important file. Once everything is in one place, make a copy of everything. Usually this means putting it onto a few dvds or cds. However keeping these copies doesn’t help if something happens to the location, say a fire, or a flood, or the person really has an issue finding things. So the copy should be kept in another location, if your group has access to a storage shed or the like, this would be a good place to hold it as well.

Once you’ve managed that no single loss should destroy your evidence. However it is important to keep making copies of new data that comes in to ensure that data is kept safe as well.

It’s really that easy!