Chronicles of a Ghost-Huntress (Paranormal)

June 26, 2009 / 18636

Today I am heading to the legendary Preston Castle in Ione, CA for a private tour and investigation. I have heard many amazing stories about this place and can’t wait to check it out for myself.

I pack my equipment which includes my Samsung digital camera, Sony digital recorder, K-II and spirit box, checking to make sure I have extra batteries for all as I wait for my cohort Yana to arrive.

I will be doing the driving as usual; I am not a good passenger and always insist on driving. Yana arrives as I am mapping out today’s route. After loading her gear into my trunk we hit 99 North toward Ione our first stop will be Preston Castle.

According to the Preston Castle Foundation website www.prestoncastle.com the 230 acre parcel where the Preston Castle stands was purchased in 1980 for a mere $30 an acre with 100 acres donated. The land was purchased to house the Preston School of Industry, established by the State Legislature as a progressive action toward rehabilitating, rather than simply imprisoning, juvenile offenders.

The institution was opened in June 1894 when seven juvenile offenders were transferred there from San Quentin State Prison. The Preston School of Industry remained open until 1960 when new facilities for the school were completed. The building remained vacant and fading into disrepair until September 10, 2001 when The Preston Castle Foundation received a fifty-year lease for the property. The Preston Castle has also been named a California State Historical Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Upon arrival we are greeted by Shannon McCabe, President of Haunted and Paranormal Investigations International (HPI), who is hosting today’s investigation, Paul Dale Roberts, HPI General Manager, Ghost Writer and Demonologist, celebrity psychic Bobby Marchesso and several other paranormal investigators who accepted the HPI invitation for this event.

Our private tour begins on the porch with tour guide Yvonne giving us the interesting history behind the school now referred to as a castle. Yvonne explains that boys from age 7-24, with the majority ranging from 14-22 years of age, were housed at the Preston School of Industry who founders thought of the institution more as a reform school than a prison. Boys were sent to the school for various reasons, some for offenses as minor as stealing one dollar, others for committing more serious offenses. Some boys were brought to the school during the Great Depression because their parents couldn’t afford to house and feed them. Some boys, whose parents could not control them also, brought their sons here.

There have been many deaths at the Preston School. After being convicted of burglary, Samuel Goins arrived at the school in July 1918. In April 1919 during his third escape attempt Goins was shot in the back by Preston guard John Kelly. Goins died at age 20 and just two months before his scheduled release date. He is buried in the Preston Cemetery along with 16 other boys who died while at the institution, most from diseases such as Small Pox, Yellow Fever and Tuberculosis. Possibly the most notable death is that of Anna Corbin, head housekeeper and “house mother” during the 1940’s who was beaten to death in the school’s basement. Her body was found rolled up in a carpet in a storage room just off from the staff’s kitchen. Her killer was never found.

After providing us with the school’s history behind the possible paranormal activity, Yvonne escorts us into the foyer/reception area, immediately upon entering I feel the energy of this place. I have only felt this kind of energy at one other location, Alcatraz Island. I feel as though I have been plugged in, I can feel the electrical current of this place. As we head down the main hall towards what used to be a dining hall I begin to try and tune into my special senses that allow me to experience the school in my own empathic way. I can feel the excitement; much like the children who occupied this school so long ago would have been, “they” are glad that we are here. Glad we have come to visit and I can no longer pay attention to what our guide Yvonne is saying as I am having my own experience, a tour she could not give. I can almost see the boys gathered in the dining hall and walking down the corridors. I can feel them watching us as we lookin the various rooms. As we descend to the basement the energy changes, becoming a little heavy but not negative. I have experienced negative energy many times but not in this place, not so far. As we make our way thru the basement and its various rooms I still have the sense we are being watched but now from the shadows and dark corners. The energy down here is more cautious and unsure of what we are doing here. As I enter the a narrow hallway that leads to the staff kitchen and plunge bath were the wards we sprayed down and plunged in a bath for de-licing I suddenly feel dizzy and nauseous. I don’t like this hallway, the energy is bordering on negative and it is very heavy. Interestingly, I am not the only one to experience this sensation in the hallway, fellow investigator John reports a similar feeling and several pictures taken in this area contain orbs.

After our official tour is complete we are allowed to roam the building and investigate on our own. With all the investigators in the building it is difficult to find a quiet place to try some EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) work but I find a place in the basement just off the hallway with the strong energy. I have adopted the McCabe method of capturing EVP’s, which consists of one or two short questions followed by 30-60 seconds to allow an entity to respond. I start my recorder and ask “Is there anyone that would like to talk with me?” I wait silently giving them a chance to answer. I rewind and listen to the recording but, there is nothing but my own voice. I decide to try again, and I ask “is there anybody here with me right now?” Again I wait for my answer. I start the playback and this time there is an answer “yes”. It is only slightly above a whisper, but it is clear and male. I feel the hair on my arms rise as I play it back

again and again just to make sure. It is definitely there and I start calling out for my En~Vision Paranormal teammate Yana. I find her and John investigating in the staff kitchen where I play for them the EVP I have captured. They hear it clearly without any preface from me and I am elated! It has been a few investigations since I captured an EVP. I am pleased when I play the EVP for HPI’s Shannon McCabe and she confirms my evidence.
Yana and I visit two cemeteries in the area one in Plymouth and one in Ione while we wait to join the others for dinner at the Ione Hotel. After having a great dinner and making new friends with the other investigators in attendance we head across the street to Tilly’s with some of the other investigators for karaoke, killing some until the Ione Hotel’s restaurant and bar are closed and we are able to conduct our next stage of today’s investigations.

