What's that at the foot of my bed. It's spooky and JOOKI, I'm pretty sure it's dead.
It's coming. That's way.
Wait a minute, I said, Hiraz Jessensase, Hey boo, it's me Roz. We've got another listener episode today, which I'm always excited about. And as always, if you want to be in a listener episode coming up here soon, just send me an email at Ghosted by Roz at gmail dot com and put in the subject line listener episode.
We're getting very close to Halloween. It's October, my favorite month ever, also because my birthday is the twentieth and last year, on the nineteenth, we did the first ever live Ghosted in Los Angeles and it was such a magical night and it was sold out and I got to meet everyone and we just had a blast. And unfortunately we can't do that this year, but I will be celebrating my birthday. It's gonna be weird this year because it's not like I can really do it a
whole lot. But it's actually it's a big birthday next Tuesday, the twentieth, So don't worry. You don't have to get me a gift or anything. This isn't technically a drag show. But if this was a drag show, you know, it would constantly be like, give me money, tip me, my venmo is at Queen Roz. My PayPal is ghosted by ras at gmail dot com. Tip me. But it's not a drag show, so I'm not gonna do that. But I will be having a big birthday on Tuesday, the twentieth.
Today's episode is so fun. Okay, here's who I talked to. I talked to Kit, who grew up in a haunted house. Then I talked to Joey, who encountered maybe an angel. I'll let Joey tell it. And Joey's the one that recently I shared his story about encountering his boyfriend, but then it wasn't his boyfriend, So go back two episodes to the first R. H. Davis episode if you want
to hear that story. And then I talked to Alex, who's a drag queen who does ghost tours in Chicago, which is so funny that we're talking about tours this week. Because I'm Patreon, I did a video where I drive around Los Angeles. I drove around my former neighborhood of Los Felis and I went to some spooky locations. I just kind of, you know, drove and wanted to show you some areas that were either used in horror movies or are allegedly haunted and gave you a little bit
of facts, at least to what I know. And I think I'm just gonna keep doing those videos on Patreon. I had a good time, so go check that out on the first tier and the second tier of Patreon called On with the Show, you will hear a special bonus story from one of this week's listeners. That'll be Kit, who had a terrifying experience in the night in Auckland,
New Zealand. You will also be hearing on today's episode Brad, who went to a an infamous Beverly Hills mansion and may have had some kind of energy or entity follow him home. All right, here is the special Halloween month of October's listener episode On with the Show.
There's a ghost in my house?
Hello, Kit, how are you?
I'm good? How are you?
Roz so good?
Where are you?
I'm in Oregon, I live in Bend, Oregon.
Lovely you sent me this email and I was like, damn, Okay, there is a lot going on here. So you grew up in a haunted house?
I did, yes, absolutely, what was going on with that? Okay?
So I grew up in a small town in Nebraska, and our house was the it was there before the town was.
The town was sort of built around it.
So it was gosh when I in the eighties, it was well over one hundred years.
Oh, I love.
That this house is like, I'm here, you guys can create a whole town around me.
That's right. So it's a pretty small house.
And there are just two bedroom, like one small bedroom downstairs, and the downstairs area is one of those like circular houses, so there's opening like there's two doors in every room so you can just go around and around.
Okay.
Yeah, So so anyway, I was conceived in that house. But before I was born, my parents they always felt really uneasy the bigger room upstairs. My dad, in fact, would not would not be in that room alone. He wouldn't he absolutely wouldn't sleep in that room alone. He always felt like something was watching him and didn't like him. So growing up, they eventually put my brother in that room, and he really didn't the ghost really didn't like my dad.
My brother had a picture of my dad when he was young flipping off the camera, and every time my brother would go into his room, that picture will have been thrown across the room.
Oh my god.
So when I was a toddler, my aunt was over. And this aunt is witchy as well. She long was talking two ghosts. In fact, invited a ghost when she moved house. She had made friends with him to the point where she invited him to come with them to the new house. So Aunt Jody is sitting in the living room and I pull open these pocket doors that connect the dining room and living room and look over toward the kitchen door where my mom is and I say, who's that? And I point toward the door, and Aunt
Jody is like, well, that's your mom. She's making lunch. And I said, no, that, who's that? Who's that boy? That big boy over there in the corner. He always looks at me and says hello. And my Aunt Jody was like, oh god, here's another one that is going to see the things. And so from then on, my parents, well, I guess I should back up. When I was a baby, you know, right before me, you just kind of babble.
They said, they would hear me in my crib and it sounded like I was having a conversation with someone that the just with the lilt of my voice and and you know the pauses. They were like, it sounds like she's you know, someone's asking her questions and she's answering, and you know, she's asking a question and they're answering. It was unsettling to them enough to where they noted it. So anyway, then back to uh, sorry, that's my nineteen year old cat.
Oh my god. I was like, I thought I heard a baby talking in the background.
The fact, Yeah, he's he's sort of obnoxious these days. He's he's a little bit senile. So he just kind of walks around squawking. So okay, so they started hearing me, uh, just talking to this person, just having fu long conversations. They'd you know, at night, they'd send me out into the hallway to turn off the light if I was going to sleep with them, and I would stand out in the hallway for like ten or twenty minutes just having a conversation, answering questions. Again that they could hear
the answers. They knew that someone was talking to me but I guess they just want preferred to sort of ignore it or maybe chalk it up to an imaginary friend. But you know, I was only like two or three. So then there was a time where my dad was
he was playing in a band. He played in a band after work at nights, and he was gone, and my mom, my brother, and I had all fallen asleep in the living room and it was the summertime, so the front door was open with the screen door closed, and Mom woke up and it was dark by then, and there were no lights on in the house, and she sort of set up on the couch and was like, oh, I'm you know, this is not like me. I don't fall asleep. You know, my kids are right here, Like
the door is open. This is someone like me. So she's thinking that, and then she sees something out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to look and it's that same door, the kitchen door. Shoulders of a man, all a kind of white walk out. And then she jumped up with her arms out because she thought she was gonna have to fight somebody. So when had come in the house, and he turned and looked at her and then just took a step backwards and disappeared into the wall.
Now do you think that that was big boy?
See, so I'm not really sure. And then when we get to the very end of the story, I'll let you make the call because it's just really unclear if there's more than one ghost in the house. I think there's probably more than one, just given how old it is. So yeah, so that happened, and she was just like, uh shit, I don't know what to do. So that was the summer. So the following winter, they were potty training.
