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Investigation of the Shadow Man Ghost Picture by Louis Charles
A few years ago, my son and I accompanied Polly Gear of Mountaineer Ghosts
Paranormal
Investigators to Moundsville
prison , also known as the West Virginia State
Penitentiary. Polly is known for capturing the now
famous Moundsville Shadow Man ghost
picture. After seeing her ghost photo “debunked” on national television by SyFy's Ghost
Hunters (TAPS) in October 2006, I felt her story and photograph of the shadow man were
wrongly discredited. The Moundsville prison episode unfortunately caused many ghost
investigators to assume the shadow man image is not an authentic ghost photograph.
Realizing that there was much more to this story, I wanted to meet and interview Polly in
person. Polly agreed to meet with us in West Virginia, allowing us to examine the shadow
man picture and guiding us to the exact location of the sighting in order to compare it to the
re-creation and findings of TAPS.
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Left:
SyFy Ghost Hunters' attempt to
debunk the Moundsville Shadow
Man photo. (It runs from 2:17-3:07.)
Notice the big white pipe around
2:32 that is not mentioned and
examine how they recreate the
shadow at 2:48 using Infrared
lighting but with no camera flash.
The original photo was taken using
a digital camera with flash.
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Polly Gear's Account of the Moundsville Shadow Man
It was amazing to hear Polly’s description of coming face to face with the shadow man. As
she entered a small hallway leading to the cafeteria, Polly encountered the shadow ghost.
She described the figure as looking like moving, black static (like on a TV screen) and
without a defined face or hands. Shaped like a man, the ghost was moving down the hall
toward her while looking out the windows. When she shined her flashlight on the shadow
man (at this point she began backing up and away toward a bigger hallway), the light went
through the ghost. The shadow man looked at the light going through his body and was
visibly spooked, moving back and into the doorway corner. Incredibly, Polly had the
presence of mind to take the flashlight off of him and turn her camera on while continuing to
move backward and away from the smaller hallway. She hoped her actions would cause
the ghost to move out of the small corner at the doorway and follow her into the bigger
hallway where she now was.
When Polly turned her Sony Mavica digital camera on, she believes the music box sound
the camera made might have coaxed the shadow man to come out of the doorway to see
what it was. Or, maybe he wanted to see if Polly had left the area. When her camera was
on and ready, Polly was about 110 feet away when she unwittingly photographed the
shadow man in front of the yellow, hallway door. When the flash went off, she believes the
ghost left. Having ghost investigated the penitentiary for five years, Polly Gear was not
afraid during her encounter; the ghost did not feel threatening to her at all. In fact, “He was
afraid of me. It took me five years to get this picture,” Polly explained.
SyFy Ghost Hunter's Moundsville Shadow Man Debunk
On the television show Ghost Hunters, TAPS took Polly’s shadow man photograph and
attempted to debunk it (watch the above video). They recreated a shadow effect on the
yellow door by having Jason of TAPS stand in front of it while his partner Grant shined an
Infrared light from his video camera behind him. This created a shadow on the door which
looked similar in size and shape to the shadow man image. Jason and Grant also
reasoned that the shadow man’s left arm was up because it was really Polly’s shadow on
the door with her arm holding a camera in the air. They felt that somebody must have been
behind Polly with an IR camera light when she took her photograph. Knowing that Polly's
story and photo did not match the conclusions set forth by SyFy's Ghost Hunters, we set
out to investigate TAPS theory more closely to see if it were even plausible.
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Above: The Moundsville Shadow Man photo, unedited. Source: Polly Gear
The Moundsville Shadow Man Photo Re-examined
When we first looked at the uncropped shadow man picture, it became immediately
apparent that Polly was not standing 10-40 feet away from the door as the Ghost Hunter's
recreations suggested. Carefully, looking at the wall, we could easily count the ceramic tiles
to determine almost exactly where Polly stood when she took her photograph. Using a tape
measure, we determined the distance to be about 110 feet from the door. The SyFy Ghost
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Hunters were off in their re-creation of the photograph by quite a few feet! Following the idea that maybe Polly's
shadow was somehow cast upon the yellow door, we attempted to produce a shadow of Polly from 110 feet away.
