Phantoms and Monsters |  |
- The UFO - Ohio Police Chase of 1966
- Fortean / Alternative News: Earth Meet Mercury, Pigs Grow Human Organs and Star Team UFO Sighting
- A History of Hauntings at St. Petersburg's Renaissance Vinoy
| The UFO - Ohio Police Chase of 1966 Posted: 20 Jun 2011 02:21 PM PDT  One of the most dramatic encounters by police officers with an apparently structured, low-level UFO occurred in the early morning of April 17, 1966. Officers of the Portage County, Ohio, Sheriff's Department first saw the object rise up from near ground level, bathing them in light, near Ravenna, Ohio, about 5:00 A.M. Ordered by the sergeant to pursue the object, they chased it for eighty-five miles across the border into Pennsylvania, as it seemed to play a cat-and-mouse game with them. Along the route, police officers from other jurisdictions saw the object and joined in the chase. Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur and Mounted Deputy Wilbur 'Barney' Neff had left their scout car to investigate an apparently abandoned automobile on Route 224. Spaur described the sighting in these words: "I always look behind me so no one can come up behind me. And when I looked in this wooded area behind us, I saw this thing. At this time it was coming up . . . to about tree top level. I'd say about one hundred feet. it started moving toward us.... As it came over the trees, I looked at Barney and he was still watching the car . . and he didn't say nothing and the thing kept getting brighter and the area started to get light. .. . I told him to look over his shoulder, and he did. "He just stood there with his mouth open for a minute, as bright as it was, and he looked down. And I started looking down and I looked at my hands and my clothes weren't burning or anything, when it stopped right over on top of us. The only thing, the only sound in the whole area was a hum . . . like a transformer being loaded or an overloaded transformer when it changes. . . . "I was petrified, and, uh, so I moved my right foot, and everything seemed to work all right. And evidently he made the same decision I did, to get something between me and it, or us and it, or whatever you would say. So we both went for the car, we got in the car and we sat there...." As they watched, the UFO moved toward the east, and then stopped again. Spaur picked up the microphone and reported to the dispatcher. At this time, the object was about 250 feet away, brilliantly lighting up the area ("It was very bright; it'd make your eyes water," Spaur said.) Sergeant Schoenfelt, off duty at the station, told them to follow it and keep it under observation while they tried to get a photo unit to the scene. Spear and Neff turned south on Route 183, then back east on Route 224, which placed the object to their right, and out the left window. "At this time," said Spaur. "it came straight south, just one motion, buddy, just a smooth glide . . ."and began moving east with them pacing it, just to their right at an estimated altitude of 300-500 feet, illuminating the ground beneath it. Once more the UFO darted to the north, now left of the car, and they sped up to over 100 mph to keep pace with it. As the sky became brighter with predawn light, Spaur and Neff saw the UFO in silhouette, with a vertical projection at its rear. The object began to take on a metallic appearance as the chase continued. Spaur kept up a running conversation with other police cars that were trying to catch up with them. Once when they made a wrong turn at an intersection, the object stopped, then turned and came back to their position. Police Officer Wayne Huston of East Palestine, Ohio, situated near the Pennsylvania border, had been monitoring the radio broadcasts and was parked at an intersection he knew the Portage County officers would he passing soon. Shortly afterward he saw the UFO pass by with the sheriff's cruiser in hot pursuit. He swung out and joined the chase. At Conway, Pennsylvania, Spaur spotted another parked police car and stopped to enlist his aid, since their Cruiser was almost out of gas. The Pennsylvania officer called his dispatcher. According to Spaur, as the four officers stood and watched the UFO, which had stopped and was hovering, there was traffic on the radio about jets being scrambled to chase the UFO, and ". . . we could see these planes coming in.... When they started talking about fighter planes, it was just as if that thing head every word that was said; it went PSSSSSHHEW, straight up; and I mean when it went up, friend, it didn't play no games; it went straight up" (Transcript of taped interview with Dale Spaur). The Air Force "identified" the UFO as a satellite, seen part of the time, and confused with the planet Venus. Under pressure from Ohio officials, Major Hector Quintanilla, chief of PROJECT BLUE BOOK, had an acrimonious confrontation with witnesses and refused to change the identification, although it was pointed out to him that they had seen the UFO in addition to Venus and the moon at the conclusion of the observation. Major Quintanilla also denied that any jets had been scrambled. William B. Weitzel conducted an exhaustive investigation on behalf of the NATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS COMMITTEE ON AERIAL PHENOMENA (NICAP), obtaining taped interviews, signed statements, sketches, and all pertinent data which was assembled into a massive report that was made available to congressional investigators. When the UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO UFO PROJECT was initiated in 1966, a copy of Weitzel's report was hand-delivered to the director, Dr. Edward U. CONDON, for his consideration. The CONDON REPORT, published two years later, does not mention the case. Richard Hall - NICAP   ----- Spauer/Neff, Portage County UFO Chase Francis Ridge: If this incident seems familiar to you, just maybe you saw the motion picture, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". Investigated by NICAP's William Weitzel, this report, also known as the Spauer/Neff Case, was the basis for the UFO "chase" in this film. This case involves