The Dead Files (2011) s07e05 Episode Script

They scare the people.
They scare them so bad.
Activity has spiked here.
It's higher than it's been in a long time.
They're trapped.
Now they're gonna be tortured.
What was her cause of death? One gunshot wound through the base of the skull.
I feel like hurting people.
I want you to find out who killed Mary Jane.
People have done very bad things after they've left this place.
Something bad's going to happen.
My name is Amy Allan.
There's panic.
And it's almost like a butchering.
I see dead people.
They all died horribly.
I speak to dead people.
Get out of here.
And they speak to me.
Vicious.
But there's only one way to know if my findings are real.
It doesn't matter where you are.
I'll find you.
I rely on my partner.
I'm Steve Di Schiavi.
I'm a retired New York City homicide detective.
This guy's a real piece of work.
And I know every person, every house has secrets.
I feel like I live in a house of Hell.
It's my job to reveal them.
This is not good.
But Steve and I never speak We never communicate during an investigation.
Until the very end I want my life back.
When we uncover if it's safe for you to stay Is he trying to kill her? Or time to get out.
Oh, my God.
This is going to kill us.
I'm in Oregon, Illinois, about 100 miles west of Chicago.
I got a call from a former mayor of the town who owns a restaurant there.
He told me his place is haunted, and that his employees and customers are scared, but that's not what caught my attention about this case.
He thinks the place is being haunted by an unsolved murder that happened many years ago.
Now, I'm not sure about all that, but he sounded pretty desperate, and I'm hoping we can help him out.
Before Amy arrives, I need to make sure photos, paintings, and anything else that could influence her findings are covered or removed.
When I'm finished, the location will be ready for tonight's walk.
Okay.
Mm.
This place makes you feel like someone's just come up and punched you in the stomach.
You know, like, you're getting the air knocked out of you, and you want to just vomit.
That's kind of how it feels here.
I would just get out of here, you know? There's no hope here.
So, Mike, one of the things we spoke about on the phone was how intense the activity has gotten in this place.
Give me a rundown what the hell's going on.
Noises, things flying across the room, shadow figures, people being touched.
We've had customers actually get up and leave.
Okay, are you losing business, you think, because of some of this stuff that's going on? Of course, it's gone down.
It's not what it used to be.
- I understand you're a former mayor.
- Correct.
What year was that? That was from 1999 to 2003.
When did you buy this place? I bought the place in 1993.
Okay, so was it a bar and restaurant when you bought it? No, it was in a shambles.
Matter of fact, here's a picture of the place.
It was condemned.
So, you have this place over 20 years.
Why are you calling us now? Activity has spiked here.
It's higher than it's been in a long time.
Did anything change? I moved in here a few years ago, okay, and I guess I've just become more aware of it being here 24/7 instead of just 10 hours a day.
You mentioned that you have a theory about who you think is haunting this place.
It dates back to 1948.
Mary Jane Reed and her date.
They spent their last night alive in this building.
- This is Mary Jane Reed? - Correct.
I made it my mission to solve this murder.
Is there a cold case unit working on this currently? No.
You're the cold case unit working on it? I had the gal's body exhumed.
I've dropped probably $150,000 on it over the past 15 years.
On looking into this case? Correct.
I mean, is that part of the reason you're living here now? It's the reason I don't have a house anymore.
I'm living here, yes.
Why are you spending this kind of money on a case that's got nothing to do with you? Because the family needs closure.
Her spirit needs closure.
So, Mike, I got to ask you, what makes you think that it's Mary Jane Reed that's here? If I'm not doing anything, or if I'm letting my efforts slide, the paranormal activity here spikes.
I can't let it go.
So, I've got a client who's so positive he knows who's haunting his property, he's literally spent his life savings trying to solve a crime he thinks will put the victim's spirit to rest.
He's even had one of the victims' bodies exhumed and re-examined by a coroner, and trust me, that's no easy thing to have done.
This case is gonna be an unusual one.
There's a woman.
She looks young, maybe 20s.
Really nasty.
She is something.
Very physical, very solid.
She can really do a lot of harm to people physically.
I would assume that people would see her.
She likes to sit by people.
That's a big thing for her.
But it's very unnerving.
She's just wicked.
