The Shadow of Doubt

Last night on the SciFi Channel, the TAPS team investigated two places in Ybor City, FL:  The Cuban Club and the Trelles Clinic.

There was a fairly decent display of actual debunking going on, but still a lot of assumptions that leave the proverbial door wide open to debate.  First, lets look at the paranormal claims being made by the sites under investigation. 

The Cuban Club, Ybor City, FL

History and claims: 

• Actor hung himself in the theatre in 1920s - people have seen his apparition
• Lady seen in white dress and high-heeled shoes on main staircase (why always a white dress????)
• Little boy seen playing with a ball
• Sound of footsteps often heard in the ballroom

Investigation:

Kris Williams & Amy Bruni went ghost-provoking in the ballroom.  They thought they heard some thumping noises and couldn’t figure out the origin.  The women call in for TAPS founders Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson to help figure out the sounds.  Almost immediately Jay and Grant discovered that there’s an electrical post outside the windows of the ballroom that was emitting high EMFs, which may account for some phenomena.  The investigation of that area is cut short when Jay came down with the boogie-man flu and had to leave early.  No apparent link between that event and the high EMF they just found.  

Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango spent some time in the area where the little boy ghost was seen playing with a ball.  After completing their routine debunking [i.e. looking around the room with flashlights] they decided to attempt to communicate in Spanish with any entities that might be lingering.  They only knew a few Spanish words each and started firing them off at random, Tourette’s Syndrome fashion.  Nada.

Kris & Amy headed to the theatre to look for the actor’s ghost and change a tape in the Flir (thermal) camera.  Kris heard a footstep behind her and Amy saw a white light or mist near a stage curtain that seemed to fade in and then back out.  They never tried to debunk this anomaly with any action other than walking over to get a closer look.  I would have tried to replicate it with a flashlight, at the very least.

Grant and Brett headed back to the area where the little boy ghost is thought to be.  They tried to engage the ghost by enticing him to play with their ghost hunting toys. Grant put a modern day, twist-on flashlight on the floor, loosened the on-off mechanism until it is barely on and invited the little ghost boy to try and turn it on.  Voila!  The flashlight came on.  This happened after several direct questions were asked.  Pfffttt!!  First, if the mechanism is that close to being “on” then logic follows that any little vibration or floor displacement could have also turned it on.  What they should have done is placed that geophone gadget on the floor right next to the flashlight.  If the flashlight turns on AND the geophone registers a displacement, you have just debunked this technique as something that can reliably measure the presence of a ghost.  Second, (and this is assuming you believe there IS a little ghost boy) how’s a 9 year-old cuban ghost child going to understand how to operate a piece of equipment he’s never before seen?

And another thing with this flashlight business…since Ghost Hunters has featured this technique in several other episodes….we don’t know how many questions were asked across what length of elapsed time.  Maybe they asked 50 questions and the only time the flashlight came on was for the 4 or 5 questions they edited to include on the episode.  If so, then 5 out of 50 (or 10%) is hardly a respectable number.  Even a broken clock is right twice a day!

The Trelles Clinic, Ybor City, FL

History and claims:

The building was formerly a clinic opened and operated by a Dr. Trelles and is now undergoing renovations by a new owner.  The building will be Ybor Resort & Spa.  The current owner and his crew have experienced the following paranormal activity:

• The feeling of a child tugging on the back of shirt in the pharmacy room.
• Full body apparition of Conchita Trelles, former wife of the Dr.
• Three windows slamming shut in succession in the upper level.
• Apparitions walking through wall near an old meat grinder.

Investigation:

Another good round of debunking for the TAPS team.  Well, maybe.  Steve and Tango easily and quickly debunked the windows slamming shut but manipulating them for about 5 minutes.  They were the older, spring-loaded windows that fall with their own weight.  One falling can cause vibration enough to cause the next one to fall, and so on.  Great job! [throws the guys a scooby-snack]

Jason and Grant went to the room where the apparitions were seen walking into a closet where the so-called meat grinder is located.  The owner tells a tale of how someone previously had his arm stuck in the grinder and bled to death.  Jay and Grant inspect the large metal cauldron-like machine and find it’s actually a sterilizer, not a grinder.  LOL.  This nugget is an example of how people tell tales that are just assumed to be true and taken “on faith.”  Thank science for the ghost hunting plumbers that can also read!

Now, the grand finale of this investigation was revealed in the evidence review.  They came away with one unexplained EVP from the pharmacy.  They think it said “Juan.”  All I heard was “hhhhh.”  Lastly, they found that the infrared camera that was pointing down the hallway had been turned toward the left, away from the hallway.  There were no apparent shadows or reflections visible to explain the presence of a person manipulating the camera angle.  What I found interesting about the occurrence is the screenshot.  When the camera angle is changed, why did the camera’s counter and date/time stamp, which should be static, rise above and off the screen?  If I can get this video onto YouTube, I will better illustrate what I’m looking at and make another post of it.

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