police witnesses, confrontation, light beam, brilliant illumination, light engulfment, sound, cat and mouse chase, with rapid upward departure. Special thanks go out to Mark Rodeghier of CUFOS for providing the documentation and to Loy Pressley for converting them into text so I could make the web pages. Dr. James E. McDonald: Ravenna, Ohio (April 17, 1966) calls for reevaluation not only on the scientific grounds involved, but also to avoid unfairly subjecting to local public ridicule the several officers who have testified. (Compare Bertrand & Hunt in the Exeter case) The available evidence (especially Wm. Weitzel's extensive report for NICAP) seems to me to make the astronomical explanation, that now stands as the official Air Force evaluation, quite unreasonable. - NICAP ----- DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE HEADQUARTERS 911TH TROOP CARRIER GROUP, MEDIUM (RESERVE) (CONAC) GREATER PITTSBURG AIRPORT, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA 15231 REPLY TO ATTN OF: CSS-I 17 MAY 1966 SUBJECT: UFO Statements TO: Project Blue Book TDEW/UFO Wright-Patterson AFB Ohio 45433 1. The attached statements are submitted as requested 16 May 66. 2. Mr. William Aber does not wish his signature associated with his statement. 3. Patrolman Frank Panzanella will assist in any way he can. However, he stated emphatically, he does not wish involvement in any way with the News Media. 4. Mr. Wayne Huston, formerly Patrolman Wayne Huston does not wish his name identified with his statement. He has been harrassed by news media and private organizations also individuals. He has been misquoted by news media and is constantly bothered by telephone calls. Possibly the above mentioned may have been a deciding factor Mr.Huston resigned his position with the police force and accepted employment in another area. 4. All three individuals contacted were very cooperative. However, Patrolman Pansanella and Mr. Huston are strongly opposed to the news media and their misinterpretation of the incident. FOR THE COMMANDER EUGENE F. REHRER 3 Atch Information Officer 1. Statement, Mr. Huston 2. Statement, Mr. Aber 3. Statement, Panzanella ----- Lee's Auto Sales Rambler Sales and Service Columbiana 482-3471 381 N. MAIN ST. Youngstown 549-2466 COLUMBIANA, OHIO It was Sunday A.M. April 17, 1966 when over the Police Radios I heard the Summit County and Portage County radio operators advising there Patrol Cars of a report of a flying object reported by a woman. Later the Portage Patrol Cars reported to his office that he had seen the object and was following it. He was following it east and towards Columbiana County. As he came through Columbiana Ohio I went to Route #14 and waited. At 5:30 A.M. the object went over me at what I thought was around 800'. The object appeared to look like a large Ice Cream cone with point down. The pointed part didn't look like a solid looked more like light beams. At that time I pulled out and caught up with the Portage County Car and followed behind him on into Pennor. The object was traveling at speeds 85 to 105 ground speed. At the entrance to Brady Run Park we lost sight of it. We went on into Bridgeport and then we saw it again. We followed it on into Conway, Penns where a Conway Police Officer had his office to call the Greater Pitt. Airport. At that time I returned back to East Palestine, Ohio. //signed// Wayne Huston ----- May 17, 1966 To whom it may concern-- I was on duty as a Watch supervisor in the Greater Pittsburgh Tower during the period of 0000-0800 EDST on the day of April 17, 1966. I received a report from some local police agencies that an unidentified flying object had been sighted in Ohio and had been followed into our area of which I had radar surveillance. I observed nothing on the radar presentation that coincided with the reported object nor did I observe any other radar return. //signed// William L. Aker P.S. Since this statement is being submitted to the military representative at my home on my regular scheduled day off duty and not through the channels of the Federal Aviation Agency, I would request that my name be withheld from public use. //signed// William L. Aker ----- May 18, 1966 At 5:20 A.M. stopped at Conway Hotel and had a cup of coffee. I then left the hotel coming down Second Avenue to 11th Street and made a left turn on 11th Street preceded up the hill. Looked to my right and saw a shining object. I thought it was a reflection off of a plane. I got to Mickey's Lounge on the top of the hill and I looked back and it wasn't moving so I turned the police car around and came back down 11th Street and went to Adamowski Service Station on 10th Street and Route 65. I then got out of the police car and looked at the object again. I rubbed my eyes 3 or 4 times but didn't say anything to anyone for the time being. I saw 2 other patrol cars pull up and the officers got out of the car and asked me if I saw it. I replied SAW WHAT! They pointed to the object and I told them I had been watching it for the last 10 minutes. The object was the shape of a half of football, was very bright and about 25 to 35 feet in diameter. The object then moved out towards Harmony Township approximately a 1,000 feet high, then it stopped then went straight up real fast to about 3,500 feet. I then called the base station told the radio operator to notify the Pittsburgh airport. He asked me if I was sick. I told him if I was sick so were the other 3 patrolmen. The operator got the airport on the line and told them what happened, he told them to hold the line and in the meantime we kept watching the object and at that time a passenger plane passed to the left about 1,000 feet below the object. We relayed the message to the operator and he relayed it to the airport. The object continued to go upward until it got as small as a ballpoint pen. Then we received a message to make a phone call. We preceded to the Rochester Police Department and made the phone call. Officer Parr talked to someone and then we returned to Conway Police Department where I gave Officer Parr my name and gas for his police car to return home. The