(Photo courtesy of SyFy) Dave Tango, Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves,

Kris Williams. Not pictured: Brett Griffith, Kristine Gartland,  and Amy Bruni

 

Congress Theater – Chicago, Illinois

 

TAPS heads to my old stomping grounds, sweet home Chicago, for this episode.  The Congress Theater, built in 1925,  is still a beautiful antique performance venue which is now mostly used for rock concerts as most old school theaters are. In the past movies have not only been shown their but shot there well.  Harry Houdini is said have performed back in the day and the Chicago Mob probably had their nose in the theaters business as well.  Paranormal activity seems to be the main attraction these days after the concert crowds have left.  The workers at the theater have seen multiple shadow figures and apparitions to the point where people have simply quit.  Quitting in these economic times says a lot about how creepy things have become at this old place.

 

Co-founders of TAPS, and the show Ghost Hunters, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, began their investigation in the stage area and were immediately greeted to strange noises which led them to believe they saw something or someone up in the rafters.  Grant saw it again and Jason ran upstairs to see what was going on.  They couldn’t find anything but did have some cameras set up in the area so maybe something got caught on video.

 

Kris Williams and guest investigator Kristyne Gartland spent their time in the basement of the  theater and during their EVP session they seemed to be getting some visuals followed by a few noises after some of their questions.  They couldn’t seem to catch the shadowy figure or make further contact. 

 

Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango headed upstairs to where the dressing rooms were along with the entrance to the catwalk.  Something tapped Dave on the shoulder multiple times just before going on to the catwalk, a feeling that he hasn’t had yet in his ghost hunting activities.

 

Guest investigator Brett Griffith and Amy Bruni spent time investigating the projection room which still had some old school projection equipment collecting dust.  A loud bang shook the both of them up but they could not trace where it came from. Brett added some interesting FYI about camera projection if your interested in watching the replay on the Ghost Hunters website.

Steve and Dave took time to test out some new video equipment which coupled thermal and infrared cameras, biometric pressures, and a few other ghost hunting tools which I’m sure were pretty important.  They did some EVP sessions and hoped they might have video with the upgraded investigation devices.  They spent some time in the stage area and both caught a shadowy figure going through the seating area.  They blitzed to the area where the saw it and could not find anything or anyone that could have caused this visual. The shadow figures seem to be a reoccurring theme for the team during this investigation and certainly match the stories of the workers. 

 

Jason and Granted headed to the basement, which could easily house a Halloween party and need no decorations.  They found extremely high EMF fields which looks like it was being caused by some monster size electrical transistor boxes stored down there and these high EMF readings may have been causing the uneasiness being described by workers who have to go down in that area.
As the team went through the evidence they found a few interesting items.  Kris Williams, during an EVP session asked, “Did you work here?”  The reply, “No.”  A thermal camera aimed up at the rafters showed some type of heat signature in a human form come and go and there was no explanation for it but certainly correlated with the shadow figures.  Unfortunately the cameras did not catch any of the shadow figures but at least confirmed that it was not a person that they saw, the cameras just couldn’t pick it up the apparition.  Just about everyone on the team had some type of personal experience with items they could not explain but they did not necessarily call the theater haunted….they really didn’t make a statement either way so make your own decision.

 

The movie "Paranormal Activity" is good but the camera is very shakey so take your dramamine.

 

Story by: Chad Alan

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