Me and my dad and my brother were out somewhere and my mom had me in the bathroom that's off the other side of the kitchen, and she's We're just sitting there and she said, all of a sudden, she hears a voice say Okay, which is my full name, Katie. And she was like, oh, I'm just gonna shake that off. I must have just been hearing something. But then I answered, in the same voice, what.
And it was?
She said it was so sing songy and terrifying that she just like and she'd had enough of just hearing me talking to this person that she ran to the stairway, which is the hallway where she just like flipped out on him and was like, leave her alone, don't ever talk to her again, Brah, just flipping out, and then she slammed the door, and then they said they'd never
heard me talk to him again. Then fast forward to I'm like sixteen, fifteen or sixteen, and I'm up in my room and I'm the only person in the family that feels good upstairs. I actually feel really really safe upstairs. Everyone else is a bit freaked out by it. And I was sitting on my bed and thinking about I've
been told all these stories. I don't have any memories of them at all, and I was thinking about how cool it would be to have like this imaginary ghost friend, you know, Like I was just like, God, damn it, Mom, Like I could be talking to a ghost right now. How dope would that be? How dare you take that from me? And so I was kind of saying out loud, like inviting him because I'd named him Big Boy. That
was his name when I was little. So I was like, big Boy, you know, I'm sorry, Like my mom didn't know what she was doing, but I'm totally not scared of you. And if you want to talk to me, again, I'm okay with it. So I didn't, you know, nothing happened. But like shortly after, my mom started having these like poltergeist tricks played on her where she The first one was like a mascara. She had just bought a brand
new mascara. She put it on the very top of her kaboodle, like in the very first drawer, and to use it. It was gone, and she you know, asked me if I had taken it, you know, was like, it's okay if you took it, just I want it so you can use it. I was like, I didn't take your mascara. And so she tore everything out of the kaboodle like five times, couldn't find it, looked all over in her purse and other bags, couldn't find it.
Decided to go one last time to look at the kaboodle and she opened it up and it was sitting right where she had put it originally, on top of everything.
Oh good boy, probably had some luscious slashes.
He was so beautiful. So so the next thing that happened was we were all sitting in the living room and my parents had recliners and my mom was sitting in hers with her arm on the arm rest and her watch just kind of fell off of her wrist onto the ground, and she was like, what the you know this is It's not really possible that it could have happened because her her arm was pressed flat against
the rest. So she picked it up and tried to put it back on, and she realized that the the arm part that like goes into the hole of the watchband of secures it to your wrist, it was flipped on the other side of that of the bar that holds it in, if that makes sense, to the point where my dad was trying to fix it and he almost broke that little metal tie off trying to get it back to the right side of the bar. So there's no way you could do it without really really
forcing it, like really intentionally doing it. So that was strange and we were all there to see it. And then the final thing that happened. I think this was all in the space of two weeks. The final thing, Yeah, the final thing to happen was she came home from work. It was like one in the afternoon, so sat down on her bed and you know, no TV, nothing was on, and she heard the sound. It was kind of like a worrying sound, and she said it sounded familiar, but
she couldn't quite place what it could be. And she's looking around the room, and then she looked at the chest of drawers that excuse me, that were my dad's, and she said there was an empty styrofoam cup on the edge and it was spinning, and it just spun faster and faster and faster and then fell off. And she was like, Okay, I've I'm nuts, I've absolutely lost my mind. But that was the last thing that happened. I think, you know, big boy got his point across.
I never told her that I had invited him in, But by the time she told me that, I was like, oh, I think I did this. I think this is my fault.
So do they still live there?
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, Like the other goes, no, nothing, nothing else. One thing that to this day we can all hear is when you're sitting downstairs, you can hear footsteps walking back and forth between the upstairs bedrooms, just like really clear. It could not possibly be like an animal in the wall. It's just very obviously someone walking, but really beyond that, well, and I guess my mom has always felt when she's in the kitchen, she always
feels like someone's looking right over her shoulder. She's at the stove or the sink, like just someone's like right over her shoulder watching what she's doing. She's never really shook that feeling. And one time, my dad has a really sick sense of humor, so he one time came up and right behind her. She didn't hear him come home, and he stood right behind her and scared the shit out of her. But that's really kind of it. Yeah, that I can think of.
You still have that problem with the ghost that hates him in the one room.
No, my dad died two years ago. Actually, oh, I'm sorry. That's okay, it's okay. It's actually funny he haunts my mom now, So I guess there's a haunting because.
You were saying that your mom is a psychic or has some.
Right.
Yeah, yeah, she's she's pretty. She's hesitant to even talk about it. It's just it kind of scares her, but yeah, she okay. So I guess the first story that I remember her telling was when my parents first got together. Like I said, my dad played in a band and their band was a house band at this at this hotel bar, and so they played, you know, six nights a week, which means the guys all left their instruments,
you know, there on stage. So she was there with them one night and she watched my dad put his guitar in the guitar stand and then in her in her mind's eye, I guess she saw another hand come from the other side pick it up and take it out of the guitar stand. And she was like, you know, Charlie, I think you should take your guitar home tonight, Like I just really, I really think you should take it home tonight. And he was, you know, like you're crazy,
Like we always leave this here. It's fine. And the next day they discovered that all of the guys's instruments had been stolen.
Oh my god.
So that's sort of is that kind of her ability is?
Yeah? Yeah, she has those like premonitory things, the most yeah, the most intense one. It's really a tragic story.
In we live.
Our town was just outside Lincoln, Nebraska, so she worked in Lincoln and in the nineties, I can't remember what year. Sometime in the nineties, they're a girl, a college aged girl went missing. She had been with friends downtown drinking at a bar, and her friends, you know, left her on the corner of downtown, like right on the main drag they were. They said goodbye, They walked one way, she walked another way, and she was never seen again. Her name was Candice Harms, and it was I want
to say months. You know, it was just a really really big deal. For whatever reason, that kind of thing just never happened or you never heard of it anyhow, So it was a really huge She was all over the news for a long time. And my mom was driving home from work and there's this highway that connects our town to Lincoln, and so the highway's like ten miles long, and so every mile there's a dirt road going in either direction. That part of has what's called
a country mile, and it's just perfect checkerboards. So she's driving and she gets to this one dirt road intersection and she said it was like someone took her by the chin and snapped her head down that road and a voice in her head said, Candice Arms is there. And she, you know, she tried to not think about it. How are you going to tell somebody this? And I think it was a or two later, they discovered her body about about a mile down that road in a shallow grave.