object was in my sight from 5:20 A. M. to 6:15 A. M. Patrolman Frank Panzanella //signed// Conway Bars. Police  ----- NATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS COMMITTEE ON AERIAL PHENOMENA WASHINGTON, D. C. 20036 Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe USMC (RET.) Director By Deputy Sheriff Dale F. Spaur and Posse Member W. L. Neff STATEMENT: On April 17, 1966, at about 5:00 AM, the undersigned, Dale F. Spaur and Barney (W. L) Neff, were patrolling the southeast portion of Portage County, Ohio. We had been hearing radio traffic about a UFO near Portage County. We found an abandoned car on the berm on Rt. 224 between Atwater and Randolph. We left our car to routinely investigate this vehicle. Spaur noticed a light over the trees on the hill next to the berm, and called Neff's attention to it. As we watched, the light came closer and a large, self-illuminated object was seen as its source. The object came directly overhead and hovered above us. Its light lit up the ground where we were standing, and our cruiser, P-13. It was too bright to look at without hurting the eyes. We got into our car and radioed that we had spotted the UFO. During that time, it began moving away from us. We followed it down 224 onto Rt. 14, to the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, and into Pennsylvania on Rt. 51; then through Rochester, Pa., and on Rt. 65, up to Conway, where we stopped. As we passed East Palestine, Ohio, Patrolman Wayne Huston, of the East Palestine Police, joined in our pursuit. In Conway, Pa., Officer Frank Panzanella met us where we stopped, and we stood with him watching the object as it hovered and then rose, twice, in a rapid climb. The object seemed 30-45 feet across, and 18-24 feet high. The light it gave off lit up the ground over the road and over fields as we pursued it. At first it was about 150 feet up; then it rose to around 1000 feet. During the chase it changed altitude and direction, maneuvered smoothly, had a sort of dome-shaped top, and at times showed a projection on the top part, near the trailing edge. Not all of it was self-illuminated; part of the top trailing portion looked metallic; not shiny, but satiny. At times we measured its speed over the ground at about 103 miles per hour. At one point, near Rochester, we lost it while getting through a bridge-underpass area, but when we emerged, it had come down lower and seemed to have waited for us; it went off fast ahead again then. We were, and are, sure we were not chasing an illusion, or seeing a reflection, star, planet, or similar still object. As far as our part in this sighting is concerned, at least, the article by Tom Schley in the Beaver County Times, April 18, 1966, about this, is accurate. Signed: Dale Spauer William Neff ----- DESCRIPTIONS OF NUMBERED DRAWINGS: SPAUR-NEFF, HUSTON  SPAUR-NEFF, UFO DETAIL 1. Projection, tilted from rear (trailing edge) 18' long, tapered to to tip 2. Dome-shaped top; partly metallic, partly self-illuminated 3. Glowing front (leading edge) 4. Cone-shaped light underneath 5. Glowing tip of trailing edge 6. Metallic surface 7. Sharp "drop-off" (Neff disagrees; remembers more rounded here) 8. Rounded "undercarriage" 9. Line separating metallic from self-illuminated portions  SPAUR-NEFF, SIGHTING TERMINUS 1. Bright spot to right of moon, a little above axis of symmetry of crescent 2. Crescent moon (bump in concave portion indicates "nose" of "Man in Moon") 3. TV antenna on nearby house, through whose elements Spaur and Neff saw the UFO hovering before 1st upward elevation 4. Position of UFO after 1st elevation, above moon (now moving away, or disappearing) (NOTE: Panzanella agreed with relative positions of levels of hovering; Spaur agreed with Panzanella's on-the-spot location of object relative to nearby houses; Spaur examined a photograph made from the spot he claimed to have been standing.)  HUSTON, UFO DETAIL 1. Cone-shaped light underneath 2. Bright, self-illuminated solid appearing top 3. Dome shape 4. Cone tilted toward rear, of direction of motion, more so than shown here. (NOTE: Huston testified to having seen, once, a project; only got one view of it.) FURTHER NOTES: On Spaur-Neff joint signed testimony: Until over a week after the sighting, Neff was "in hiding," refusing to be interviewed by anyone. I typed a summary statement for Spaur to take to him, along with Spaur's drawings. Neff finally agreed to be interviewed on on April 28. I mailed the statements and drawings to Spaur; there was some confusion as to who was to sign the extra space; Spaur did this, so Neff signed elsewhere on the sheets. Sources: NICAP www.ufoevidence.org Ravenna, Ohio - Record-Courier - April 18, 1966 CUFOS Witness statement - William L. Aker Witness statement - Wayne Huston Witness statement - Patrolman Frank Panzanella www.aliensthetruth.com "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" - 1977 - Director: Steven Spielberg - Columbia Pictures Corporation Click for video        |
| Fortean / Alternative News: Earth Meet Mercury, Pigs Grow Human Organs and Star Team UFO Sighting Posted: 20 Jun 2011 11:33 AM PDT   Earth....meet Mercury These stunning images of Mercury are causing scientists to re-think how the planet closest to the sun was formed four billion years ago. Initial data gathered by Nasa's Messenger probe - which is three months into a year-long exploratory mission around Mercury - reveal that the cratered planet contains rich deposits of sulphur, unlike other planets in our solar system. Scientists now suspect that volcanoes played a major role in shaping the planet, which would explain its high sulphur content. The theory also suggests that Mercury may have had different building blocks to Venus, Earth and Mars. The images reveal a massive plain of ancient lava flow spanning 400million square kilometers - about half the size of the U.S. 'It's almost a new planet because we've never had this kind of observatory before,' said lead researcher Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. 'Elements like that are usually lost in space. The fact that we see sulphur from the surface points strongly that we had sulphur gases coming out. 