What's going on in this area here? Well, it was in the lounge area that I saw this apparition of this young girl.
That was like the third time that she'd been in the building.
Saw her go out the front door.
I was maybe seven seconds behind her, and by the time I got to the doorway and looked the other way, she was gone.
You're sure it wasn't a real person, then? It sure looked like a real person to me, but how she disappeared after she got out the door when I followed her out, I don't have a clue.
You think it's this girl, Mary Jane? I'm thinking that it almost had to be.
Is there anything else you've seen? The shadows.
You see them out of the corner of your eye, and you turn your head, and they're gone.
There's no shadows.
You think you see something, or you feel like you're being watched.
Okay, now, there's a lot of people that are in and out of this place.
Are you sure it's not being reflected by another person or living person? I don't typically see those when we're open.
I mean, if I thought that there was someone around, and that's what it was, I wouldn't have even brought it up.
There are these things really just everywhere.
I don't like being here because I feel this is something that can affect the living very easily.
Can you describe these things? They're three-dimensional.
Living people see this dark thing standing in the doorway.
A dark presence, but it's solid.
Instead of seeing an open doorway, there's like a solid darkness.
It's worse in here.
It's so [bleep.]
bad.
This place just destroys.
It's so dangerous.
It's hard to focus on, really, anything.
I I don't understand how these things came here.
It has its roots in Satanism.
It has to do with religion, but there's nothing religion can do to help.
Do you know where it came from? Well, like, Hell, you know? They're from Hell.
Something was off when I started interviewing the employees of Mike's restaurant.
Okay, what did you see? Maybe a black figure, I don't know.
As I asked them about their experiences, I got the feeling they were keeping something from me.
There's something that creeps me out here that I cannot explain.
Like what? Just all kinds of stuff.
And with over 20 years in law enforcement, I know when I'm not getting a clear answer.
How long did this last? I can't really tell you.
You think whatever's here is good or bad? I I have no idea.
Finally, I had enough.
It's a little frustrating, I got to be honest with you.
Sounds like something that you guys discussed ahead of time how you were gonna answer things.
When everybody I'm talking to is that same way, it's a pattern, and it just, you know, tells me that something's not right here.
Like, right now, it literally feels like my mind is being erased.
That's what happens to people here.
They're trying to make it so like I can't figure things out.
Those things you know, I'm not gonna call 'em demons 'cause they're not demons.
They said "legions.
" I don't know what that means.
Something or someone is trying to confuse me.
I'm hearing that there are legions of demons here, but that doesn't seem right.
I feel like there are dead people here who want to talk to me, but they can't.
I'm feeling them reaching out.
These things are standing between us.
I feel like I want to scream, I want to cry, like I want to do all these things, and I can't.
I'm feeling what the living here feel.
It feels like terror.
So, what about experiences that you can't explain while you've been working here.
- Have you had any? - Yes.
Okay, tell me about some of them.
Yeah, I've seen shadow figures.
That's the only way I can describe it.
Okay, how often? Probably five times, at least.
So, when you see this shadow thing, you sure it's not a reflection of a shadow of somebody? No.
- How are you so sure? - No, I how could it be a reflection? I mean, there was nobody here.
Are you uncomfortable working here? I'm not, in the building itself, but there's something that's following me home now.
I'm wondering if it's the bad energy, and he doesn't like that we're talking about all this and stirring things up.
About three or four weeks ago, about 3:00 in the morning, I was sound asleep, and the end of my bed Pretend like this is the bed, right? And here's my bedspread.
We're talking a heavy comforter.
It was clawing like this, like this, and then it took it and went like this.
Scared me to death.
I said it out loud, "[Bleep.]
, get the [bleep.]
out of my house.
" - Do you have animals in the house? - No animals.
Okay, that had to scare the hell out of you.
It did.
Feel me.
Yeah, you are.
You're shaking.
Yeah, I'm shaking.
I don't want to cry, but I'm not sleeping well, and I'll thank you if I can get some answers.
I just want it to stop.
Sometimes these dark things that are here will leave with people.
They'll stay with them, or they come back? I don't feel like they come back.
I do feel like they stay with them.
Can they do anything physical to the living? Yes, it You know, I think people can be harmed.
I think people could become possessed.
