I think before I talking about our haunting investigation, I want to talk about a few other things to get this article started. First off, before I became HPI's ghost writer, I was merely a freelance writer that wrote about anything under the sun. I wrote travel articles, political articles - especially after 9/11, lots of comic book articles and comic book reviews. In fact I had my own monthly column in Vamperotica Magazine by Brainstorm Comics and Just Comics and More - The Caribbean's Only Monthly Comic Magazine! Yes! I am also in the comic book business. I promote aspiring writers and artists who are trying to break into comic books and animation. I do reviews of comics and ever once in a while I will find a quote of mine plastered on some comic book someplace. I also interview many comic book creators and artists from Boris Vallejo to Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics! You can find all my comic book stuff right at my website Jazma Online! at www.jazmaonline.com Comic books cover all genres, from sci fi to fantasy to horror to drama to real life relationships. Many comic books have become movies from Sin City, Road to Perdition, Men in Black, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Ghostworld, Hellboy and the list goes on and on. In fact, my comic book The Legendary Dark Silhouette will be made into a movie by independent film producer Howard Nash whose credits include: P.J., Tracks, Sleepless Nights, Feliciano: The Legend and Children of the Night. So, being in the comic book business is not a bad thing. When I first got into paranormal writing, I was invited by a friend to attend a ghost hunting investigation. I introduced myself to Shannon 'Ms. Macabre' McCabe and told her I wanted permission to write an article. She grabbed me by the arm and said, 'I love the press!" I have been with HPI ever since, writing their stories. I introduced the comic book world to the ghost hunting world and we will soon have a comic book out called The HPI Chronicles: HPI Meets Dracula!
To let you know there are many comic books that deal with the paranormal and horror, if you ever walk into a comic book store, check out some of these titles: Loaded Bible 2: Blood of Christ - Image; Left on Mission #2 by Boom!; The Secret History Book Two: Castle of the Djinns - The Templar Chronicles: Heretic by Joe Nassise; Robert Kurtzman's - Beneath the Valley of the Rage #1 by Fangoria Comics; Mischief Night by Avatar; Madame Mirage by Top Cow and Garth Ennis' - Streets of Glory. Let me know what you think.
Now to other things, I was a guest 4 times on Sonoma's Wine, Spirits and Song Paranormal Radio Show, in which I discussed my involvement with the US Army's Military Intelligence and the Intelligence connection to UFOs. We also talked about ghosts. Carla Heine, the host of the show said that Sonoma is the most haunted city in Northern California. I now have to disagree with her, I think every city in the world is haunted, you just need to look for haunted locations. You will find out they are easy to find. Sacramento has a lot of notorious history. When I lived on W Street in Sacramento in the 70s, so was Patty Hearst and some of the SLA. Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme was trying to kill former President Gerald Ford in Sacramento. This type of criminal activity does not leave ghost traces, because no one died. But, other notorious criminal activity in Sacramento may leave ghost traces, such as the infamous cases of Charlene & Gerald Gallegos, The I-5 Killer, Dorothea Puente and Richard Trenton Chase aka The Vampire of Sacramento. These horrifying episodes in Sacramento history may leave residual haunting activity, where a murderous act may play out over and over again. The victims to these crimes may not be at rest, because their lives were taken early in life and they may have some unfinished business to attend to. These are areas of interest for HPI. These are areas we will investigate and other areas of Northern California. We will never run out of cases.
It seems that everyone I talk to has a paranormal story, either they have seen a ghost, saw a UFO, came across a shadow person, etc. Even as I was talking with my own dad, he claims that when my mom passed away, it was only a few days later, he saw her glide down the hallway into the bedroom of his Greenhaven home. He was making repairs in the bathroom and a cold chill came over him. He never experienced anything else paranormal again, but he will never forget that image.
