Ghost Hunters (2004) s11e11 Episode Script
Haunting of the Garde
1 d love to head in there, but I prefer not to be one of the things that the rest of the TAPS team is looking for.
On this episode of "Ghost Hunters" JASON: All right, it's the Garde Arts Center in New London, Connecticut.
Thomas Wheeler Williams built the mansion in 1831.
Mr.
Williams? Is that shuffling? We're gonna renovate one more time.
We don't wanna upset anybody.
We hear footsteps coming up the stairs of the projection room all the time.
What's that? Activity spikes during performances.
People talk about a small girl with a balloon, full-body apparition of a man hunched over in a chair.
Is there anybody up there in the balcony? It sounded like a chair.
Whoa! [ Bleep .]
Hey! That was not me.
Whoa, whoa.
-- Captions by VITAC -- CAPTIONS PAID FOR BY PILGRIM FILMS AND TELEVISION, INC.
JASON: TAPS is on their way to the Garde Arts Center in New London, Connecticut, a site of the former Williams family mansion.
The Williams family was actually a very important part of the area.
They made all their money whaling, but the father went on to become the mayor of the town and Sad part was that five Williams kids died on the property before the age of 22.
And then over the years, the property fell into disarray.
But they ended up tearing it down to build the Garde Theater.
And they've had all different claims of activity, from seeing full-body apparitions of a man hunched over in a chair, a child holding balloons in the balcony, and the list just goes on and on.
STEVE: Yeah, and there are some confirmed deaths on the property, of family members.
It's been five or six people that actually passed away on the property.
It makes you wonder if that man in the back of the theater might just be Mr.
Williams.
Mr.
Williams.
JASON: TAPS case -- Garde Arts Center, New London, Connecticut.
It's definitely a good-sized building.
DUSTIN: Yeah.
Yeah, we got a couple floors we can investigate.
You guys wanna start getting everything set to bring in, go from there, all right? Sure will.
All right, thank you.
STEVE: This is beautiful.
It's gorgeous.
It's very, like, "Star Wars" Cantina.
[ Jason laughs .]
Hey, how are ya? Hey, Mark.
How are ya? I'm Jason.
It's nice to meet ya.
Nice to meet you, too.
Hi.
Steve.
Hey, Steve.
I'm Dave.
Hi, Dave.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.
How many people can you seat? 1,432.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
So what's some of the history of this place? Thomas Wheeler Williams built the mansion in 1831.
He was a prominent member of society.
He was a Congressman.
And he was part of the start of the whaling community here.
And they call this city "The Whaling City" because of that.
After his death, a couple generations lived at the mansion.
William Williams is the last one to own it.
He sold it, and then the mansion was torn down in 1925.
And then in 1926, this theater opened.
It was like vaudeville and film and stuff like that.
We heard that there were some deaths, uh, that happened on the property here.
Uh, possibly some family members? Yeah, of the Williams.
Thomas Wheeler Williams -- out of nine children, 5 of them died before the age of 22.
Did they actually die on the property here or they just -- Yes.
Back then, they were just laid out in the house.
Right.
So you guys have been having a lot of weird things that have been going on here.
Yeah, there's voices and lights.
How long has this activity been happening? Since I've been here, 10 years.
Okay.
And there are stories before me, too.
Have you ever experienced anything yourself? I did.
Up in the projection booth, I was taking some film off a reel.
And, uh, once the machine stopped and it got kinda quiet, there were footsteps coming up the stairs, and then a big inhale and an exhale.
I turned to see who that was, and nobody was there.
Okay.
So that was very freaky.
JASON: Others also claim to have had strange experiences near the projection booth.
Actually, coming up the stairs of the projection room, you hear footsteps coming up all the time.
You'd be in here running a movie and you'd hear somebody walking up the stairs.
And you go out and look, and there's nobody there.
In the back of the house right here, I can see, on occasion, a person who's kinda sitting in a chair, kinda slumped over, an older gentleman.
Has anybody else seen that same gentleman? I mean, there are other people who said I saw a person.
I was standing up on the stage, and I look over to the side of the mural over here, and I saw a shadow.
The shadow looked like a-a male figure.
I was terrified.
You know, people also talk about a small girl with a balloon.
Little girl with a balloon is in the balcony just behind us.
She runs across and plays.
People often look up to see somebody's up there, so So numerous people have seen the little girl up there? Yeah.