Suggestions being put into people's minds.
This is how they influence, whispering Into your mind, making you do bad things to people.
I feel like doing bad things.
I feel like hurting people.
Living people have done very bad things after they've left this place.
Do you know what they want? Chaos and destruction.
Mike is obsessed with this Mary Jane Reed murder case, and he wanted to show me all the evidence he found.
But honestly, I don't trust civilian investigators.
So, I called on a pro, a retired detective who has the case file and is gonna walk me through it.
So, Bill, I want to start out with a clean slate.
What do you know about this case? Stanley Skridla.
Here's a picture of him.
He's a former Navy Seabee.
June 24, 1948, he meets up with this young girl, Mary Jane Reed, and they set up to go on a date.
- Okay.
- And they end up at this place called Alexander's Log Cabin Inn, - which is a bar.
- Okay.
They meet up with a deputy sheriff by the name of Willard Burright, better known as "Jiggs" to most of the people around the area.
He's a 42-year-old married man, and it's rumored that he's having an affair with Mary Jane.
Okay, if that's the case, and she walks in with a young guy The deputy sheriff walks up to them, and he wants Mary Jane to leave with him.
And she refuses.
They end up in this big argument, and she ends up slapping the deputy and then leaves out of there with Skridla.
Okay, so what happens next? They end up at your client's property, which was called the Stenhouse back then.
They were gonna go inside, but according to witnesses, Stanley gets out of the car, but all of a sudden, he stops and gets back in his car, and they drive off, and that's the last time that anybody saw them alive.
There's people down here.
Who? There's a man and this woman.
Two, maybe three people.
Female has brown, curly hair.
She's wearing a dress.
I'm hearing she's up to no good.
They look scared.
I do feel like there was a female victim, but I also feel like there's a male victim.
Her and this man knew each other, possibly killed either at the same time or very [bleep.]
close.
When they left the Stenhouse, they left somewhere just before midnight, and witnesses said that they were being followed by an older model car with two pretty good-sized guys in there.
And they went to a very popular make-out area called Lover's Lane.
Okay.
Stanley's body was actually found there the next morning, - lying in a ditch.
- Really? I have a picture here of the crime scene.
And what was his cause of death? Multiple gunshot wounds - to his abdomen, his chest - Geez.
His groin, his arm.
But there was another report that indicated that he had one gunshot wound to his back.
Okay, where's Mary Jane? Mary Jane's body was found four days later, and she's about a mile away from where Skridla was found.
- Okay.
- This is a picture of her crime scene.
And what was her cause of death? One gunshot wound through the base of the skull.
All right, so it sounds like whoever did these murders killed him first, and then later on killed her and then dumped her body in a different spot.
Right.
Somebody's hitting me on the back.
Upper left of my back.
Someone's hitting me there, hitting me there, hitting me there, falling down on the ground, but it's dark.
I don't know if it's actually down here.
Might be outside.
I think it's like a sneak attack.
Someone hits the hits the [bleep.]
ground.
Mm.
There's a lot of pain here.
I do feel stabbing-like sensations.
Neck area, chest area, and the back.
It's like sharp pains.
I feel this being crushed.
Mm, to the throat.
I think the female's with the neck.
I think the male is to the back.
Now, I know this is an unsolved double homicide, but was anybody ever charged in this case? There were no arrests made, but there's two possibilities in this case.
Well, first, there was Jiggs, the deputy sheriff.
- Okay, for obvious reasons.
- Yes.
Why wasn't he ever charged? Well, there's a couple interesting points about that.
He was actually the detective that was heading up the investigation.
Okay, there's a little conflict of interest there.
Yeah.
And all the evidence that was brought out against him - was strictly circumstantial.
- Okay.
Now, what about the two guys following them out of the parking lot? Those are the other two suspects.
In 1948, a guy by the name of Harry Deshazo Okay.
Shows up at the sheriff's office and tries to confess.
Oh.
He tells the sheriff's department that he and his brother, Perry, followed them to Lover's Lane and were going to rob them, but Harry says that this robbery went bad, and Perry ends up shooting the two victims.
That's interesting.
Why would the sheriff sit on that? - We don't know.
- Wow.
I don't know if we'll ever know.
There's these three people who might be involved.