'All of our simple ideas - a hot planet easily depleted of volatiles - are not turning out to be the simple story we thought.' The probe has also uncovered evidence of a lopsided magnetic field, which is stronger in the north than the south. Scientists cannot account for the asymmetry, but one theory is that the planet's magnetic field is in the processing of flipping. Mercury is the only terrestrial body besides Earth that has a magnetic field and one of the prime goals of the Messenger mission is to figure out how Mercury, which sports a massive iron core, was assembled. It is believed that Mercury's core, like Earth's, is responsible for generating its magnetic field. Scientists are hoping the Messenger probe will be able to reveal if Mercury hides ice insides its permanently shadowed giant craters or 'basins'. - dailymail ********** MUFON Star Team investigators experience sighting / paranormal activity MUFON CMS - 6/16/2011: I am the Assistant State Director for Missouri MUFON, and a Star Team Investigator. The person with me was a Star Team investigator for Kansas MUFON. We had a spectacular UFO sighting while on the last leg of our trip from Kansas City to Piedmont, MO, located in the SE corner of Missouri in Wayne County. The duration of the trip should have been six hours according to my GPS. With stops taken into consideration, we should have arrived at 9:30 p.m., but we arrived at our destination at 10:37 p.m., so we had over an hour of missing time. We cannot account for the missing time. As I was driving South on 67 Highway past Farmington at the very South edge of Francious County, I noticed a bright object in the sky to the East. The object appeared to be three very bright lights in a triangular pattern. It was approximately the size of a large pea held at arm's length. The object was much brighter than any planet (5 x brighter than Venus) and was bluish/white in color. It was at approximately 50 degrees off the horizon and ENE of our position. It appeared to get larger and clearer as I watched it. I also had an uneasy feeling, which started before I saw the object. I asked my passenger (the other MUFON investigator) to take a look at the object, so he opened the sunroom of my SUV and watched it. He said the object moved to the North, and when I looked it was gone. He watched several shooting objects without tails moving from West to Northeast, but behaving like shooting stars. Then three long white lights appeared, moving very fast from a NE to SW direction. The first triangular object appeared and disappeared three times. These objects moved around the sky for approximately fifteen minutes. The skies clouded over and we lost sight of the objects. We were both very uneasy about the entire sighting, and thought it was coincidental that this occurred while we were on our way to the Piedmont UFO Festival where I was speaking. While at the event, my computer, which contained the power point presentation on UFO sightings in Missouri, was stolen from my locked vehicle. It has since reappeared in my house on my dining room table, minus the power point presentation I was going to use and another one on a different UFO case. The laptop was not there last night, but was this morning. I am absolutely positive it was in my vehicle, since we discussed taking it inside on the first day of the event (Friday), but I said no since I didn't need it until Saturday, and moved it to a different spot in the back seat. Also notable: We had some paranormal events happen at the house we were staying at in Piedmont, which consisted of scratching and banging noises on the outside of the house and a glass breaking sound inside the house, which two of us heard, as well as some objects moved to different locations. I had a strange dream about being abducted and restrained on a UFO, but that may be just a dream given the circumstances. Attached are Google Earth pictures with the location of the first sighting noted and the location of our destination. Note that East of our first position where the first UFO was spotted is the Mississippi River. ********** Pigs could grow human organs in stem cell breakthrough Scientists have found they can create chimeric animals that have organs belonging to another species by injecting stem cells into the embryo of another species. The researchers injected stem cells from rats into the embryos of mice that had been genetically altered so they could not produce their own organs, creating mice that had rat organs. The researchers say the technique could allow pigs to grow human organs from patient's stem cells for use as transplants. By using a patient's own stem cells it could help to reduce the risk of the transplanted organ being rejected while also providing a plentiful supply of donor organs. Current organ shortages mean that patients must endure long waiting lists for transplants. Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi, director of the centre for stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the University of Tokyo in Japan and who led the research, said: "Our ultimate goal is to generate human organs from induced pluripotent stem cells. "The technique, called blastocyst complementation, provides us with a novel approach for organ supply. We have successfully tried it between mice and rats. We are now rather confident in generating functional human organs using this approach." Professor Nakauchi, who presented the study at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics, used a type of adult stem cell known as induced pluripotent stem cells, which can be taken from a sample of tissue such as the skin and encouraged to grow into any type of cell found in the body. Together with his colleagues, he injected these cells taken from rats into the embryos, or blastocysts as they can be called, of mice that were unable to grow their on pancreas, the organ that produces important hormones including insulin. When the mice matured to adulthood, they showed no signs of diabetes and had developed a pancreas that was almost