Wow.
Yeah, yeah, hello Joey, where are you?
I am coming to you from Mario, Quebec. That's Quebec, Quebec, Montreal, Quebec.
Yeah, well you said it so fancy.
So again Marial Quebec.
Love it. Well, thanks so much for being on. I recently read your story like literally just like a week or two ago, about this crazy doppel ganger situation, Yead, And then you sent me another story about this woman in a grocery store and I want to hear it.
Oh my god. So it was the most amazing moment of my life. Like I told my parents about it when it happened, and they were like, oh, jo wait, that's an angel And I was like, okay, ma. So we had we had just moved. This takes place in Sunrise, Florida, and we had just moved from Staten Island. So I was like in a very place as a kid, Like I was elevenish and I was gay from the womb honestly, So like going to South Florida was like really a culture shock for me, and I was just like very
sad all the time. So we get to this my mom. We intended to get something very quickly, like we knew what we were going to get, and we just walked into the grocery store. But I remember I was holding my mother's hand, like I was holding her hand. We walked into the grocery store, and all of a sudden, I see my mother like in my peripheral and she's already with the cart, like all the way like far
from me. And I was like, okay, whatever. But then my I just stared at like the aisles or whatever, and this woman was standing there and something in such like I didn't talk to strangers. I wasn't crazy. I'm from New York. But I saw this woman and she was just she looked totally normal, by the way, but it was evident that she was beautiful on like a different level, like I'll use an American horror story term, like they say, like the Supreme on that show has
glowing radiant health. This woman was that she was just really I guess crazy, uh beautiful. So I just walked up to her and she was wearing okay, she was wearing like this long skirt that was floral. Everything looked new. It didn't look old at all. And she was wearing like a mid drifty type of sweater with long sleeves
but it exposed her midriff. And she was wearing all these bangles on her hands, like on both wrists, and she had like very long gray hair, but it was very well kept, like it looked like it was styled and curled a bit of course, like a gay child is noticing all this, And she wasn't wearing makeup, but
her features were just like kind of perfect. And when I walked up to her, she had such a strong odor of like lemon and peaches, and just from like approaching her, she was just so warm and I could do it was like pulsing out of her, like I could feel something was not normal. But then again, like I'm eleven, like what the hell do I know? So she addresses me by name, and I was like what, And I'm like, how did you know my name? It was the She was like, hello, Joey, and it was Joey.
It wasn't Joseph. Only my parents or like my family would say Joey, like I would tell everyone I'm Joseph, like I do that to this day. So I was like how did you know my name? And she was like, well, we've met before, but you won't remember that because it's it was another uh remember what she said exactly, but she was like, you won't remember that, and I was like okay. And then she was like I know you're going through And by the way she was saying this,
like not like a condescending way. She was saying all of what she was about to say like very warm, the way a kindergarten teacher would would say to you, being very comforting. And she was like, I know you're sorry. I'm so anxious to say this because it's like it was such a real experience. It's like giving me goosebumps and I'm shaking. So she said, I understand you're going through such a hard time right now, and don't worry about that. You will understand when you're older. And I
was like, what will I understand when I'm older? And she was like, it's very hard for us here on Earth and I was like it's hard for who on Earth? And she was like witches and I was like boy, it was like boy, yeah, yo ya yay. I was like what. I was like, whoa? And when she said that, like something happened inside me, like it just I didn't have per se memories come up in my mind, but I just knew, listen to everything she's gonna say right now, Joey,
you have to really focus on this. And I never experienced that before, so I was just like WHOA.
So I'm just like, did you have like those preconceived notions that a lot of kids have of like a witch being a certain image or how did you feel about that?
Cause my family has a lot of psychic people, and my family is from Sicily, so we have a lot of straghira, which is witchcraft in Italian. So it was I never thought of any I always thought of them as hippy dippy people, and that's exactly what this woman looked like. So she was saying, she said witches, and she said it with such like a presence, like such profound meaning, and I was like, witches And then like
inside me, all these feelings started happening. And she was like, yes, it's very difficult when we're here and we have a very hard time because the world is very difficult. And I was like, oh wow, and she was like, but don't worry, but you need to listen to these words. What you think about, you bring about your thoughts. You have to be impeccable. And she used that word, you have to be impeccable with your word. She was like, what you think about yourself, what you think about others,
it has an effect. And I'm eleven, so I'm just like, uh huh uh huh. I'm just like taking this all in. And then I was like yes and uh. Basically I told her I it here saying Florida and how I just felt so alone, like everyone made fun of me. And she was like, don't worry about all that, all of the all your differences make you powerful or like I was special something around that, and then she hugged me and rose. When she hugged me, it was like she was sucking out the badness out of me. Like
I felt so relieved, so completely rejuvenated in that moment. Now, by the way, as I said in the story, when I typed it, my mother is she's nowhere in sight. And this was a full conversation. Time was going by, like I saw people passing us, people ringing up their groceries and leaving, like nothing was strange about the moment. I was just talking to a woman, and so she's hugging me and it was the best in the world.
And then she held my face and she was like, don't forget the words I said, my little witch, I will see you again in another life. And then she stood up. But when she like we we uh, let go of the embrace. As she's standing up, it was like she was just gone, like I blamed her like for a second, and she was gone, and I was like I was starting to panic, like I was like, what the whoa? And then out of nowhere, my mother is like she turned around at me in the same
kind of spot, like a little far away. She's like, joo camea And I was like.
Uh what.
She's like, let's go. We're getting dinner. And I was like no, there's no way, Like I was just here for like like ten minutes, like you didn't do the groceries. I think, I said, I was mom, I was just talking to and she's like, you aren't talking to nobody. Come on, And so we get our stuff. We get into the car and my mom sees like I'm shaking,
and I kind of started to cry. But I was so happy and I felt like just amazing honestly, and I told her what happened everything, and my mom was like, well, that was probably an angel, Joey, and you have to listen to what she said. And I was like okay, and my mom just it was like so normal to her. She was like, yeah, that was really cool. Don't worry about it. And we just went home and we cooked dinner. But after that day, I never feared being gay. I
never feared being myself or being like spiritual. I mean, before I was eleven, I had crazy psychic experiences. Once I passed the age of ten, they sort of lessened until like I came out and fully became myself, like once I was in college.
