Ghost story by Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Ghost Writer
Excerpted from the story, The Haunting of the Sutter Creek Palace.
We hit the road...headed for Sutter Creek, CA, a town in the Gold Country. Sutter Creek is well known for it's gold mining. Paranormal Investigators Angel Kesti and Debbie Talani joined us for this scouting mission. Jennifer Baca drove while Chris, Debbie and I were her passengers. Holly drove with Angel as her passenger and Bryan drove his car by himself. We trekked up through the foothills of Sutter Creek and our first stop was the Sutter Creek Palace. I introduced myself and the group to Dan Walker, the owner of this establishment. His wife Lana Walker took the HPI crew upstairs to look at the rooms and into their basement. We captured many orb shots throughout this establishment. I conducted interviews. My first interview was with Victoria Finney, waitress.
Victoria has been working at this establishment for 5 months. She has detected cold spots, especially on the first floor. She has heard stories about Angelo the Ghost, which I will discuss more in this article. She has placed objects in certain areas of the bar and they will disappear, only to reappear somewhere else. She has heard stories about the 'The Lady in the Black Dress' that makes her appearance known to some of the patrons. She was told by the dishwasher that he once felt a tug on his shoulder by an unseen force. She has heard doors being pushed shut on their own. When she goes into the basement, she feels a weird vibe and it makes her feel paranoid at times. She does not like going into the basement by herself.
The second interview was with Chelsea Mancuso. She has worked at this establishment for 1 1/2 years and is a waitress. She tells me about the trap door at what was once an area called the 'Lady's Parlor' she also tells me there is activity in the bar area. She was once locked up in the wine cellar. The latch to the wine cellar moved into the lock position by itself. She had to unlock it, to get out and there was no way that she did it herself. She tells me that upstairs, TVs have been known to change channels by themselves. She has heard about doors flying open. She has heard about Lana Walker telling Angelo to leave her alone, after being pestered by the ghost.
Let's look at some of the history of the Sutter Creek Palace Restaurant and Saloon. In 1860, this establishment was a small livery and store. In 1864, a fire swept through the town. I.N. Randolph built a saloon at the spot of the small livery & store. In 1884, it became the Charles Boros Saloon. There was a bordello upstairs and the men of the town would use a tunnel to enter into the Lady's Parlor of the Sutter Creek Palace, so they could utilize the pleasures of the bordello without being seen by other townsfolk. A lot of these men had reputations to keep, they were considered upstanding men of the town. When Angelo Mevi became the owner of this establishment in the 40s and 50s, he called it 'Our Corner'. A patron was once taking a picture of his friends and Angelo the Ghost appeared in the photo. If you ever have a chance to visit this historical restaurant and saloon, make sure to sample their baked brie, stuffed portobello mushroom, chicken wings, calamari, quesadillas or sea scallops. Also, try out their variety of martinis, with names like the Cosmopolitan, Blue Moon, Chocolate Martini, 007, Lemon Merinque Martini, Appletini and more!
My third interview was finally with Lana Walker. Her husband Dan Walker is the owner and has been the owner of this establishment for 9 years. Lana has been working here for 5 years. This is what she has experienced in a nutshell:
- hearing someone walking upstairs,
- walking in the hallway and the footsteps stop at office door, she goes to check and there is no one there, she thinks it is Angelo,
- unknown wind blown towards her face,
- she feels someone is standing next to her,
- hears taps on picture frames,
- saw full body apparition on TV screen reflection,
- when there was talk of remodeling, Angelo became angry and caused ice machine to make an unusual noise that sounded like a voice,
- felt a spirit walk through her, thinks it was Angelo,
- wedding picture was tipped over many times, when she got into an argument with Dan, her husband, she feels Angelo sides with Dan,
- saw lady shadow in back dining room,
- door slams on an employee for no apparent reason,
- when a bad employee who was stealing from this establishment, was confronted by an entity, the entity punched him in the chest, this employee was also known to drink on the job and after his confrontation with the entity Angelo, he was released from his duties,
- another bad employee who was stealing meat, had bread thrown at him, that came flying off a shelf. Lana at times asks Angelo to stop scaring her and Angelo will stop playing his pranks.