entirely formed from the injected rat stem cells. The scientists claim the rat stem cells grew in the niche left by the absent mouse pancreas and so almost any organ could be produced in this way. If replicated using human stem cells, the technique could produce a way of treating diabetic patients by providing a way of replacing their pancreas. The project has echoes of the bestselling book and film Never Let Me Go where clones are used to provide organ donations for the wealthy. In reality researchers are not allowed to create human embryos that lack the ability to grow organs and so they hope to do the same using pigs. Professor Nakauchi said they hoped to further test the technique by growing other organs and were also seeking permission to use human stem cells. They have, however, already managed to produce pigs that were able to generate human blood by injecting blood stem cells from humans into pig foetuses. He said: "For ethical reasons we cannot make an organ deficient human embryo and use it for blastocyst complementation. "So to make use of this system to generate human organs, we must use this technique using blastocysts of livestock animals such as pigs instead. "Blastocyst complementation across species had never been tested before, but we have now shown that it can work." Professor Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine at University College London, said: "There is no doubt that curing diabetes is challenging, but this could be a potential way forward albeit a very long shot requiring sustained resources and major finance for its testing and development." "For something like a kidney transplant where it is not urgent, it would be highly attractive to be able to take cells from a patient, grow them in this way and deliver a personalised kidney." "There is a long way to go before it could result in useable transplants, but it is an exciting vision." - telegraph ********** Zoo staff super-glued tarantula back together The brown tarantula gently sandwiched between Jeff Rife's hands didn't move or fuss much as an Oklahoma City Zoo staff member glued it back together. The spider is about 6 or 7 years old and has been a resident of the Oklahoma Trails exhibit since it opened in 2007, said Rife, antelope supervisor at the zoo. She's pretty good, as far as tarantulas go, Rife said, and she was her normal, docile self when zookeepers glued up her exoskeleton after a dangerous injury. Zookeepers aren't sure how the tarantula got a nick on her abdomen, Rife said, but they spotted a soft, watery glob on top of her at the end of May. "We weren't quite for sure what it was," Rife said. After some research, zoo staffers figured out it was part of the spider's innards. They used a cotton swab to gently tap the mass back inside, and then they dabbed skin adhesive — a kind of superglue for living creatures — over the nick. Three weeks after the procedure, the tarantula is behaving normally and eating plenty of crickets, Rife said. "So far that we've seen," he said, "it's doing well."     |
| A History of Hauntings at St. Petersburg's Renaissance Vinoy Posted: 20 Jun 2011 09:40 AM PDT  With the Marlins in Tampa to start a weekend series against the Rays, relief pitcher Steve Cishek felt an eerie presence at the team's hotel, and let his Twitter followers know all about it. Too bad he didn't find out whether the ghost could help the team break its ongoing losing streak. "Currently crapping my pants... Can't sleep... My room is def haunted," he tweeted late last night. According to the Marlins blog Fish Stripes, the team stays at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club in St. Petersburg when visiting the Rays, and tales of supernatural phenomena are not uncommon at the hotel. The SciFi channel show Ghost Hunters filmed an episode at the Renaissance Vinoy in 2008, inspired in part by the tale of former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Scott Williamson. On a 2003 road trip, Williamson says he felt a presence in his room, then saw a ghost-like figure. "I looked, and someone was standing right where the curtains were," he said of the incident. "A guy with a coat. And it looked like he was from the 40s, or 50s, or 30s – somewhere around that era." Perhaps the Marlins could enlist some supernatural help to snap the team out of its current funk. The Fish have lost 16 of their last 17 games, and ace pitcher Josh Johnson will be on the disabled list until at least mid-July. Do any of those ghosts have a good fastball? - nbcmiami -----  At that moment the elevator button for the fifth floor lit up, according to the tale. The elevator rose past the mezzanine and went straight to the floor that was supposed to be haunted. The door opened, and no one was there. The historian says she has no explanation for the event; she really doesn't. No one will say whether the hotel actually is haunted or not, but there are tales of a female apparition wandering around the fifth floor of the historic building. And the wife of Gene Elliott, the partner of the building's founder was murdered. "Our historian has said perhaps that's who it is," says Krista Boling, the hotel's public-relations director. Such stories do seem to gain credibility as the weather gets colder and the rotting smell of fallen autumn leaves fills the air." ----- October 1, 2008 At first, it wasn't something they really wanted to acknowledge. After all, pop culture is littered with stories about haunted houses or hotels, and few read like tourist brochures: The Shining. The Haunting. The Amityville Horror. Then officials at St. Petersburg's Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club heard about how business exploded at a bed and breakfast after it was featured on the Sci Fi Channel's reality TV series Ghost Hunters. After that, calls from the producers to film at the Vinoy got a much different reception. "(That hotel was) inundated with people who wanted to come and be a part of this thing," said Dennis Lesko, director of sales and marketing for the luxury hotel. "It's a market niche you would never think of exploring, but it's literally