With? This situation, which is, I think, two men and one woman.
Okay.
Then I'm getting a completely other image of a guy standing with a double-barrel shotgun holding it on someone I don't see who and in a rage.
They're trying to communicate to me what happened.
Oh, You okay? No, no, no.
No, no, no.
Surprisingly, Mary Jane Reed's brother is still alive and living in town, so I reached out to him, and he agreed to talk to me.
He said his sister's murder ended up destroying their family.
I know it's been a very long time, but my condolences on your sister's death.
Thank you.
Mary Jane kind of was my pride and joy, and she took very good care of me.
How did you take it? Oh, I I did my share of bawling.
I missed her very much.
What about the murder itself? Are you still concerned about finding out who did it? I really believe it was the sheriff.
Jiggs was his name, right? Jiggs Burright, yes.
Every now and then, he would just stop and just sit there in his car and look over at us.
Really? Did you think he was obsessed with your sister? Yes, and I also believe that he was very jealous of her.
Now, why do you say that? 'Cause if she was with someone else, it seemed like he got upset with her.
These scary people, it's very difficult for them to come out because there are things that are trying to prevent that from happening.
The problem here is that the dead aren't allowed to speak, and really, the living aren't, either.
These evil [bleep.]
are trying desperately to maintain control, keeping everybody trapped.
Now they're gonna be tortured, see? What does that mean? They're gonna make it bad for them.
Do you remember anything about the day you found out about your sister? Yes, I do, very clear.
I'll never forget it.
I was 6 at the time, and two detectives came to the house, and my mother opened the door, and I was standing there with her, holding her hand.
- Okay.
- They said, "Mrs.
Reed, "we got very bad news for you.
We found Mary Jane.
She was murdered.
" And I felt my mother's knees just weakening.
I thought she was gonna fall.
And one of the officers kind of got a hold of her and held her up for a while.
Now, you had mentioned that on the phone - things got really bad at home after that.
- Very bad.
What happened? They ended up sending her down to East Moline State Hospital at that time.
She was there over a year.
After the year that she was there, did it help her any? She wasn't quite as nervous as she was prior, but yet she wasn't herself, either.
This is a picture of my father and mother on their 50th wedding anniversary.
Your mom looks sad in this photo.
So does your father, actually.
Well, see, I made a promise to her before she died.
She looked me in the eye, and she said, "There's one thing I want you to do for me.
I want you to find out who killed Mary Jane.
" I looked her in the eye, and I said, "I'll try, mother.
" I saw several entities during my walk, but the murdered woman in the basement had me the most concerned.
When I initially met her, she was kind of crouched down.
She's white, darker brown hair.
Her face was more round, pretty delicate.
How old would you say she was? Is this what you saw? Yes, that's what I saw.
Now that Amy and I have completed our investigations, we're ready to reveal our findings to each other and our clients for the first time.
Well, Amy, I'd like you to meet Mike.
He owns this place.
He's not our typical client for two reasons.
One, he used to be the mayor here, and two, he thinks he knows who's haunting his business.
I mean, as the night goes by, we'll find out if you're right or not.
This is Marge.
She's been working here a long, long time.
Now that the activity's gotten much, much worse, she's pretty scared for her own safety.
Now that Amy knows a little bit about what's going on, I'm just gonna have her describe her walk for us.
I went down into the basement, and I didn't really like it down there very much.
I felt very unwelcome.
And after a minute, I saw three people hunched down there, and it was two men and one woman.
Somehow, they know each other.
I don't know how, but there there's a familiarity there between them.
And she was indicating that she had been murdered.
And it seemed like she and the man she knew either died at the same time or very close to each other.
She was wearing a nice dress.
It was kind of dusk.
Amy, I got a pretty good idea of what you saw.
It's one of the main reasons we're here.
Back in 1948, there was a double homicide.
The victims were Mary Jane Reed and a guy named Stanley Skridla.
This is Mary Jane.
Here's a picture of Stanley.
Stanley was 28 years old.
She was 17.
Now, she went on a date with Stanley that night, first time.
The last place they were seen alive was actually in the parking lot of this restaurant.
Mike is very fixated on this case.
He thinks it's the reason the restaurant is actually haunted.