Outside of this establishment, I conducted my 4th and 5th interview with Cal Toomey and Melissa Winkler. They discussed the Sutter Creek Saloon and suggested that one day HPI needs to do a scouting mission to the town of Columbia.
Some Feedback About Columbia - in Melissa Winkler's Own Words:
"I kept thinking something was off when we were talking- the hotel in Columbia is not called the Columbia hotel it is the City Hotel. Also, the women that died in one of the rooms was the women who died while giving birth. The women you mention below is a women who was hung after killing a man who had raped either herself or one of her girls (she ran a brothel). There was also one of the owners that hung himself in one of the areas downstairs. They say the women that died while giving birth, haunts the room she died in and the owner hung himself." Yikes! Sounds like a heck of a place to do an investigation! Melissa continues on...
"The experiences were felt in the shower- I clearly felt a presence that made me jerk to look while I was in the shower, and Cal was awakened by the strong feeling someone was toying with him.
It's amazing how many people will confront HPI members and give us various tips of different places to scout out. It's always exciting when we visit a new town..people hunt us down as we're hunting the ghosts! The HPI crew ate lunch at the Sutter Creek Palace and the food was tremendously good! If you are not a ghost hunter, don't worry about it, if anything, check this establishment out for the food and the rich history!
Before we left Sutter Creek, the HPI team and I merely walked across the street to the Sutter Creek Inn www.suttercreekinn.com - 75 Main Street. This is another old establishment, that has old west interior décor. John Keyes built the Sutter Creek Inn, and lived there with his wife Clara. When John died, Clara remarried to E.C. Voorheis (State Senator). The Sutter Creek Inn was built near an Indian burial ground. Is this place also haunted? The answer is 'yes'. Jane Way (the new owner) once saw a strange man at the doorway while she was on her way to a party. The apparition in, 1800's style clothing, said to Jane Way, "I will protect you." The apparition smiled and then faded into nothingness. Jane Way believes that this was Senator Voorheis. Lindsay Way, the daughter of Jane Way allowed the HPI investigators to look around at the various floors of this gorgeous establishment. We even were allowed to investigate the basement area. The evidence we collected from both Sutter Creek investigations will have to be analyzed and the results will be placed into a future article.
Bryan Coleman and I, headed back to my home. I started working on this article, while Bryan took a catnap. There was one more investigation to do this evening, Saturday. At 7:30pm, Bryan Coleman/ Videographer, and I met up with Shannon 'Ms.Macabre' McCabe at her residence. We piled up in the 'Ghost Tracker' and headed to an unidentified location in Sacramento. We met up with Donna Reynolds. The team now consisted of paranormal investigators: Shannon McCabe - President/ Lead Investigator/ Demonoligist in training; Donna Reynolds - Sensitive; Bryan Coleman - Videographer and Paul Dale Roberts - Ghostwriter/Demonologist. Shannon and I, have been doing extensive research in Demonology to hone our skills in this craft. I interviewed the occupant of this home, named Barbara. Barbara relates the following, that she lived in a duplex that was haunted by a demon. She lived in this duplex two years ago. The activity at this duplex started with strange noises in the attic. When she was holding a glass, an invisible entity hit the glass she was holding and knocked it out of her hand. She saw cords that were connected to a lamp and radio floating and writhing like a snake in the air. She had the same cords pulled out from the wall. She had a vision, in which she was laying in bed and her bed levitated and started to move counter clockwise. At this point, she no longer thought she just had a ghost in the house, but she felt she had a demon. Then it happened... She saw the demon, it had blood red eyes, a head like a beast, the bottom part of the demon was transparent, it had sharp teeth and it drooled an oozy substance. Barbara said the demon followed her to three different homes. The last time she saw the demon was in 2007. Barbara claims the demon is an incubus. This incubus had violent sex with her on several occasions. The Incubus also has been known to slam doors and break objects in her home.