found business — people who follow ghost sightings and may want to stay in a place that has ghosts." The Vinoy opened its doors to Ghost Hunters back in July, reserving the hotel's entire fifth floor for the production. Hosts Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson — plumbers by trade, believe it or not — head the Atlantic Paranormal Society, a group that investigates tales of paranormal sightings to separate the spiritual from the superficial. Producers were drawn to the Vinoy by a host of stories from staffers and visitors claiming to sense an otherworldly presence in the halls — from a misty woman in white touted by local ghost tours to a man dressed in clothes from the hotel's 1920s-era founding, described by visiting Major League Baseball players. An entire chapter of the book Haunted Baseball details the ghost stories from players staying at the Vinoy, which houses the visiting teams playing the Tampa Bay Rays. Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Scott Williamson famously told of encountering a ghost at the Vinoy in 2003, along with members of the Pittsburgh Pirates and former Toronto Blue Jays reliever John Frascatore. Water faucets turning on by themselves. Doors opening and closing mysteriously. Lights in the rooms flickering with no apparent cause. All these pranks and more supposedly are the results of mischievous spirits floating through the Vinoy. Vinoy staffers can't say what the ghost hunters found, for fear of busting the episode's suspense (here's a hint: An episode would be really boring if they didn't find something weird). As the Rays proceed through the baseball playoffs, perhaps more opposing players will find themselves housed on the fifth floor. "We have 360 rooms, so anyone who needs to move can be moved," Lesko said, laughing. "But it might help to put the opposing teams in there." - tampabay Ghost Hunters 'Check In' To Check Out Disturbances At Florida Resort ----- Stompin' At the Vinoy The origins of the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida trace back to a prank late one evening in 1923 involving legendary professional golfer Walter Hagen, entrepreneur Aymer Vinoy Laughner, and local financier Gene Elliott. On a dare, Hagen had been using Laughner's pocket watch as a golf tee, driving golf balls without breaking the watch. When the trio retrieved the balls from the property of Benjamin Williamson, who lived across the street, Elliott noticed that the estate offered an expansive view of Tampa Bay, and suggested to Laughner that the land would be an ideal location for a world-class luxury resort. The next day Laughner and Elliott approached Williamson with a generous offer. The deed was signed that very afternoon on the bottom of a brown paper bag. To hear ballplayers tell it, late-night mischief on the site did not end with Hagen's errant golf balls. Embedded in Washingtonian palms and crowned by an octagonal tower festooned with archways and intricate ornamental plasterwork, the Vinoy is a landmark on the St. Petersburg waterfront. The plush rooms and postcard-perfect vistas have always attracted the rich and famous (Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Stewart, Calvin Coolidge), but ever since the resort opened it has been a posh home away from home for baseball clientele. George Sisler and the owners of the St. Louis Browns frequented the Vinoy when the team used training facilities in Tarpin Springs in the late 1920s, and Babe Ruth is known to have lived a lavish existence in the hotel during numerous Spring Trainings. Today the Vinoy is the visiting team hotel for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. But movie stars and ball players are not the most famous guests at the Vinoy - ghosts are. While some in baseball openly poke fun at the hotel's numerous sightings, for many the fear of uninvited room guests is no laughing matter. Relief pitcher Scott Williamson had never heard of the Vinoy being haunted when he stayed in an old section of the hotel with the Cincinnati Reds in mid-June 2003. But he ended up with an experience he says he'll never forget. "I turned the lights out and I saw this faint light coming from the pool area. And I got this tingling sensation going through my body like someone was watching me, you know? I was getting a little paranoid. "Then I roll over to my stomach. And all of the sudden it felt like someone was just pushing down, like this pressure, and I was having trouble breathing. So I rolled back over. I thought, 'That's weird.' I did it again, rolled back on my stomach. All of sudden, it's like I just couldn't breathe. It felt like someone was sitting on me or something." This time when Williamson rolled onto his back, he opened his eyes. "I looked, and someone was standing right where the curtains were. A guy with a coat. And it looked like he was from the 40s, or 50s, or 30s – somewhere around that era." Williamson called his wife Lisa, who worked in an emergency room, and asked if there could be a medical reason for the heaviness on his chest. "She went through all the things that could happen, but obviously hadn't happened. She said 'Why?' And I said, 'I tell ya, the weirdest thing just happened to me.' I told her the whole story." "ESPN caught onto the story the next day," adds Williamson. "And then a buddy of mine went and did research on it. He came back and told me, 'You're not gonna believe this! There's a guy who died in that hotel. His name was Williamson. He actually owned the hotel property before it was a hotel.' He's going through this whole thing about a fire and all this stuff. I'm like, 'What's his last name?' He goes 'Williamson.' I was like, 'You gotta be kidding me!'" The Reds headed out of town the following day, and the unsuspecting Pittsburgh Pirates checked in to the Vinoy at three in the morning. Tired from the trip, Frank Velasquez, strength and pitching coordinator for the Pirates, didn't hang around to wait for his bags from the bus driver. He undressed, laid down, and conked out. At around five in the morning, he opened his eyes and saw a sandy-haired, blue-eyed