But that so, why do you think, why do you think that that happened at that moment in a grocery store. Do you have any idea?
Well, that day in particular was kind of insane because Okay, obviously, in Staten Island, like I didn't, I wasn't bullied at all, like everyone like kind of enjoyed my differences. But in Florida, like guys and girls did not like that I was feminine, that I liked theater, that I liked acting and stuff. They were very hostile towards this and this day, like it was like a whole group of kids at the lunch table were telling me such add full things like I have to like sports, I have to do this.
So I was really upset about I was so angry and upset, and I never told my parents how horrible people were to me in school. So I feel like this happened at such a time where I was so defeated, and I felt like maybe I could have gone down a downward spiral and became like bad or something like a bad kid, because just no one was understanding me,
and I felt so alone. But after that moment, a lot of things changed with my attitude, like I just had a I don't give an f attitude after that, and of many things changed with how I dealt with bullies at school and things like that.
So did you identify as a witch?
My yeah, I mean my mother realized after that day because we told my father and he was like, well, let's go to the bookstore. So we went to the bookstore. And there was a spiritual store near us in Sight on Rise. It was called Magic with a K and this witch, this wicked priestess who we didn't know she was Wicked Priests, but she was like, I'm going to give you Stop Cunningham and Silver Raven Wolf, and you're gonna read that, and then if you like that, I'll
give you some more information. And I went back a week later read them all and was like, okay, so this is for me, and that was pretty much it.
Oh my god, this woman sounds so this, this this witch angel, it just sounds so magical. I'm just thinking about get it, Like I'm thinking about like the gay angel glam squad that probably put it together for her, you know, you know someone was on hair.
Yeah, I almost I'm trying to remember if she had any shoes, and all I remember is seeing nail polish on toes. I think she was probably barefoot. Like it was so crazy.
I'll never really thought about every little static.
I'll never forget it. Oh so wild.
Tell me the story you said was crazier? Another crazy.
So I've had I have a list here because I hope I get to come back, because I have tons of experiences, well not tons, but like enough that where they were so significant that you'll never forget them.
But this, in particular was.
The only one that I felt was bad, but I still was so excited about it. Okay, so okay, I was. Okay, I'm not going to say dating, but you know what I'm talking about. I was seeing this dude and he was he was born and raised in Florida. He knew all these things that me and my sister, who are from Sena and had, you know, we didn't really know, but I was. Me and my sister were teenagers, like I was seventeen and she was like, she's three years
under the mesis she was like around fourteen years. So he goes, hey, I want to take you guys to this abandoned house in Davy, Florida. Davey, Florida, is this very It's in Fort Lauderdale, so it's not like in the country, but it is very spread out, so like there's farms and things like that, and it's very country western raws. So not my style at all, but it's very interesting because this house it's a mansion, and the whole block is like they're far enough apart where you
can have great privacy. However, every single house was occupied for years, but this particular house. He kept telling us. This guy I was seeing, he was like, by the way, no one will move into this house. It's been vacant for ten years. No one will go in here. Every time someone moves and they move out, and me and my sister does it.
Did it look busted or no?
That outside it looked busted, but when I tell you about inside, it was so weird. And me and my sister were like, oh, yeah, let's do that. So we get there and he takes us around the the It was like acres of land and all the other neighbors had like farm animals that would like come in to this land. It was fenced in though it was so creepy, and we were like if if my sister joked, it looks like a civil war place. And then he was like, oh yeah, yeah, uh this is like where they kept
like plantations. And me and my sister were like, oh that's fucking gross. Excuse me for cursing, and and uh so we noticed and I was like, so how are we going to get in? He's like, oh, the door's always open. I was like that's impossible, but no. We walked right to the front door and it was it was open, and I was like, Okay, we get in there and everything is beautifully finished. Everything's would. There's even stealing fans going. That was wild. The electricity freakin worked.
But no one lives in this house. That's I was paying for that. I have no idea I was thinking, because there was always a there. He told me the realtor sign. There was a realtor sign outside. They were probably trying to sell this for ten years, as he said. I don't know if he was selling the truth, but like it was evident nobody wanted to go near this house. Like people like when we were walking around the neighborhood, people were looking at us and shaking their heads like
be careful over there. Oh the place is crazy. And me and my sister are like, this is so weird because they wouldn't even bring their dogs over to the house, like they would circle around. So we were just like, Okay, this is a little eerie whatever, but like again, we didn't care. So we walk in. Everything's like newly finished, but there's no furniture at all. It's totally bare, and he goes, you've got to see this bathroom. So we're
walking around and then we shut the door. Now this is August in Florida, the worst month ever, so it's very humid. We were all sweating. We get into this house. It's freezing, like freezing, and Ali, excuse me. My sister and I are just like the a season and he was like no, and of course this kid doesn't. We're just like, oh, okay. So then he goes you go to see his bathroom. So we get to this bathroom ross. It's a huge bathroom room. It is completely tiled with
ornate like Mexican like tile, Like it's very lovely. But the whole wall with the sink is like a whole wall is a mirror, okay, And then behind the mirror is like this huge shower and there's a big bang quette so there's like a bench in there. So the kid, I was saying, sits in the shower and he's like just chilling there. And me and my sister, because this was the dawn of the iPhone, we were just taking
selfiees and being silly. So my sister and I are like standing next to each other, but like there's a space between us, and we're looking at the mirror and the only light that was on was the one in the shower, and it was quite it was bright enough, but it wasn't fully lit bathroom, so whatever. So we're looking at the mirror taking selfies, and then all of a sudden, me and Ali see through the mirror that the guy I was seeing, his face like looks like
he just saw it goes. He's like milk white, and he he's like he can't talk, he's like ough, and he's pointing at the mirror. So me and Ali look behind us and we're like, are you okay, sweetie, And then where we look at the mirror, and my sister grabs my arm and we're like, oh, like gay gasp, and okay, this is I don't care if it sounds weird. This happened. Purple smoke was in the mirror. It was like pools of purple smoke were in.
The Prince concert.