From that distance, we could not contain her shadow on the door. In fact, her shadow was a faint gray that covered
nearly the entire hallway wall and door. It was not even close to the same image that Polly had photographed.
Secondly, Polly Gear had long hair. Her shadow did not show the outline of a head with short hair. We had to place
Polly less than ten feet away from the door with a light behind her to create a shadow that equaled the shadow
man in height and darkness. When looking at Polly’s shadow, it was clear that she has long hair (unlike the
shadow man), and her shadow projected very short legs (Polly's not near as tall as Jason).
Thirdly, the flash from Polly's camera would likely have washed out any shadowing effect caused by an IR or even a
white light source shining toward her from behind. If you notice in Jason and Grant’s re-creation photo, it was dark
and produced with an infrared light and video camera with no flash. They knew that if they had used a camera with
flash, that Jason’s shadow image would have disappeared. Polly also told us that the only other people in the
hallway that night who could have possibly cast some light to create any shadow, were at least another 100-200
feet behind her. They were only armed with small digital cameras. So, it was fairly easy to conclude that the
shadow was not
Polly's that she photographed on the door. (Also see: Moundsville Ghost
Picture )
Finally, we also noticed something in the shadow man picture that SyFy's Ghost Hunters had also missed. In the
shadow man photograph is a white pipe near the right wall before the doorway. The pipe extends from floor to
ceiling and is not against the wall. If you look at Polly’s photograph closely, you will see that part of the shadow man
was behind the pipe. This is explains why the arm seemed to be bent upward (or cut off). It was not that the
shadow is from a person holding a camera, but that the shadow man’s arm was partially obscured from being
behind the pipe in the hallway. This further proved that Polly’s shadow was not cast onto the door because the
shadow was behind the pipe, and thus, at the door. If the ghost had been just Polly's shadow (or anyone else's), it
would have appeared on the pipe (in front of it). We feel the only way to have created this detail would have been
to create it in a photo editing program by computer; but, Polly's photo did not have the shadow figure added to it.
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Left:
Moundsville Shadow
Man ghost picture
lightened to reveal the
form of a man standing at
the doorway and behind
the white pipe.
Notice how clear the
colors of the door and
back wall show up in the
photograph. Also, the
camera's flash can be
seen bright against the
near right wall.
Pay attention to the
blocks and the window
up top to see just how far
down the hallway Polly
Gear stood while taking
this photo.
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Left:
We circled the pipe to show how it runs in
front of the shadow man. There is no
shadow cast onto the pipe. The shadow
man is behind it!
Right:
Comparison between the TAPS recreation
and the actual shadow man photo.
The top photo at right is an IR shadow
created by SyFy's Ghost Hunters. It is not
as solid as the original shadow man
(below), nor is the pipe in the way like the
original. Notice they did not use a flash
camera to produce the shadow. Their use
of a video camera with an Infrared light was
unable to reproduce the yellow door and
red wall found in Polly Gear's shadow man
ghost picture. Also, light is shining on the
door from the small hallway at right in the
Ghost Hunters' video still.
Left:
Polly Gear stands behind the pipe in the
hallway for comparison. Notice how far
away the pipe is from the wall and how the
shadow man is much taller than Polly.
Right:
Polly standing in front of the door from 110
feet away, using the camera's flash.
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My conclusion:
After listening to Polly Gear's story intently, I believe the shadow man
photograph is as authentic as it gets. Her story, image and our
experiments truly reveal that this ghost story and photograph is real.
We could find no evidence of alteration to the photo, nor do we feel
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the photograph can be reproduced naturally. Polly Gear's Moundsville Shadow Man ghost picture is the real deal,
and this is why her story was included in my book: Helping Ghosts: A Guide to Understanding Lost Spirits.
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Moundsville Penitentiary Shadow Man Ghost Picture Investigation - Copyright 2011 Angels & Ghosts, LLC
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