man standing in front of the window right by the desk. The figure was transparent and had on a white long-sleeved, button-collared shirt and khaki pants. His hairstyle suggested he was from another era. Velasquez looked, closed his eyes, turned towards the window and looked again. The apparition was still there, and Velasquez remembers feeling very casual about it. So casual, in fact, that he fell back asleep. "We were so travel disoriented and it was so late," says Velasquez. "You can't do anything but just close your eyes." In the visitors clubhouse at Tropicana Field the following day, Velasquez shared his story with first baseman Craig Wilson, who asked if he'd seen the ESPN Sports Center clip on Williamson's encounter. Velasquez hadn't and was dumbfounded as Wilson described the story that was very similar to his. "The fact that it lined up with someone's story that I never knew anything about just kind of helps me know that it was real," says Velasquez. "I don't go telling a lot of people about it other than teammates. I think if it happens just once, then the reaction is, 'Ah, you're full of it.' If several ballplayers and several people outside of the game said they've had similar experiences at that one hotel, then maybe there is something to it." Indeed, similar experiences at the Vinoy are rampant – including several from other Pirates personnel that very night. The team's staff assistant encountered someone who fit the description of Velasquez's visitor. Struggling to unlock his door, he saw a gentleman in an old-fashioned formal suit pass by in the hall. Figuring it was the concierge, he quickly turned to ask for assistance. But the gentleman had vanished. Bullpen Coach Bruce Tanner looks upon his own incident that night as a bit more questionable. As he rinsed his hair in the shower, he heard something hit the floor of the bathtub. He looked down and discovered a dime at his feet. Tanner wonders if the dime – which was from the 1960s – fell out of thin air, or if he'd bumped the towels and knocked loose the coin accidentally folded inside. Those accounts were unsettling enough for Jason Kendall and Alvaro Espinoza that they opted to stay at teammate Scott Sauerbeck's home in Bradenton for the rest of the series. Pirates hitting coach Gerald Perry wished he had joined them. He swears to this day that on the team's third night in the hotel, he awoke to find his room door wide open when he knew he had bolted it shut before retiring to bed. "That was a door that automatically closes itself, so that was weird" said Perry. "I always lock my door at the hotel, so I know it wasn't that I'd just forgotten. If that had happened the night before, I wouldn't have stayed there that night. I'd have slept in the clubhouse." Former Toronto Blue Jays reliever John Frascatore heard for years that the Vinoy was haunted, and his family's first stay at the hotel vindicated the stories. Having lived in the area since 1991 when he first came up with the St. Louis Cardinals, he and wife Kandria had heard the legends from old-timers and from articles in the St. Petersburg Times. In the mid-1990s, the paper ran a story about a painting crew that fled their job site at the Vinoy after returning from a break to discover buckets of paint knocked off their scaffolding and splattered on the walls. Frascatore had also heard stories from his former Cards teammates who reported waking up to find that someone had unlocked their doors during the night. These tales reminded Frascatore of an experience of his own, in the minors in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he and his teammates heard big band music late at night blasting from an adjacent hotel room that maids said was sealed off because it was haunted. The Vinoy stories had so bothered Kandria, who had grown up in St. Petersburg, that she refused to stay in the hotel. Instead, Frascatore commuted the ninety minutes to and from his home in Brooksville, Florida when the Jays played the Devil Rays. But wanting a little more rest between a Friday night game and a Saturday day game in July 2001, John convinced Kandria that it made more sense to stay closer to Tropicana Field. On Friday morning, Kandria nervously checked in with the kids while John headed for the ballpark. Midway into the Jays' batting practice that afternoon, clubhouse assistant Kevin Malloy dashed onto the field and told John, "You need to get in the clubhouse and call your wife now at the hotel." John's heart raced as he worried that something had happened to the kids. He rushed to the locker room, grabbed his cell phone, and called his wife. She answered in a shrill voice, "You get the travel secretary on the phone! I'm not staying in that room anymore! That room is haunted!" "What are you talking about?" John asked. Kandria explained that they had just finished lunch, and the kids had brushed their teeth. Then 5-year-old Gavin reported something strange. "Mom, the water keeps turning back on." Kandria headed into the bathroom to find that indeed, the water was on. She shut it, turning the knob tight. Moments later, water was again flowing from the tap. Again she shut it off. Over the next couple of minutes, the faucet turned on by itself repeatedly and the toilet flushed three or four times. Thoroughly spooked, the family fled without their luggage. When they transferred to a room in the new wing of the hotel, front desk staff told them "that stuff happens all the time" in the old wing. Prior to the game, John shared his wife's incident with teammates, some of whom looked for a rational explanation: the old wing has old pipes, they figured, and water pressure could rattle the faucet open. John rejected this. "That whole place was gutted and redone recently. New plumbing. New paint. New sheetrock. New everything." Joey Hamilton and Billy Koch chimed in that they'd been spooked that previous night, when the lights in their rooms kept flickering. Several teammates echoed similar complaints, including hitting coach Cito Gaston, whose hotel room door, which he'd locked and chained shut, kept opening in the middle of the