Possible why like exactly, Oh my god, I'm boring you in exactly like that. So it was like purple smoke in this mirror, and I could not look away. My sister kept like grabbing my arm though, like to pull me away from looking, but like she was also looking at it too. Like we were just mesmerized by this. And the kid I was saying was like from a
Christian family, So it was what bent out. But me and Ali were like whoa, And so me and my sister looking at this mirror, and then all of a sudden, in between the space that we had like standing next to each other, a woman appears like her face it was so weak cut, I'm getting goose. Okay, she was.
So you only saw her like when you were looking in the mirror, or you could see her in the room as well.
No, no, no, she was only in the mirror. But she was definitely it was like like you know when you go to the Haunted Mansion in Disney World and you and you like see the ghost next to you in the cart. It was like that, but she was totally solid. She was, but she was This is also weird. She was like black and white. She had no color, and she was wearing definitely like an anti Bellamish dress, but she had a bonnet on, which I historically I figured, oh,
she was like a servant or something whatever. So we're looking at this woman and she's staring directly at me and my sister, and my sister is trying to pull me out of the room because the one I was seeing ran out of that bathroom so fast. When that girl when that woman appeared. We didn't even know you left. So looking at this woman and the smoke is still going behind her, and I'm just so fascinated. And now this is where I felt it gets a little evil.
I literally felt a suction pull to this mirror, and at one point I was reaching my left hand toward the mirror. At that point, my sister finally got scared and slapped my face on the other side to get me to not look at the mirror. So once I didn't look, I didn't have my eyes on the mirror, I kind of snapped out of it. And then I
looked at her and I was like, whoa. And then we looked at the mirror and this woman looked like she was going to come out of the mirror, and we screamed and we ran out of the house and we slammed the door behind us, and my sister was like, I Am never coming back here, and Joey, we can't go in there. It's freaking I was like what. But the whole ride home, I was like, what the hell was that? It was so wild, it was crazy.
I'm sure like, oh yep, that's what happens.
Oh my god, Seriously, because now, did you.
Get any selfies with the purple smell?
No? In fact, it's so funny you mentioned that because I just remember this detail. Every freaking selfie my sister and I took did like there was something wrong with the photos, like we had literally like we were doing selfies like we saw the iPhone, I mean in first generation take it No, Yeah, And when we got home it was like all smeared and like a weird flash, like nothing we took had taken and that it even uh confirms for me. Okay, this wasn't good. This was
not good. This was a bad experience. But I love this stuff. So I was just like, whoa, Allie, did you see the smoke? And she was like, yes, why was it purple? Like we were just so confused. But the woman looked like an actual woman that was standing in the bathroom and we had happened to be there as well, But she was not disily with us, and we did not feel an energy next to us. It was definitely coming from the mirror. It was insane.
I've been ghosted too. Oh my god. We are joined by Alex also known as Chicago z Own Wanda Screw. Hello, Hello, how's it going so good. I'm so excited to talk to you.
Same same.
So you're a drag queen in Chicago and you dos I do?
Yes.
I think I think I'm the only drag queen who does ghost tours definitely here, maybe in the world, but who knows.
It's crossed my mind of doing it because actually, the last job I had before I just started being real ast dressful as all the time was being a tour guide at a movie studio. And I love, I love being a tour guide, but I just am always afraid of walking around the streets and drag and who knows what could happen with that? How is that for you?
You know, it's been interesting. That's kind of the first thing that a lot of people say as a concern when when they find out about the tours. But you know, I've really only ever had positive experiences. I've almost never had any you know, any people trying to like disrupt or say anything. It's been actually kind of a really nice way to meet people.
Do you do it during the day or at night?
Both? So I actually I started as a museum drag tour guide through this company called Museum Hack that wanted to try out doing drag queen tours in the Art Institute. So I started out doing that and that's like middle of the day on Saturdays, and so I would sometimes I would take the train and go down there in the middle of the day, and I mean that was really really fun and like going.
I love the Art Institute. Oh it's it's amaze Sunday afternoon at the island of La Granjo.
Oh yes, Oh, I walked by that every every time I did it, and like going to the members lounge in full drag and just like sitting at the bar was pretty amazing. So I had a really fun time. And then I thought, well, I love I love talking about ghosts and spooky stories and history, so I should just like try to make a ghost tour thing. And that was like four years ago, I think, And here we are, so yeah.
That's incredible. So what are some of the places that you see in Chicago.
So we were limited in the walking tour by everything being within five or ten minutes of each other because we needed to keep it snappy. This year, I'm doing them virtually, so I'm basically just like telling spooky stories with photos and videos to back it up. On zoom for this Halloween, but the original tour, we go to the Congress Hotel, which is apparently one of the most haunted hotels in the country slash definitely the most haunted
one in Chicago. And then we go to the Palmer House Hotel, which now unfortunately has closed because of pandemic things and hopefully it will reopen. And we go to a theater that has a haunted alleyway behind it and a part of the Chicago River that's apparently haunted as well.
Is it the theater where like Wicked used to be.
Did you see the episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories where she, of course was on a gas starre that girl.
Don't ask me trivia about Celebrity ghost Stories, Yeah, especially about miss Anna.
Miss Anna who is on it multiple times and has dazing stories. But yeah, I retell her story because I so I usually do the tour. Last year, I did the tour in like Wicked, Witch of the West drag every day every time I did it because I just, I don't know, I have an obsession with with villains of all kinds, but especially her, So I did. I did that last year and so it was a perfect time. But yeah, I mean that that alleyways is famous apparently among touring theater companies that come through.
Can you tell us the story? I can't, so.
I'm going to try to get all the years right.
So it is.
Early nineteen hundreds. It is I believe nineteen oh three, nineteen oh five, and it is December. It's one of the last days of the year, and it's really snowy and you know, blizzard outside, and all of these children and their caretakers are going into the theater to watch a Christmas pantomime called Mister blue Beard and Mister blue
Beard like it was. It was like a very long show from what I can gather with, you know, huge dance numbers and acrobatics and all this crazy stuff, right, And there's a moment in the show that particular day where one of the lights gets very hot above the stage. And on this particular day, the theater was packed over capacity, like people sitting in the aisles, people just crowding all
the way up. And this light got really hot and started to spark on the scenery that was hanging above the stage, and it was painted with lead based paint because early nineteen hundreds, and it started to smolder the set pieces that were up above the stage and slowly spread until there started to be smoke. Once there was smoke, people on stage started to kind of notice and get weirded out, apparently, and then the audience started to notice.