JASON: Unexplained noises and voices have also been heard coming from underneath the stage and above it.
We have a doorway up in our grid, which is the area up above the stage.
And there will be banging of a door.
[ Door slams .]
There's no wind.
There's no rain.
There's no reason the door should be open, but you hear it banging open and closed.
JASON: The theater has also been plagued by various lighting issues.
During concerts, lights would just flash on and off.
The audience -- lights would come on and off.
JASON: In the administration building, an employee claimed that his life was saved when he fell off a ladder and felt someone catch him but there was no one there.
In the speakeasy section of the complex, voices, footsteps, and music have been heard.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up when I'm working alone in this place.
[ Woman screams .]
I'm convinced that this place has got some ghosts in it.
So what are you mainly hoping that we're able to accomplish? We're gonna renovate one more time.
We don't wanna upset anybody.
Last time we renovated, we had a lot of activity.
JASON: Our client is hoping that this new renovation won't stir up any aggressive activity, as they are starting a new arts program for children and want to ensure that students and employees will be safe.
Okay, we pretty much got full access to the whole place? Everywhere you wanna go.
Awesome.
It's exciting.
From here, we're gonna go talk to the crew, start figuring out how to set up.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
JASON: So we just got done talking with Mark over there.
Yeah.
And, uh, he was filling us in.
They have claims that have been going on for a little over 10, 15 years.
Little girl up in the, uh, top part with a balloon, a guy just hunched over in a chair.
I think he was telling us, too, is they have a guy who was in charge of the lighting.
He ended up dying when he fell.
Whoa.
And ever since, they -- they started having all these weird lighting issues.
I don't know if they're connected, but Seems that it all Yeah.
Seems to have happened around the same time.
A lot of good ammunition for this investigation.
Got a lot of ground to cover.
Cool.
Yeah.
All right, well Yeah.
Excited.
Let's do it.
So we just finished talking with Mark about a lot of the activity going on here at the Garde Arts Center.
And there's claims of a full-body apparition of a man hunched over in a chair.
DAVE: I'm setting up a full-spectrum camera in the main theater.
There's an apparition of a man sitting down, uh, in the orchestra area.
We have a nice, big view of the whole place, so we've got this camera in a good spot.
JASON: A little girl holding balloons in the balcony So I'm placing this camera up here on the balcony.
And basically, we're gonna be aiming it straight across because that is where the young girl with the balloons had been seen.
This camera will cover all of that tonight.
Mark's main concern is that they're getting ready to do more renovation here, and he wants to make sure that this is gonna be safe, that they're not gonna really be dealing with a lot of issues.
And so we wanna really get in there, set up, and -- and just start investigating.
So I'm in the administration building at the Garde Arts Center, and I'm in the second hallway, outside the door where the ladder is, where the man fell and was supposedly caught by someone who wasn't there.
So I'm setting the camera up as far back in the corner as possible.
I'm routing the entrance to the hallway, the exit to the hallway, and lots of doors.
It's always tough when you're investigating a theater because audio tends to really travel 'cause that's the way the theater was set up.
So that is one obstacle that we're gonna have to overcome here.
But, you know, we've investigated many of these theaters and, uh, we're looking forward to checking this out.
There are a few things that are unique about this theater.
One is that our client has had experiences as well, and that's very, very important.
He's here every day.
He's been here for 10 years, and he has experienced things.
Also, we have the names of people who have passed away here.
of people in the Williams family that actually died here on the property when it was a mansion.
To have those names, that's gonna be quite helpful.
All right, Jersey.
I'm up here in the balcony, man.
What do you wanna do? Let's pan left a little bit.
Keep going, keep going, keep going, right Right there.
That looks good.
I like it.
Hey.
Hey, guys.
All right.
So we all set? Yeah, uh, we have, uh, five cameras.
Camera one -- this is the stage, the orchestra area, and the balcony all in one -- one shot.
Camera two -- this is the stage towards the orchestra and the balcony area.
This is where they see the little girl with the -- JASON: Yep, little girl with the balloon.
The, uh, that's -- What about that slumped over guy? Right over here in the back.
Yeah, in the back.
In the back left.
Yep.
Camera three -- this is the office hallway where that ladder is.
So we've got a nice wide angle getting the -- down this hallway and some of this area right here in the elevator.
Camera four -- this is the lobby where those apparitions are seen wandering in and out of the auditorium.