Barbara had traveled out of California to an undisclosed state to be exorcised of this demon. While being exorcised by the clergy members she let out a demonic roar! When this happened the church members held her down and she seemed to be having convulsions. The Christians tried to exorcise the demon out of her to no avail. She goes on to explain that when the demon rapes her, her whole body vibrates during the rape, and that she is lifted about three feet then violently dropped over and over. She now says that in her new home, the demon followed her and she feels she has one demon and one ghost in her home. A medium (unrelated to HPI) came to her home and felt the presence of an old man ghost. Barbara says that she has seen the demon once, while her husband has seen the demon 3 times. Her husband describes the demon as a large 7 to 8 foot dark black shadow. One other thing of note is that Barbara has a son who is mentally disabled. She feels that the demon may have also attacked her son. She tells us that demons prey on the weak and that her son has seen things and talked to people in his room that are not there.
Shannon and I, blessed this home. We conducted a 'hedge of protection' prayer for Barbara as we surrounded her, holding hands. I asked for an army of angels to protect Barbara and her family and all the animals that reside in this home. As we blessed this home, Shannon burned sage and placed sea salt in all corners of every room and entrances. I placed holy water on all corners and entrances and asked for any entity or demon that may inhabit this dwelling to depart in the name of Jesus Christ and all that is holy. I did a 4 winds prayer in the garage and the entrance of her home, which will scatter the holy water to the 4 winds of these locations, banishing the demon off her property, hopefully. I placed holy water from my hand to Barbara's forehead and said a silent prayer of protection. Unfortunately, Barbara was so determined to get this 'demon incubus' out of her home.
As we conducted our investigation of this home, I did not take any unusual photographs and Bryan did not record anything unusual on his video camera. Donna used her dowsing rods and felt no unusual energy. Shannon, Bryan and I had a debriefing after the investigation. Bryan recorded our debriefing. Shannon and I, discussed the following:
1. Barbara had 3 dogs, the dogs were playful. They did not show any signs of trauma.
2. The energy from Barbara's home is wholesome and normal. I would describe it as going to your grandmother's house. The ambiance was of warmth and harmony.
3. When Barbara described the rape by the demon, she described it nonchantly. She showed no strained signs of being traumatized, no tears flowed, no agitated excitement in her voice. As a military policeman, I have witnessed rape victims being interviewed and even if the rape occurred two years ago, there is still trauma detected in their voices as they describe this past event.
4. In all cases that Shannon and I researched, it indicates a real demonic haunting, that a demon will fight by causing a disturbance in the dwelling. As we commenced with our blessing of the home, there was no disturbance of any kind.
5. Shannon concludes that Barbara believes her story of demonic torment and feels that Barbara is not trying to be deceptive.
Even if we find no evidence in Barbara's home of any sort of haunting activity, I am pleased that we answered her desperate call for assistance and did our investigation. We cannot ever ignore a call, when someone is asking for help dealing with something that is considered paranormal, HPI is on it. We did everything we could for Barbara and now it is time to analyze all of the evidence from our investigations. As I write this article and listen to my digital audio recorder, I find no EVPs recorded from Barbara's home. Another bright note about this investigation, it was a good training exercise for Shannon and I. Practice makes perfect and the more practice that Shannon and I have in the field of demonology, the better demonologists we will be.
This was a very strange night indeed, a storm was brewing when we drove to Barbara's house and my Arkansas demon case resurfaced, as I got a call from Rebecka from Arkansas. Rebecka thinks her demon has returned and recently saw a strange black shadow in her bedroom. She has also been having strange nightmares again. I will be working with Rebecka to see if this will continue and if it does, I will assist Rebecka through these trying times to resolve her case once and for all.