The investigation of the Ione Hotel begins around 11:30pm. Shannon and Paul from HPI break the investigators into three groups and I am honored when they ask me to lead group three. Psychic Bobby Marchesso will roam the hotel working with the various groups throughout the night. Julia Cottel, a member of group three and her husband Brett offer up their room, room 12, for our group to start our investigation. Since all of the members of my group were first time investigators I gave them a quick tutorial on how to use their cameras and what to look for. After we go lights out, Julia and I started snapping photos, unfortunately with the exception of a few orbs, we captured nothing significant. About 10 minutes into our investigation psychic Bobby Marchesso enters the room. Bobby informed us he sensed an entity he believed to be male, in the room with us. Also on my team is a woman I met in the hotel lobby, earlier this evening, regrettably hername completely escapes me. I do remember she is originally from Liverpool England and had the coolest accent. Bobby and I conducted several short EVP sessions in an attempt to capture some evidence of the male entities presence, but were unsuccessful. In the next session the woman from Liverpool asked to give it a try and I started me recorder. She started by saying “I am getting a feeling that there is a guy named Sam, Sam are you here?” Followed by “Sam if you are can you just say yes?” And “I don’t know why you are here, I just got the feeling.” When we listened to the play back, there was nothing. However, the statements caused Julia to ask the question I am sure we were all thinking “How do you know that?” Our teammate from Liverpool explained that she is a psychic as well and has been since she was a young child. Now the investigation is getting seriously interesting we have two psychics in the room! Bobby used my K-II in
another attempt to make contact with this male entity, possibly named Sam but again had no luck.

The woman from Liverpool then tells us that Sam doesn’t want to talk with Bobby. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t like Bobby and only wants to talk to females. I then took the K-II and asked “Sam, if your are here in the room with us can you please come next the machine in my hand and make it light up” and immediately the K-II lit up all the way across, twice. I was thrilled and could actually feel his energy as it moved from the K-II into my hand, up my arm, down through my body to my feet and back up! I could hardly contain myself. The woman from Liverpool was so affected by her contact with Sam that she had to leave the room. Later, I was told that Sam wanted to talk to me specifically.

Our next round of investigating found all the teams together in the upstairs sitting area where we used my spirit box in an attempt to communicate with the entities in the hotel. I must say that even though we had little success with the spirit box on this night, definitely not like the success I have experienced on past investigations, the spirit box has to be my best investment as far as equipment to date. A simple Radio Shack radio that has been modified so that it continually scans without stopping on a specific station and attached to a set of external speakers it uses the “words” out in the radio waves to answer questions asked.
After receiving nothing consistent from the spring box Shannon lead an exercise of relaxation and mediation before we began a séance lead by Bobby Marchesso. During the séance Bobby sensed many relatives connected to the investigators and several entities connected to the hotel. Bobby explained the entities connected to the hotel are staying back, watching, not willing or hesitant to participate. Throughout Bobby’s deion of the entities and energy in the room with us I had to fight the urge to cry as I was suddenly overcome with sadness. I truly had to struggle to fight back the tears. As the séance ends and the group starts to disperse I was compelled to ask Bobby “why do I feel so sad?” And the battle is lost as I began to sob uncontrollably. Bobby states it is the female entity he mentioned earlier, after I started to walk down a certain hallway taking photos. I felt her there too and he told me to keep taking pictures because she

was there. Now, I was experiencing this woman’s sorrow as if it were my own, only I couldn’t tell why she was so sad. Bobby held his hands a few inches from my chest, the point where I felt this woman’s pain and told me to “let it go, let it pass through you” as I continued to sob. Slowly, the feeling started to subside but it still took me several minutes to gain my full composure. It was a very intense experience! The investigation ended with another spirit box and EVP session around the table in the restaurant that covers what used to be a well, our attempts to contact Jimmy a young boy that drowned in the well were unsuccessful.
After saying goodbye to my fellow investigators and new friends, Yana and I headed towards Highway 99 followed by Paul Dale Roberts. Yana and I rarely stay all night at the investigations; it’s just how we roll. Shortly after we turned on to Highway 88 I saw Paul pull over to the side of the road, concerned that he might be having car trouble I flipped a u-turn and went to check on him. As I pulled up next to his car I saw him pulling a looked to be a telescope from his trunk, he explained that he pulled off to do some sky watching hoping to spot a UFO. As it turns out the area is also known as Triangle Alley due to sightings of triangle shaped crafts. I said good-night again and could not help smiling as I thought to myself, that’s why I call him Paranormal Paul, and I pulled away leaving him to search the sky.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in the Chronicles of a Ghost-Huntress….

by Paul Dale Roberts

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