Story By: Chad Alan

"Haunted Home for the Holidays"

Mark Twain House - Hartford, Connecticut

TAPS heads back to the Mark Twain house after reports of an increase in paranormal activity has the caretakers concerned since they last investigated it three years ago.  Samuel Clemens is Mark Twain, Mark Twain is Samuel Clemens....got it? It makes for a good trivia question.  The Clemens moved into this remote house in 1872 and stayed there until 1891, leaving after their daughter Susy died of meningitis.  Most of the staff believes the paranormal activity can be contributed to Susy Clemens, as a young ghostly woman has appeared, not only to the staff, but to the visitors coming to the house.  When her name is mentioned, lights will flicker and the environment just seems to change.  Objects move, people's jewelry has been tugged at, phantom voices are heard, and one staff member had such a disturbing encounter with the female ghost that she never believes she will ever be the same again.  The former butler, George, is also said to make an appearance, probably going along with his usual duties as he did a century + ago.  Here is another trivia item, Samuel Clemens loved Christmas and that is why this show was saved to now.  Oh dear God, yes, I said it, Christmas....not "Holidays."  He loved Christmas!!!!  Today he would be shunned and black balled from society for his love of Christmas. 

TAPS co-founder Jason Hawes and Steve Gonsalves were the first to enter the house and audible to them and the viewer was the sound of somebody in boots walking coming from the upstairs.  Right after this, the sound of a creaky door closing could also be heard.  Adam Berry and Dave Tango experienced the same phenomena during their time in the house.   

Adam decided to use the old flash light trick that Amy Bruni often uses to try and communicate with any spirits that wish to communicate.  He lined up three flashlights and asked for responses by having the spirit turn the flashlight(s) on or off based on his question.  He started to read a letter from Samuel to his daughter Susy, pretending to be responding to her letter to Santa Claus.  As he started to read the letter, one flashlight turned on.  He asked for the flashlight to be turned off if the spirit understood the letter from Santa....the flashlight went off.  He then asked the spirit to determine a "Yes" flashlight and a "No" flashlight.  Whoever was communicating with him decided the left flashlight would be "Yes" and the right flashlight would be "No."  The middle flashlight was left off the entire time.  As he asked for Susy, the flashlights stayed off.  Then he asked for George the butler and the "Yes" flashlight turned on.  He did this twice to be sure. Since establishing that this very well might be George communicating with him he asked George if he missed working here and the "No" flashlight went off.   Can't make this up people. He then asked if he missed the family and the "Yes" flashlight went on.  The final question to get a response was whether or not George remembered the house at Christmas time and the "Yes" flashlight went on. 

Britt Griffith and K.J. McCormick tried an interesting tactic to get some activity going.  They read another letter that Samuel wrote for his kids as if he was Santa Claus.  As they were reading the letter, their equipment started to register activity and at one point K.J. believed he saw some type of black mass step in front of a bit of the light coming into the house.  They headed up to the billiard room where paranormal activity has been reported, including a very strong smell of cigar after these activities.  Samuel was said to smoke many cigars during the day.  As they started their EVP session a loud noise of something moving followed by a female voice got their attention.  This was all happening as their equipment was registering high energy readings. 

Beyond the team's personal experiences, they did have some strange problems with their equipment, similar to the problems they had the last time they investigated the house.  Their cameras would go dark for 10-15 seconds and then come back on.  One EVP they caught that seemed to say "I'm so cold."  The house did have a problem with it being unable to be kept warm by the heating units even though they were state of the art at the time the family lived in the house.  Another EVP they caught was a very dark voice that said "Langdon's in Buffalo!"  Langdon was the first child of Samuel born in Buffalo who died before the age of two.  No doubt, the Mark Twain house is haunted. 

Ghost Hunters airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Syfy. 

Check out the archive of past show recaps here!

(Image courtesy of Syfy)

Contact Chad Alan at [email protected]