And camera five -- this is a closer shot of the balcony.
So, you know, if we do capture that girl, it'll be a little bit closer.
Okay.
So you have multiple, uh, cameras getting a lot of different things.
And the GoPros and And the GoPros.
Yeah.
Well, cool.
You know, let's get the lights out Yeah.
And get the investigation going.
Yeah, nice job, Dave.
Thank you.
[ Switches clicking .]
Jay and Steve.
The Garde Theater, New London, Connecticut.
STEVE: [ Whispers .]
Yeah.
Should've gotten some balloons.
Now if they see a little girl with balloons, that must mean the balloons are part of the vision, right? Yep, that's exactly what it would mean.
They're not here physically.
That's been manifested, along with the little girl.
So that would make it more of a residual type of project.
I would think so.
They also say the lights turn on and off when they've seen a man sitting in these chairs.
Hello? STEVE: Is there more than one person in here with us? Anybody in here know Mr.
Williams? Is that shuffling or is that air conditioning that you hear? I heard, like, a [ Imitates clicking sounds .]
Yeah.
Hey, if you're out there, wanna play a game? Maybe push down one of the seats on the chairs? Make a noise? You do it, and we gotta point in the direction it came from.
We won't even get off the stage.
How 'bout at the count of three? One Two Three.
Whoa.
Oh.
That sounded like a chair.
JASON: Wanna play a game? Maybe push down one of the seats on the chairs? Make a noise? You do it and we gotta point in the direction it came from.
How 'bout at the count of three? One Two Three.
Whoa.
Oh.
That sounded like a chair.
DAVE: That did sound like the seat of a chair, maybe.
[ Whispers .]
What is that? I don't know.
It's We can hear you over here on our right.
Can -- Can you go over to our left? If you can make a sound that's louder than that, then we can be sure it's you.
We're not gonna come up there.
We won't come and bother you.
We're just gonna go right here.
Like, it had the boom, initial sound.
It had the boom, but not the after.
Like this.
[ Chair rattles .]
Yeah, see, it's not doing the What if it was the sound of it just coming down and staying down? [ Chair thuds .]
Oh.
[ Chair thuds .]
That sounds a little more like it.
For all we know, that one chair making the sound.
Could be that guy that people claim to see hunched over.
It could.
It really could.
[ Whispers .]
Whoa.
Same area.
Yeah.
Are you switching seats? [ Soft bang in distance .]
Oh, yeah.
Same area.
It's where I told ya.
Yep.
On that side.
Oh.
[ Whispers .]
It just got brighter.
Ooh.
[ Gasps .]
Whoa, man.
Oh, ho! That sounded like a chair.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
This is Sam and Shari in the speakeasy.
So what were the claims? Oh, sweet [bleep.]
.
Oh, my God.
[Bleep.]
[ Chuckles .]
How funny.
[ Laughing .]
Okay, so they've heard footsteps, they've heard bangs, they've heard voices, they've -- they've just had lots of experiences when nobody's in here with them, so Okay.
We'll see.
I'm just looking at the fact that it's, like, a big open building.
'Cause I mean, you hear somebody walking around, they could be anywhere.
Look at this.
I hear music.
[ Whispers .]
Oh, my God.
The other claim for the property is the sound of music.
We're not only hearing cars drive by and their music, but, I mean, we were hearing people standing outside, singing right now.
So just the fact that sound comes in here so easily, we need to put that into consideration.
Let's keep walking through.
Let's keep doing a sweep of this place.
Well, if there's anybody here in with us We're just here checking the place out.
So if you wanna make a sound to let us know that you are here, we would love to hear it.
Is there anybody here with us? Can you tell us your name? I would think with some of the stuff, especially when you're in a theater, usually EMFs off the charts.
Yeah.
There must be something under the stage.
Here we've got a 3.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yep, there you go.
Oh, jeez, right under your feet, too.
And that seems like a constant source.
We need to look under the stage.
That right there is going to give people fatigue, hallucinations, nausea, paranoia.
They can hear voices.
So Would this be under the stage or just It's a green room.
Jeez.
Yeah.
All right.
You humming or what back here? Yeah, oh, yeah.
All right.
Yep.
Got the 12s.
Make -- Whoa! Yeah! We're up to 40 now, Jay.
[ Bleep .]
This is right under their feet, probably.
[ Scoffs .]
All right, so that brings us to two conclusions to start off with.