night and then slamming. "Then I go check and nobody was there. Nobody was in the hallway. Nothing." Manager Jim Fregosi reported that his door, too, had slammed. Third base coach Terry Bevington said a similar experience happened to him in the old wing of the Vinoy a few years back when he was managing the White Sox. Given the huge role of travel in professional baseball, it's not surprising that hotels like the Vinoy come to occupy a good deal of ballplayers' imaginations. Life on the road can be as empty and lonely as Wrigley Field in the post season. Players – many of whom are superstitious about the game to begin with – pass the time by telling each other stories. Skeptics would note that these tales sometimes grow taller with each retelling, as is often the case with folklore. One can hear super-sized variations on these stories in clubhouses thousands of miles away: Did you hear what happened to Bobby? But that still doesn't explain why so many players claim first-hand experiences at the Vinoy, or why these experiences are often similar, or just plain inexplicable. Jay Gibbon's encounter there still gives him the chills. In town with the Orioles one summer, Gibbons made a beeline for his room to catch some rest. He set the alarm clock on the bedside table, then washed up and prepared for bed. As he reached for the lamp, he noticed the clock he'd just set was now off. He sat up to reset it and discovered the cord draped over the dresser with the prong resting over the clock. "It kind of freaked me out" says Gibbons, "because the outlet was near the floor. How the hell did the plug get from down there to the top of the dresser and just stay there? Because I didn't even move the clock." It's an incident Gibbons hasn't forgotten. "I haven't turned the lights off since at that hotel!" Gibbon's teammate Brian Roberts was more amused than spooked by his own experience. He was at the park when some dry cleaning was delivered to his room. His girlfriend hung the clothes in the closet, then headed to the Trop to watch the game. When the pair returned late that night, the clothes were on the bed. Roberts' girlfriend stared in disbelief. She told Brian she distinctly remembered hanging them up. "Maybe the maid put 'em out there," he said. "The maid had already come through," she replied. "We just thought it was funny," says Brian. "We couldn't figure out why in the world anyone would take the clothes out of the closet and put them on the bed. I still don't know whether I believe in ghosts." For Devil Ray pitcher Jon Switzer, who had a startling experience his first night at the Vinoy, there is no doubt. Called up to the majors for the first time in his career, he and his wife Dana were staying on the fifth floor of the hotel when they awoke from a sound sleep to loud scratching on the wall behind the headboard of their bed. It sounded like a rat scratching from within the wall. The noise continued for a few minutes, then stopped suddenly. Fifteen minutes later, the scratching returned, so loudly that they sprung out of bed and turned on the bedside lamps. It was at that moment Jon and Dana believed they saw the artwork hanging above their bed come to life. The painting depicted a garden scene with a woman in Victorian dress holding a basket with her right hand. According to John, her left hand, which had been by her chin, was now scratching the glass desperately to get out. The couple stared in disbelief for about three seconds, then raced out the door. "It was crazy because I never believed that kind of thing," says Jon, "and then to see something like that firsthand was just strange. I guess that's why they call it the supernatural." Vinoy stories have become so legendary that even some skeptics have started to scratch their heads. When Scott Williamson was traded to Boston, his Red Sox teammates Kevin Millar and John Burkett razzed him about the story. Then Burkett hopped on the Internet and found information about Benjamin Williamson once owning the property. He came back to Scott's locker white-faced. "You gotta be kidding me," he told the pitcher. Williamson could only smile. "Coincidence or not, it's hard to make up a story like that." Why would the Vinoy be haunted? Stories abound of tragic fires, mysterious deaths, and lonely-hearts suicides, all alleged to have taken place in the hotel decades ago. Velasquez heard that the hotel was once an army hospital and wonders if there aren't "a lot of lost souls around there that have never left." Gift shop workers (who report frequently finding store items broken or moved when they arrive in the morning) told Kandria Frascatore a Romeo-and-Juliet-type saga of star-crossed young lovers whose romance was forbidden by the adults around them. They killed each other at the hotel, and now haunt its hallways and rooms. But according to hotel historian Elaine Normaille, none of these events actually happened. Nor could she substantiate any record of Benjamin Williamson dying on the property after he sold it, or staying there after he transferred ownership. Although a skeptic herself, Normaille recognizes that the place has become a magnet for paranormal groups who believe that the hotel is full of ghosts. Just as the visiting team clubhouse at Tropicana Field is full of jumpy, bleary-eyed ballplayers in need of a good night's sleep. - www.hauntedbaseball.com NOTE: I've talked to several people who have had experiences at the Renaissance Vinoy going back to the 1980's. The hauntings, for the most part, are minor but frequent. I have read about and talked to a fair number of people who have felt like 'something' was in bed with them...Lon  Spirit Rescue International™ Providing no-cost professional spiritual help, personal support and guidance Take the first step towards genuine peace of mind  The Spirit Rescue International™ Haunted Help Forum *Join Our Group On Facebook*  Join Eric Altman, Lon Strickler and Sean Forker LIVE each Sunday at 10 PM ET as we go Beyond the Edge!  ANOMALIST BOOKS Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. 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