I've been working on it since 1999 when I was elected mayor.
I've spent tons of money and hundreds of hours.
He's actually lost his house over it, - that's how much this case means to him.
- Right.
Now, did you get a good look of anybody down there? Yes, I had a sketch done of the female that I saw in the basement.
I got to see this.
Wow.
Yeah.
You guys tell me.
That's awful close, Amy.
Look at the cheek line right here, the eyebrows.
It's close enough for me.
All right, let me ask you a question.
You get any idea of how these people died that were in the basement? I think it happened outside at night.
The female indicated to me something with the throat area, very painful.
What about the man? I felt impact in my back.
I felt the falling sensation, hit my face hitting the gravel, so it was something, a dirt road.
It was like a sneak attack.
They either died together, or they died very close together.
Wow.
Dead on.
I'm very impressed, Needless to say.
.
This is the million-dollar question here.
Any indication of who might have killed them? She kind of indicated that it was two males.
So, this is gonna make a lot more sense to you, I think, once I lay out the rest of the evening that Stanley and Mary Jane were killed.
Okay.
Stanley picked her up at work.
They went out on the town.
They wound up at a tavern called Alexander's Log Cabin Inn.
They ran into this guy.
I got a photo here of Deputy Sheriff Willard Burright, also known as "Jiggs.
" Oh.
Apparently, and this is documented in police reports from the time that they were having an affair.
Jiggs was a 42-year-old married man.
Mary Jane was 17.
Now, when I spoke to Mary Jane's brother, who is still alive, he was maybe 6 at the time.
He used to see him come by and just stand outside in the radio car and stare at her in the backyard.
Oh.
So, he sees her with Stanley, and he gets upset.
They got into an altercation.
She wound up smacking him 'cause he kept saying, "I want you to come with me, come with me.
" She's, like, "No, leave me alone" smacks him.
Stanley and Mary Jane leave.
Now, the next spot the two of them came to is this place, which was known as the Stenhouse back then.
They pull up to get into the parking lot.
Stanley gets out, and for some reason, he gets back in and takes off.
We don't know if something spooked him.
According to witnesses, they said they were followed by two big guys in a car.
There's a place called Lover's Lane like most towns have.
It's about a mile from here.
Next morning, they find Stanley's body facedown.
He was shot four times three in the front, one in the back.
That's Stanley's death certificate here.
Now, four days later, Mary Jane's body was found about a mile away in a ditch.
Now, when she's found, she's found with a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.
Now, I got her death certificate here.
Now, here's where it gets really interesting.
About 10 years ago, Mike had the body exhumed.
Okay.
He was hoping to find some clues about the murder.
Now, you said you thought she suffered a neck injury.
A couple of the anthropologists that looked at the body thought that the head was decapitated.
Oh, my God.
Here's the skull that they exhumed.
Right.
Now, Amy, you got to understand something.
This case was never solved, but according to the police reports, there were a couple of suspects.
One of 'em was Jiggs.
Mike is convinced he did this.
Am I right? He is a person of interest beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Who I think it is is this guy.
This is Perry Deshazo.
Remember those two guys witnesses saw following the couple? I think he was one of 'em.
Perry's brother, Harry, went to the ex-sheriff trying to basically confess to the crime.
He admitted that they went to go rob Mary Jane and Stanley.
Went bad.
Stanley fought back, got shot.
Mary's a witness.
They shoot her in the back of the head, and they dump both their bodies.
Now, for some reason, the ex-sheriff they told sat on this information.
These guys were never arrested.
And you don't think it's possible that this could have been orchestrated by him? Cops know what they're doing.
I'm curious what you think.
I know what I think.
I'm curious what you think.
Well, I know it was definitely two men.
I know that the man who hit and killed the other man was definitely strong.
The thing that's bothering me, it's, like, why would I hear, "She's up to no good"? What else did you see on your walk? I know we've been harping on this homicide.
There's something else going on here.
I could feel like the dead people wanting to talk or wanting to reach out to me, but I couldn't.
- The connection could not be made.
- Mm-hmm.
The reason for that is, I saw these dark things, and they were blocking me.
I felt like these things would definitely be occasionally seen as far as, like, this feeling of this oppressive darkness.
Yeah, I've seen shadows in the hallway right out front.
