Personal Experiences
T.A.P.S. investigates the haunted Castle Warden!
October 2009
TAPS has investigated the haunted Castle Warden, which now houses the original Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum. Dave Tango, Steve Gonsalves, Dustin Pari and many guests were part of October 17th’s exclusive evening inside the 1880’s castle.
The Atlantic Paranormal Society, called TAPS, is internationally famous these days due to the popular TV series “GhostHunters” on the SyFy Network. Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson and their fun-loving team of paranormal investigators have traveled the globe attempting to gather evidence of hauntings. Most of the hardcore viewers realize the TAPS crew will often debunk stories of apparitions and strange sightings and rarely term a location “haunted”.
Since the TAPS members were NOT taping for TV that night, they did not set up multiple cameras and conduct a full-scale investigation. However, that didn’t mean the spirits were at ease. Several guests felt nausea and tingling sensations at the top steps of the third floor landing…one guest reported seeing a shadowy presence run off into a corner of a first floor exhibit room…and several other guests reported EMF meters flickering in response to questions concerning the deaths of two woman during a suspiscious 1944 fire when the Castle warden served as a hotel (although Betty Richeson and Ruth Pickering were said to have perished due to smoke inhalation, many people now believe a double homicide occurred and the fire set to cover up the deed).
As soon as we dissect all the evidence, we’ll post what we can here ASAP. Dave, Steve, and Dustin exuded professionalism throughout the evening, and a big THANK YOU goes out from us here at Ripley’s to TAPS, Ideal Event Management, and all of the evening’s guests!
Ralf Ingwersen - Ghost Tours Director – Ripley’s St. Augustine, FL
Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango of TAPS
Links
[...] real ghosts and spirits of the Nation’s Oldest City have awakened. The Witching Hour Tour leaves Ripley’s Castle Warden at three in the morning and Ghost Tours Director Ralf Ingwersen says, “We expect a skin-crawling, [...]
Posted on October 20th, 2009 at 7:35pm
I was there recently and knew people had died in that “bathroom” scene, but I swear I felt something behind me but there was nothing there. I thought it was other people walking through the hallway so I was moving over but there was no one coming. I just kept moving I did take pictures through out the museum but I am so interested in what you find out.
Posted on October 26th, 2009 at 5:56pm
I love all things UFO, and love this article, but cant see many comments. Any hoo great stuff.
Posted on April 13th, 2010 at 5:55pm
quit wasting the taxpayers money on ghostbustin which you have no proof of want to see spirits go to a witches coven or a satanic worship place and bring a hearse or preacher with you because you will see demons and other things if thats what you really want heh heh heh
Posted on April 28th, 2010 at 7:40pm
Very interesting experience. Eager to find out the well known local last name of the person who murdered the two women there. Seems to be hush-hush, which makes me think that the person is still powerful. Only two things stuck out to me. I had a feeling of something uncomfortable right around the moose head before entering the theater. Once in the theater, my EMF was going crazy in the empty seat next to me. Once we left the theater, I tested several other seats with the EMF meter, but it only went off in that one seat in particular-like someone/something was there.
Posted on June 27th, 2010 at 11:20am