So it kind of grew throughout the audience, people kind of grumbling, starting to get up, not being sure what to do. At this point, people backstage can see that there is a fire building above them, and so, according to legend, the stage manager throws open these big double doors in the back part of the stage, which are like loading doors, with the intention of getting the actors out safely and having another big door that people could
leave through. By doing this, he creates a back draft basically, and it whooshes this huge gust of cold wind into the theater and creates what one person who was there who survived describes as a three story fireball that like balloons up on the stage and like shoots out onto the whole audience. So now you have an entire audience full of children that are like on fire. Basically, heats are on fire, the carpets on fire, walls are on fire.
You know, they're starting to run towards the exits. This was very old in times and things like this hadn't be thought about yet. So all of the doors out of the theater there were no exit doors onto the street. If you notice nowadays, when you go into a theater there are exit doors. Wherever there is street access, there
are exit doors. That was not the case. And also the doors opened inward, so if you can imagine like hundreds of people packing trying to get out a door that opens in they basically were trapping themselves inside the theater.
So people got trampled, people got you know, crushed underneath the weight of people who are trying to get out above them, to the point that people in the balcony started to jump off of the fire escapes in this famous alley because they tried to get onto the fire escapes and they found that they had not been finished and they didn't go all the way to the ground. So people were jumping two, three, six stories up to try to get out of this burning building onto the
pavement and you know, hitting the ground really hard. And according to legend, there was a stack of bodies six feet high in that alley. Day God once the once the fire department came so over I want to say over eight hundred people died that day, and around two hundred of them were children, so that you know, that led to a lot of fire safety laws in theaters. The theater had to be rebuilt, and to this day,
as recently as one Wicked was there. According to Celebrity ghost Story, people who are there will who are doing shows, we'll see we'll see people in early nineteen hundreds, garb watching them in the backstage, to the point that one summer I was doing it at Summer and Fall and the Share show was doing the pre Broadway tryout, which amazing.
I saw it so many times. I loved it. And the people who would kind of come upon the tour as we were giving it, we're like, oh yeah, Like when we were moving into the theater, people would tell us this was called deaf Alley because you can like feel it when you walk when you walk in.
Uh, it's very weird. It's uh, well, we always talk about why theaters, like why are theaters so haunted? But like that one, that's pretty catastrophic. What is that theater called? Again?
So it's gone through a variety of names. It just recently was renamed the Neederlander Theater in Chicago. Okay, so that's that's uh, yeah, it's uh, it's interesting. They put a lot of lights and like lighted posters on that alley to I think try to make it seem like wow, like showbiz, like this is amazing. It's just so cool, I think because it has such a terrible reputation.
Yeah, so has on your tour, have have any paranormal happened?
You know, not really? And that's the disappointing thing.
I think.
I think maybe because all of these areas, like we go inside a few buildings, we would go inside some of the hotel lobbies and those are still pretty public spaces, so we were very rarely in like, you know, a room by ourselves or anything like that. So I think often there's just so many distractions. There's you know, so much street noise, there's so much stuff going on that nothing has ever really happened.
But those kinds of tours I think people need, they probably want that, but I'm sure they leave being like, oh my god, this was just a fun experience and you get a fun history lesson you know. I've been on a number of those tours and nothing paranormal has ever happened. But I just really enjoy it and it's nice to get some steps in.
You go, oh, you get steps. It's a two mile tour and I do it in six inch fields.
Well that was more. What I was talking about earlier was like I don't want to be walking around in heels. It is that's my problem.
It is like, yeah, I feel it. Like last last year at the end of the month, I would feel it and be like, oh, I shouldn't. I should give myself a break here for a second.
But your caps are stunning. I'm sure what the history of Chicago is. I mean, I can imagine I would have so many paranormal uh you know aftermath when you think of the Great Fire and there's the mob presence, and I can only imagine, Oh, I want to go on your tour hopefully one of these days, one.
Of these days when we can do do things in person again. You're definitely invited, though, if you want to join the zoom call and hear all the spooky stories, I'll forge you the info. Okay for this for this fall, but yeah, Chicago.
Can you tell people right now how they can find all that?
Of course, yes, the events are on event right. The tour is called Death Becomes Her and it is on event right. It's also on Facebook and you can find everything through there. I'm doing it right now. I'm doing it four dates in October, so the last the last two weekends on Friday and Saturday nights. I think it's
gonna be cute. I'm going to send out, you know, some like little cocktail recipes, snack ideas, things to try to make it a fun experience, even though we're all isolated in our homes, to try to you know, kind of gather around and tell some spooky stories. So I think it'll be fun.
I hope that sounds great. Well, so what are your experiences with ghoes?
You know, I'm one of those people and I've heard a few other people and your podcasts say something similar where I like, really want to have an amazing, crazy story, and I just I do have a story. But it's not like I don't have ghost experiences all the time. But I did have an experience when I was younger. I think I was like twelve, and we were going to clean out my great uncle's factory that he owned
in the country. So imagine like rural Illinois, cornfields for miles, and then there's this this building in the middle of all of it. He was like an inventor and he had a factory. I don't totally know everything that he did, but he had a factory. And he died and we went out there to kind of clean everything out, and you know, I was I was like the kid who came along with all the adults. And it was like
postcard from the sixties, like wood paneled walls, typewriters. This was like early two thousand and five, maybe still had like typewriters everywhere. He had to walk in safe. It's like very, very bizarre. So the mood was already kind of weird, and so I started wandering around and I started hearing kind of like I thought it was like on a loud speaker, just like people's voices, like multiple voices, kind of grumbly garbled, like up in the air like it was.
It was.