The shadows appear out of the corner of your eye, and then there's nobody there.
Okay, that makes sense.
I felt that this could have a very big impact on the living, like, both physically and emotionally.
I think that people here could lose control over themselves and not really understand why.
Like, at points, I wanted to just start screaming, like, with frustration, and then I wanted to start crying.
These things are also capable of affecting memory.
Anytime I would be on to something, that's when my mind would be completely erased, and I couldn't even, like, recall what I was just thinking.
Oh, my gosh.
And this is how I think this thing is keeping control over both the dead and the living.
It's kind of creating a trap.
Could this thing where you're saying it erased the mind - do that to the living here? - Yes.
So, what I was experiencing with the living, interviewing them, to tell you the truth, I was getting pissed.
It felt like I was being lied to.
That's when my cop ears get raised a little.
- Because you think they're lying.
- Right.
'Cause you think they're manipulating the truth.
Yes.
Wouldn't a cop want to make another cop think that, if they were trying to throw them off their trail? Possibly, yeah.
I'm looking at something here as a possibility.
Now, here's what I was being told could be done that, you know, people come here, and that entities can follow them home.
It can cause huge problems for the living.
It's likely their homes will become active.
People could become possessed, and people could become physically harmed.
Oh, my God.
That's the reason I asked Marge to sit down with us at the table because she felt something followed her home.
About a month ago, I went home, and I was having a dream, and I was fighting something in this dream.
Well, I actually woke up, it took the bottom of my bedspread, and it went like and it was clawing like this.
And then it took it, and it literally took it like this.
I literally jumped out of that bed screaming.
I was hearing the word "Legion.
" "We are the legion," which is demonic but it wasn't adding up for me.
It just wasn't adding up for me as far as it being a legion of demons running amuck.
Then what the hell do you think it is? I really I'm leaning towards the cop.
I was hearing the word "Legion," but it wasn't adding up for me.
It just wasn't adding up for me as far as it being a legion of demons running amuck.
Then what the hell do you think it is? I really I'm leaning towards the cop.
I was never convinced that there were, you know, demons here.
But somehow Jiggs kind of figured out - how to throw you off track.
- Yes, yes.
- Okay.
- Trying to set up the scene to look like there's demonic [bleep.]
And I'm going based on how efficiently - he is manipulating this place - This place.
The people in it, me, you know, to not get to the truth.
_ So, everything that's going on here people getting tugged, the memory scrubbing, so to speak, things tossed, followed home, the shadows, that's all coming from Jiggs? Yes, that's my belief, yes.
I believe the police chief was the mastermind behind these murders, and in death, he's trapping the victims here so that the truth about his part in organizing the crime never gets out.
So, Mike, through all these years, you thought the haunting of your business here had to do with the Mary Jane Reed murder case, and amazingly, you were right.
But the other thing is, you got some pretty vicious entity here doing some crazy stuff.
So, we know what it is, but we don't know how to fight it.
So, for that answer, I'm gonna turn it over to Amy.
So, what I would like you to do is for you to demand Mary Jane and this man leave this restaurant with you.
You have to take them away from here.
What I want you to say is basically that they can go, that you're releasing them.
They're not gonna feel trapped anymore, and in all likelihood, they will all go.
Now, let me ask you a question.
Is she aware of what Mike's gone through - to help try to solve her - Oh, yes, absolutely.
And I think that might make it a little bit even harder for her to let go.
But you're gonna be her hero.
The second step is for a holy man to come in to get rid of him.
The cop.
I want the holy man to do, like, a blessing and a sermon ceremony because he has a root fear of religion.
His thing is about self-preservation.
He doesn't want to go to Hell.
I like her plan.
Are you gonna take Amy's advice on this and do what she asks? Why, of course.
Anything for peace of mind and create a safe environment.
And Marge, are you gonna help out with this? Whatever I can do.
Whatever he asks.
How are you gonna feel about letting go of Mary Jane? Anything that can bring the family closure and bring her unrested soul closure is a game winner as far as I'm concerned.
It won't be easy removing the layers of dead people inside this location, but if Mike and Marge follow my advice, the dead will be set free, and Mike can find peace knowing he's put a stop to Mary Jane's suffering.