by Chad Alan

 

"Ghosts From Hale"

 

The Nathan Hale Homestead - Coventry, Connecticut           

 

Nathan Hale is an American hero.  He was hung in 1776 by the British for being a spy for the young American States back in the Revolutionary war when he was just 21 years old.  He was left to hang in lower Manhattan for 2 days to serve as an example and then thrown into an unmarked grave.  His famous quote is "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."  His childhood home is now a museum and has been since the 1940's.  His original items, including his gun, bible, chair, desk, and a trunk for his personal belongings, are just some of the things left behind.  The paranormal activity started after the caretakers started to renovate the ancient house, a common tale for ghostly activity.  Many family members died in the house, so the apparitions that have been seen in the house could very well be Nathan's family.   An older man resembling Nathan's father has been seen, the sound of chains rattling and children playing have been heard, and the lights in the house turn themselves on and off.  The homestead contains a small school and a moaning and a sweeping sound, like that of a broom, is heard in the school.  The workers have also felt a wave of wind pass by them from time to time as if somebody had just run by them.  Just looking at this old house is enough to make you think that it is a hot spot for paranormal activity.

 

TAPS co-founder Jason Hawes and Steve Gonsalves were the first to investigate the first floor of the house to see if they could catch the dark colored apparition that has been appearing to the staff.  They started an EVP calling out for Nathan but could not seem to make contact with him or any of the other Hale family members.  They headed up to the attic, did hear some faint voices, but really didn't seem to make contact with any spirits. 

 

Britt Griffith and K.J. McCormick set up two "Rem-pods" on the floor of the small school house, which sounds an alarm if some type of energy comes close to it.  As they called out for Nathan, the Rem-Pods started to go off followed by their K2 meter after being completely quiet before the direct questioning.  It was clear there was some type of energy there with them and then, just like that, all the devices stopped and did not go off again.  They headed up to Nathan's bedroom and K.J. put on one of Nathan's old jackets hoping that this may stir up something.  Not long after they began calling out for Nathan, K.J. had a very strange sensation go through his entire body and decided it may be time to take off the jacket. 

 

Outside of the experiences that were talked about above, the team did catch a door close by itself on their video equipment.  There was no draft or reason why the door would just close.  TAPS felt that there was some paranormal activity going on at the Hale house but wasn't about to come out and call in Haunted. 

 

Hoffman House - Floyds Knobs, Indiana

 

TAPS took some time to investigate a regular family's house when a lady by the name of Amanda Hoffman became scared when she began hearing voices, strange noises, and the final straw was when she was grabbed on her shoulder.  The activity seemed to pick up and one night her bed began shaking. The house was given to her by her parents and now we know why.  They also experienced strange occurrences in the house which included seeing a white apparition and hearing voices on multiple occasions.  Every family member that has stayed in the house has had some type of paranormal experience.  Like a lot of people, the family lived with these random disturbances but when Amanda had her first child, her concern was no longer just for her and hoped TAPS could help her figure out what was going on and maybe help her tell the spirits that it was time to leave the family alone.  It is possible that this could be an aunt of the family who tragically died in the house.  The story is that this aunt was passed out on the ground outside and her husband did not see her and ran over her with his car.  Who wants to be the judge and jury on that one? 

 

While Jason and Steve were in the living room, a load bang or something being moved could be heard by all.  They could not trace it back to anything around them.   It gave them a pretty good scare.    When they later reviewed their audio and video footage, they believe the sound came from the kitchen and may have been the refrigerator kicking on.  Newbie investigator Michelle Tate spent some time in the child's bedroom and set up two flashlights and began asking questions.  One flashlight was Yes and the other "No."  She asked, "Are you a woman?"  The "No" flashlight turned on.  She asked the same question and got the same answer.  She then asked "Do you know who Amanda is?" Both flashlights turned on so who knows what the spirit was trying to communicate to her.  The flashlights seemed to be too erratic to pin any one solution to them so she ended this session.

 

Overall the team really didn't have much to share with Amanda, which seemed like pretty good news but that doesn't mean the Hoffman family is out of the woods.  Sometimes spirits don't come out on queue so this saga may be far from over. 

 

 

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

 

(Image courtesy of Syfy)

 

 

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