I used to live in Monterey and one of the urban legend ghost stories that I will never forget is that during the 60s, a soldier out of Ft. Ord, California was hitchhiking off base to see his family during Thanksgiving. Two ladies in a convertible picked him up. The girls in the car were drinking, playing their music up loud, some people say they were listening to In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly when the car pulled up to pick up the soldier. The girls were having fun with the soldier in the car while driving and took him to Carmel Valley. They pulled the car over and began seducing the soldier and persuaded the soldier to allow them to tie him to a tree. When the soldier obliged, he found himself partially nude, tied to a tree. One of the girls pulled out some LSD, the three of them all took the hallucinogenic drug. At some point of time one of the girls pulls out a very thin glass tube and inserts the tube into the soldier's private area. When the tube was fully inserted, she breaks it off in the middle. The girls drive off and leave the soldier bleeding to death tied up to the tree. It is said that people driving down a lonely stretch of road in Carmel Valley see the ghostly image of the soldier bleeding from his groin area. So, you see stories about ghosts are everywhere and if a tragic event like this did occur, there was enough negative energy blasted into the atmosphere to leave a good residual haunting for that area in Carmel Valley.
Sometimes I have a tendency to ramble on, so let's get to the investigation this evening. The date is July 17, 2007, Tuesday. First off, we had a meeting at the Sierra 2 Center in Room 11. Alicia Perry demonstrated to the HPI Paranormal Investigators on how to eliminate background noise using a program called Audacity, when searching for EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon). I introduced a guest that I worked with on a few paranormal investigations, her name is Janet Michalk. She is a certified hypnotherapist and intuitive. For more information on Janet's work, she can be reached at: intouchhypnotherapy@yahoo.com and intouchhypnotherapy.com. She is a paranormal investigator with In Touch Paranormal Investigations. After our meeting we investigated the infamous Martinez Home on 22nd and H Street.
The paranormal investigators that attended this investigation after the meeting were: Shannon McCabe, Tim Hawkins, John Wachter aka Vlawde, Michelle Paykel, Michele Stump, Chris Grissom, Jennifer 'The Jen Girl" Baca, Lisa Holt and her nephew Jessie Ibarra, Mary Casiano, Alicia Perry, Brian Colbert, Paul Dale Roberts, Lou Paman & Dee Pizarro. Lou Paman and Dee Pizarro were also my guests and this was their very first paranormal investigation. Lou & Dee are part of a band called Taal and I saw them both play last Friday at the Stockmarket Grill off Folsom Blvd. Both are great musicians and with the enthusiasm I saw in both of them tonight, I believe they will make very good investigators.
Let me describe this house. The house looks like the Munsters or Addam's Family's home. I kid you not. There are gargoyles in front of the home. The house is an actual mansion, that is over 100 years old. The house is abandoned. The house is located at 2131 H Street, corner of 22nd. There are huge palm trees in front of the house. Lisa Holt's nephew, Jessie, an intuitive or what you may call a sensitive, sensed a entity crossing one of the upstair rooms in front of the window, and he and Alicia suggested to John that he take a picture. And he got an amazing bright white orb that shows motion. The house is absolutely spooky to behold.
Alicia Perry and Mary Casiano did a scouting investigation of the home on their own, and when they got back in their truck they smelled a man's cologne. Figuring they were being followed by an entity, Alicia proceeded to tell their "guest" to leave. Fortunately they were doing an audio recording at the time, because they picked up an EVP that says, "I'll git." At least the ghost was a gentleman!
As digital cameras flashed away, gorgeous orbs were taken around the house. (already mentioned above) Vlawde takes a picture that almost looks like an orb coming out of the window. Jennifer Baca takes a picture of the window and it appears that an apparation is peering out of the window.