I felt like it was like on a factory loud speaker. And I was like, okay, like whatever, and I just like would go about my business. I was like looking around whatever, and I would always assume, Okay, I'm going to go back into the office part and people are probably talking, like there's like a loudspeaker or something that people are messing with, or I'm hearing them somehow through the system or whatever. And I really distinctly remember walking
back in. So it's kind of like if you imagine like a car repair place where there's like an open kind of garage area and then there's like you know, a glass window and offices, and so I walked through there and there's like shelving and people are looking through like everything that was on the shelves and sorting things. And I was like, okay, yeah, like they're having some kind of conversation, so I'm going to go back and see what they're saying. And I remember it being like
kind of loud, like full conversation going on. I couldn't really understand the words. And then going back into this office and it just being dead silent, and it was so weird because I looked around and I was like, well, everyone must know that something must have just happened where everyone just is silent, like someone said something that like made everyone stop or and everyone was just going about their business sorting things like it was like not a
big deal. Nothing weird was happening, and I was like, Okay, this is weird. And then I went back out and I started hearing like it kind of morphed into the sound of dogs barking, and I was like, oh, there must be like dogs outside or something. I don't remember if it was that day or later. When we got home, I told my mom, yeah, I heard, like I always
hearing like weird stuff. I thought I heard dogs barking, and she was like, well, he had two dogs that he kept out there, that lived out there, and when they died, he buried them outside the factory. And so I was like, oh, okay, And that's as far as I took it. But I do believe something was going on that day. Don't totally know what, but.
Yeah, interesting ghost dogs I loves.
Yeah, that's the only experience, so I don't know. My mom has had a lot of experiences of like after after a very close loved one dies, of like seeing them in the house and she's she's still she won't admit like whether she really thinks she sees a ghost or she thinks she just is imagining them, but she's had it. It's happened multiple times for her, so that's interesting.
Thank you so much for being on and I hope that people listening will go check out your tour and your ghost stories.
Yeah, me too.
I guess maybe the most direct way to get in touch that I didn't think about was my Instagram, which is just a Wanda underscore screw. I'm I'm very yeah, very matter of fact. But yeah, I pot about it incessantly on there, so that might be the best way to go about it. And yeah, hopefully I'll meet some new people through your podcast.
Yeah for everybody that Wanda hear a ghost story. Okay, hello Brad from Los Angeles?
How are you good?
Are you so good? I wanted to hear the story that you sent me about the Greystone Mansion.
Oh yeah, for sure. So I actually went to see a friend in a play there, which I found it is like the longest running play in Los Angeles, been there for eighteen years and.
They still do it. Yeah, I mean probably not right now, but well no.
Yeah, but it's called The Manor, and you go in and the family is called the the Mcallisters, and you know, so it's based loosely on the Doheiny family and they come out looking like they're just an I says people, and everything was really wonderful, and you know, it's the character from There Will Be Blood. So you know, the son and his valet died the night before they were supposed to testify in the Teapot Dome scandal. The bodies
were found covered in blood. Like there's a lot of really dicey stuff around it, and oh, yeah.
We should probably get into the backstory.
Yeah, just really quickly. And so I went to see the show and I was asking the woman. A friend of mine was in it, and I said, well, why do you why does the family come up looking like that when there are all these other things And she said, well, even though it's a national park, the family that owned that made the house still has script approval. And I
thought that was kind of an interesting idea. So I was talking to my friend who was in it, and she said while she performed, she felt like the presence of a little girl around her, or like a child, and there were these She started telling me stories like people would see this girl in a polka dot dress, or one of the forest rangers had locked up the house and there's there's like a bridge or the window
on the second floor. And he thought somebody who's like, oh yeah, I checked, but saw like a person and then went inside and it was like a headless torso and he just ran out screaming. So she was telling me all these stories, you know, and the people themselves, they werehearsing the quote unquote murder room, which is where the valet live, where the murder took place.
And then you said, a headless torso I had to like comprehend that. So it's basically just a first of all, it's like sounds like grinder, but it's just a no legs and no head floating in the air.
Yeah, exactly. Oh my god.
Yeah.
So she started telling me these stories and I was like, well, that's bizarre, and so I kind of had the idea
of like a screenplay thing. So I started researching for like writing a screenplay about a group of actors stuck in the house and you know, who gets to tell the truth and that kind of thing, which felt very like of our moment, since this wealthy family gets to, you know, tell tell the story, even though the real story is a lot darker, and you know, and there are all these rumors about these murders and suicides, so weirdly A friend of mine was friends with a forest
ranger who no longer works there, So I think I can tell these stories because he's like, don't tell anyone, I want to get fired. But he doesn't work there anymore. So I made an arrangement to have a little tour with him around the house, and he told me there were actually six debts in the house that there a little girl had fallen out a window playing with her playmate. That's the little possibly the girl in the Polkada dress. Two of the there were two women who killed themselves.
There's a whole thing about that, possibly with like being sexually assaulted by the man that the woman who possibly killed her husband and the valet remarried. Like there's a whole thing. And then another guy was possibly thrown in the boiler who worked there because they used to keep the men locked in the boiler room to keep away from the female servants. When it was, you know, a working house in the twenties and thirties, super charming the
whole time. It was like, you know, we walked around the whole house and he was telling me these stories, and I was like, yix and yeah, And so he started telling me that like, you know, one of the forest rangers like was pushed down the stairs and she was just standing at the stairs. There was no one behind her. And another one was on a photo shoot and something crazy happened and he ended up like leaving the client alone. Soe he was so freaked out. And
and what were some of the other ones? Oh that you know, somebody had like turned off all the lights and then one of the then he heard his voice that said you missed one, and turned around and one of the lights was back on. He himself like pushed a cabinet closed and felt like it being pushed back at him. So there were those kinds of things. They said they had a paranormal investigator in there, and there's like a supposedly a demon living in there, and they
said it was like a portal to another world. And they found some substance on the floor that nobody could identify. I mean, he was telling me all this, you know, sure or not?
So anyway, Well, that place, see, don't I don't know a ton about it. I had never I've never been to it. But it's basically it's this grand mansion in Beverly Hills that so it's it's what were you saying? It's a national it's a national park now, you know.
Okay.
Originally I think it was on like four hundred acres of land. They had like a game reserve. You go on the second floor, they actually have a sink that has like where they would like they could shoot game and they just bring them up and prepare them and you know the sink where they can the blood light goes into the sink from where they you know, slaughter the animals, that kind of thing. Dumb waiters, the whole deal.
It's like fifty rooms. It's big, and there's like, oh my god, and there's a bowling alley which you saw and there will be blood. They renovated the bowling alley and there. It was also built during prohibition, so there are all these like the walls are really thick, or like there's a hidden bar downstairs where you like hit a wall and it like turns into a bar. That kind of stuff.
