| Ghosts & Haunts In Missouri Stories in Print UMC author Kate Schuman Staff Writer Do you believe in ghosts? Columbia has its share of ghost stories and legends, from the Gray Lady roaming Columbia College's campus to glowing red eyes at Devil's Ice Box to the ghost of Frank Rollins at Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house. But these legends, often most told around Halloween and forgotten the rest of the year, don't compare with the tales of Terry Gambill, who runs the Missouri Ghosts and Haunts, a St. Louis based ghost research group. The group investigates paranormal occurrences at private residences, businesses, cemeteries and any other site reported to be haunted. Ghost stories in Columbia can be easily recited, but they differ from Gambill's experiences. The story of the ghost of Frank Rollins Jr. or the little girl that haunts the Phi Psi house are favorites in Columbia. With a little help from his fraternity brothers, Phi Psi treasurer Matt Flick easily detail both stories. "Frank was a member of Phi Delta Theta, but his brother was in Phi Psi," Flick said. "He came over one night and shot himself in the formal room." Now Frank haunts the house, mostly flickering the lights at night. Phi Psi also boasts another ghost, this one living outside, where she was killed. "In the 19th century, a little girl was bouncing her ball and chased it out into Providence Road, and was run over by a carriage," Flick said. "Apparently she crawled all the way up our driveway and died on the south side of the house. Some people say you can still hear her ball bouncing at night and other people have sworn they have seen her." But while these stories are fun to tell, Flick said few people in the house actually believe them. "They're more of tall tales, no one really believes in it," Flick said. "One person says he does just to scare people, but the Frank story is really more of justification for crazy electrical problems since its such an old house. "Similarly, the tale of Columbia College's Gray Lady has become more of a fun story than a paranormal happening. Julie Starkey, Director of Residential Life at Columbia College explained that the story goes that student who was supposed to marry a Confederate solider jumped out of Sinclair Hall after the soldier was killed. She now roams the top floor. But Starkey said the story is more for fun than anything else. "We have an official story that we made up around Halloween one year that the public relations office can release," Starkey said. "But it's literally made up, there's no real life history." Unlike Starkey and Flick, Gambill takes his hobby of ghost hunting seriously. Gambill's investigations include elaborate equipment and well-organized documentation. Gambill seriously began investigating ghosts and haunted places about five years ago, after he participated in a ghost hunt in a cemetery in Decator, Ill. "We got some pretty interesting things on film," Gambill said. "Up until that point it was just a casual thing for me." After a brief move to California, Gambill returned to Missouri and began heavily investigating the paranormal. And paranormal he has seen. Through use of various different forms of recording, Gambill has witnessed and documented some strange occurrences. Gambill said the amount of investigations per month varies depending on the season. Around Christmas is the slowest time, while in the summer Gambill and other members can have as many as three investigations per month. Last summer, Gambill and others were investigating a haunted road, Because he was recording the temperature with a non-contact laser thermometer, Gambill knew it was between 67 and 70 degrees outside. But in certain places the temperature dropped to points where people could see their breath. "Some people were more affected by it than others," Gambill explained. "Their hair would stand up, they would get goose bumps. This is what you would expect with cold, but the cold would seem to get turned on and off, like a switch. Some sort of power was doing this, but we don't know why." Gambill uses anything from a simple digital or 35 millimeter camera to range extenders and infrared boosters to capture videotape of up to 100 feet away in total darkness. But some of the most interesting of his experiences have come from audio recordings. "We've gone to cemeteries with the right equipment and in addition to getting really bizarre photos, we also get voices on tape," Gambill said. Gambill said in one cemetery when they played back the audio they heard children shouting, "We're here." "None of us heard it while we were there," Gambill said. "But when we played back the audio, it was very distinctive. Nothing extra was necessary to hear it." Gambill's equipment also includes Electro Magnetic Field meters to measure electrical fields and Tri Field meters, which are more advanced EMF meters and can measure electrical fields immune to man made sources, such as wall outlets. Because of his experiences, Gambill believes in ghosts in a way most people don't. But he isn't afraid of them, he said. Even when the temperatures dropped on this road. or when fellow members felt a tugging on their clothing, Gambill said he was laughing. "I've never physically been harmed," Gambill said. "I know of one very rare instance where a ghost attacked a home owner because they we're going to demolish the house, but I personally have never had a scratch. It's a safe hobby." Gambill said most people are afraid of the paranormal because they are caught off guard. But he said most home owners who have ghosts don't feel threatened by them once they get used to their presence and realize the ghosts won't impose on them. Though his experiences might seem hard to believe, Gambill said his friends and family have never really questioned his sanity. And if they do, Gambill just directs them to the database or shows them footage. Gambill makes an example of a case at the Lehmann House, a Victorian mansion in St. Louis. He set up video equipment in the attic of the house and installed motion sensors so nothing could get in or out. In two hours of footage, a huge shadow moves from the left of the screen, to the middle and back to the left again, without triggering the sensors. "There was nothing physically moving or it would have been detected," Gambill explained. "But you can see some sort of shadow moving. You can't really argue with that." Gambill's database includes several Columbia locations, including common places for ghost stories: Devil's Ice Box at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, the Missouri Theatre, Tiger Hotel, and Stephens College. But Gambill said Columbia is not nearly as well documented because there is no local ghost hunting organization. He added because it's a college town, an organization is less likely to form since students are constantly coming and going. "I've had people contact me about Devil's Ice Box and reported glowing red eyes," Gambill said. "But it hasn't been documented because a lot of people won't even take basic equipment with them like a camera or voice recorder." Beyond just establishing a group in Columbia, Gambill thinks in order to understand why paranormal activity occurs; it needs to be studied on a university level. "It's an interesting hobby for me, but it's not being seriously looked at even though all sorts of activity is going on that you can document," Gambill said. "What is causing it, that's what the big question is? A lot of people go to scary places on Halloween, scare themselves and that will be the end of it. But it needs to be studied at a very advanced level to try to figure out what is going on." Page Back |