The neighbors of this abandoned home came over to see what we were doing and here are some of the stories they told:
That Dr. Aden Hart and his family lived in this home. There has been some deaths in the house. That at one time, one of the tenants of this home, would take his wife to the cellar and torture her, she eventually died in the house. One story goes that a man went berserk and killed his whole family in the house. None of these stories can be substantiated. The stories are all urban myth. The Martinez family lived there and they were the last occupants of the house, before it became abandoned. Now below are some possible facts:
Fact from a researcher of the Martinez House:
"The occupants in 1907 were Dr. Arden C. Hart and Alice Hart. Arden founded Sutter Hospital. They lived in that wonderful house until around 1950. I do not know if one or the other died there. The house was then sold to (last name not disclosed). One of the pair's sons inherited the house. I assume he grew up there. That is when, 1976, it was vacated. In 2000 the grandson lived there very briefly. He was scared away."
Information from a neighbor:
"One day, I was lounging about on our front porch. I saw the owner's son run out of the house, and then back in. That afternoon he had packed up and moved out.
In a later conversation, the lad told me this. "I was upstairs. I had the radio going on in the kitchen. I was alarmed, when the radio began changing stations. I went down to see who was doing it. There was no-one. I went back upstairs. The radio once again began changing channels. I ran down this time, no-one again. I ran outside and around the house. There was nobody in sight. That is when I decided to move out. It was the last straw."
Other Information Gathered On the Martinez Home:
Some claim that there was never any Martinez family that resided there. The Martinez family story could be another urban myth. It is said that the Amaruso(s) bought the home in the 50s and still own it. Paranormal investigator Brian Colbert received 3 EVPs and HPI is in the process of analyzing the EVPs that he picked up this night. Some of the investigators smelled cologne or smoke that emanuated from the house. At one point of time, I smelled cologne that came and went. Alicia Perry and Mary Casiano also smelled cologne on their separate scouting mission to this home, before this initial investigation.
Paranormal Investigator Brian Colbert dug up this information:
"The trouble seems to have started three weeks after Mrs. Lillian Martinez and her family moved into the remodeled house in 1973. Sounds of crashing glassware and noises of a struggle in the kitchen started late at night, but nothing was there.
Then 15-year-old Angie began seeing a gray and white cat fade in and out of reality. Upstairs, a "panting presence" started following people around and later materialized as the ghost of an Oriental man wearing a white coat.
The ghost of a woman wearing a yellow flower-print dress was also seen by Lilly Monica, Tyrone, and Diana Martinez. Husband Julio reported the ghosts of two children hiding in doorways. Rumors of a family murder in the house have never been confirmed, but other tenants down through the years reported similar activity. (The house is now a private residence near 22nd and H Street in Midtown Sacramento.)
Background research-
I've had several people tell me the story behind the house is that the original builders and owners of the house were a prominent & historical family of both Sacramento & California in general. The patriarch of the family, apparently suffering from an unknown mental disorder (dementia?) murdered his grandchildren, the house servants, and family pet.
Searching in the Sacramento historical archives, I have uncovered some information that lends some credence to this legend. Moving backwards through the owners, I found the original owners: the Hart Family. The original owner of the house is listed as one "A C Hart". Cross referencing through the Sacramento Directories, the full name is Aden (or Aben, but I believe this is a typo) C Hart, physician.
Background on
AC Hart-
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ca/state1/biographies/achartmd.html
His brother (which makes mention of their father)
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ca/state1/biographies/achartmd.html
Nephew-
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ca/state1/biographies/fbhart.html
Brother(?)
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ca/state1/biographies/srhart.html
Note: all entries except for AC Hart mention marriages and children, except Aden's. There is also mentions within the biographies of various members of the family expiring. At the time, as you are probably quite aware, it was quite common for large families to care for the elder members, and for them to pass on in the family home. A search of the library newspapers has not turned up anything, as of yet. As you can see from the above, there is quite a lot to still look into."
The house has a lot of history that is clouded with truths and untruths and hopefully one day, HPI will be able to unravel the mystery of this old haunted house. Wouldn't it be nice to have a house like this, that can be HPI's headquarters?
For more on HPI, check out their website at www.hpiparanormal.net
Paul Dale Roberts, Freelance Writer
www.jazmaonline.com
Paranormal Cellular Hotline: 916 203 7503
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