Well, it's been in like a bajillion movies. That's what I That's what I had known it from. Well, I love Death Becomes Her and I remember when I'm like watching it and being like what is this place? And then I saw that that's that they had shot there. But here, I'll give you a list for anyone listening. I went to a website called seeing dash Stars dot
com and here's some of the movies. What Women Want I was starring Mel Gibson, The Bodyguards starring Queen Whitney Houston, The Phantom with Billy zon Oh, Witches of east Wick, Big Lebowski, All of Me with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin. Ghotsbusters too, that sounds fitting. There's Jumping Jack Flash with Woopy Goldberg, The Beautician and The Beast with Fran Dresser. There's there's like the list goes on and on and on.
Yeah, it's crazy. And in fact, right after I visited, I for some reason was watching All of Me and I was like, that's that. Wait, I was just there. Yes, So it's crazy. It's a beautiful house. It's enormous, you know, I mean the tile is incredible. I mean it really
is amazing. But I the whole time I was there, and this is why I would tell me this story, Like I had a headache, which was bizarre, and I was starting to feel tired, and you know, I was taking a lot of pictures and hearing all these stories, and then I went home and and that's why I thought you'd enjoyed listening to your podcast or none enjoyed, but be interested. I was getting really depressed. I had
headaches all the time, I problems sleeping. I had this one moment where I, you know, I parked my cars with la apartment. You know, my parking space is behind my apartment building. And I had the thought like, wow, I've never It's funny, in thirteen years, I've never scraped the side of my car against my building. And literally, the next time I got in my car, I just like scraped the entire side of my car against my building.
And so I was talking to a friend who a late friend you know, was a psychic actually for many, many many years and worked with a lot of people. And he was asking what had happened and how I was feeling, and he said, come over here right now, and he did something where like put our hands on the table and he goes, oh, yeah, something's attached itself
to you. Because I also couldn't find jobs. I was running out of money, all this stuff, and he said something, He's like, I destroyed it, and I definitely felt like it's weird. I felt this like flush kind of thing, and an hour later I got offered a job. I got offered like three jobs in the next week, Like everything turned around. The headache went away, and I was like, I didn't need to know that was even plausible.
Oh my god, do you think it was one of the demons from the alleged portal?
I have no idea. What he told me was did demons? He's like, oh, demon's on't a problem. Demons have a place they live and they're just upset if you try to fuck with their house basically. But he was like, you know, they're not going to follow you. He was like just some kind of entity.
And I got, well, are they paying rent? I know, because if not, you're out of here.
Oh yeah. But it was one of those things where I was like, you know, I don't know true or not a suggestion, but I know I was on the grounds again. And then I was like, I got I get a headache anytime me think about it, so I'm like, you know what, I'll I'll steer clear. But yeah, it was kind of wild. I mean, AFI was there for
many years. I mean like they said they've shot all kinds of movies, but it's just like the stories are that this forest ranger was just telling me story after story after story, and I was like, yikes.
So but it's open to the public, right, like people can just go at any time.
I think you can schedule a tour, but the gardens are open. And then like I've had friends have gotten married there, you know, they do marriages, and I was like, good for you.
Oh I want to go. Well, you're telling me also that you've done shows at Casita del Campo where I do my live shows and stuff. Have you ever had any experiences there?
I haven't. And when I heard the thing, you know about the ghost there, I was like, oh, because I've stood in that little corner, you know, waiting to go on, and I've never had never had any experiences there, but I had so weird me neither I had heard about it, you know, and you're always like, you know there was like oh there was a fire, you know, I mean you hear the stories, but no, it's such a great vibe.
If there is something there, it's obviously not like trying to ruin everybody's day, you know what I mean.
Totally, Yeah, it's whatever is going on. If there is, I mean enough people have said that there is that I believe it. But it's it's definitely just fun happiness. I mean, I think there's also just so much energy down there of people just cackling on full stomachs of delicious food and people are just like there's just so much happiness there.
Yeah. I've never gotten that kind of vibe that it's like, because there have been times. I mean I think I mentioned I like went to a place over here near here and saw this chair that this guy had.
Oh yeah, can we talk about it?
Oh?
Yeah, sure, I know that place. It's called the Philosophical Research.
Yeah, University of Philosophical Research.
Yes, okay. I've always been like, what is that place? And I've been to the bookstore, but I don't really know what do you know what it is?
You know, I'm Maryon Williamson studied there, I think, oh okay, yeah, and it was It's like but I think he built it in the you know, there are all those the Theosophis, like the Basant Lodge, that kind of history of la of like you know, lots of alternative thought and spiritual people, you know, and this guy guess was kind of heavily into the occult, but i'd never been either, and I don't live far driven past it so many times, so you know, I mean, I think a few years ago,
I drove by and thought, you know what, I'm just going to stop in. And I walked up into the right there's this like and there's like a looks like a carved wooden chair from like let's say, like China in the eighteen sixties or something. And I looked at the chair and I thought, I'm going to throw up, like I'm really gonna get sick, which is not like at all. And then went to the bookstore and was like someone's going to stab me in the back or
I'm going to be abducted, which was really weird. So I went to the bookstore the guy running the bookstore, and I said, what is that chair and he said, oh, that's where the founder would lecture from. That was his chair. And I was like, oh, well, I guess this place is not for me then, so I just kind of backed away slowly, and as soon as I left, I was fine. But it was just the weirdest I've never
had that experience anywhere else. But I was like, I don't know what's going on here, but there was definitely some you know, I don't think I'm not clairvoyant, but I definitely, you know, there are moments. I don't know, if you have that thing where you go in somewhere and you're like, this is not right, And yeah, I had that experience other people. I think it's great for but sometimes I think that's just a guy and saying maybe you particularly shouldn't here.
Yeah, not for you.
Yeah.
Special thank you to Kit, Joey, Alex and Brad for being on this month's Listener episode. You can be on next month's Listener episode by emailing me at ghosted by Roz at gmail dot com. Type up a little bit of your stories and put in the subject line listener episode and we're just my work something out. Please join Patreon helps me out and I've been enjoying all the content and people have been loving it from what I hear. You Just go to Patreon dot com slash Rozdressfalest. There's
also a link in the description of this episode. I'm on Instagram at Rozdresfales. Join our Facebook group Ghosted by Rozdresfales. I'm on venmo at Queen Roz and cameo rozdres Fales. I love you all, both living and dead. But if I didn't ask you to haunt me, don't haunt me.
Gaybye, Starbans.
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