Either the high EMFs are fueling the activity and allowing it to manifest itself, or the high EMFs are making people believe they're seeing things that are not really there.
DUSTIN: Coming up to the projection booth.
This is an area, maybe, that you work in, that you're familiar with.
We just wanna come in and see if we can hear some of the sounds that people say they hear.
So, uh, right now we're up in the projection booth, all the way in the top in the back of the theater.
And people say they hear the sounds of some of the cannisters falling over, then everything's okay.
They see lights go on.
So we're hoping to see if we have any activity while we're up here.
Is the gentlemen who takes care of the lights here tonight? Apologize.
I don't know your name, sir.
Apparently, you like to climb things quite a bit, had an unfortunate accident.
If you can hear us, please just give us a simple "yes.
" Are you the one that turns the lights on here at night? We need to change these reels.
We need to change the, uh, the movie over.
Where's the other reel? Whoa.
What was that? We need to change these reels.
We need to change the, uh, the movie over.
Where's the other reel? Whoa.
What was that? Did you hear that sound? It's like something dropped or something.
Are you the lightning engineer? Have you come back here, playing tricks on your friends? Can you help us figure out how to work these lights, sir? Is the lighting gentleman here, the lighting engineer? Is he here tonight? JASON: Here's the boiler room.
Hello? Mr.
Williams? If you're here, we need you to talk to us.
Can you make a sound, let us know you're here? We're gonna get to the bottom of this one.
Mr.
Williams? [ Loud bang .]
Steve.
Know where you are.
You just made a loud sound.
[ Laughs .]
Oh, wait, did I scare you? Was that not you? I went through a bunch of doors, yeah.
Were you just banging on the I didn't bang on anything.
I did slam a door -- not slam, but it closed behind me.
But you weren't just banging on this piece of metal right here? No.
I'll walk my same path to see if -- No, I'll go.
Okay, but even beyond that I was not banging on that wall.
[ Laughs .]
Came through here.
That -- No, there was literally just [ Metal rattles .]
That's what it was.
[ Metal rattles .]
Was it when this door closed, maybe? 'Cause I opened this, went through here, and this would've had to have closed.
[ Door bangs .]
[ Sighs .]
Maybe.
Iit could be.
It was just [ Metal rattles .]
You know, go on the other side and see if the sound matches.
All right.
[ Door bangs .]
No, that's friggin' -- that's way louder than this was.
Okay.
Stay there and tell me if this sounds like it.
All right.
[ Metal rattles .]
That what it sounds like? Yeah, that's exactly what it was.
That was not me.
How'd it go over there next door? Good.
I mean, it's very quiet.
Steve and I just had some really cool experiences in the theater.
Yeah.
Uh, voices, movement, things shuffling.
It sounded like walking and something moving all around up there.
So I think you guys should at least go check that out Okay.
See what you can find.
All right.
All right, the recorder is smack-dab in the center of the stage.
Hello? Is there anybody in here? My name's Sam, and this is Shari.
Hello.
We think you may have met our friends.
They were in here a little while ago talking to you.
We understand someone from the Williams family might be here.
Thomas? If you're sitting in one of the seats, can you make a really loud noise, just so we know whereabouts you are? SAMANTHA: Our friends think they may have heard a child.
If there is a child in here, could you tell us your name? The gentleman who used to do the lighting for the theater, are you here? If you're listening, could you turn on a light? Any light in this room.
I headed up into the upper areas above the stage and the catwalk area.
And, of course, Steve being scared of heights, my cameraman followed me.
Leads to another old ladder.
Holy crap.
What is that stuff? Oh.
Hang on.
There was just a There was just a sound or, like, a voice.
This is all the pulley systems for the theater.
Did you just hear that? Sounded like a female or a kid or something? Why the hell would there have been a a female or a child voice up here then? Up here of all places? I would love to head in there and actually see.
But I have to be honest with you, safety-wise, I'd prefer not to be one of the things that the rest of the TAPS team is looking for.
[ Object clatters loudly .]
What the hell? [ Flashlight clicks .]
[ Object clatters loudly .]
What the hell? [ Whispers .]
Here's your flashlight.
What was that? I don't know.
But, I definitely heard that.
Oh, is it Was it over here when you hit the board, though? Yeah, it definitely wasn't over there.
I would've seen it.
I looked down right there.
I think if -- if I dropped this, it's gonna shatter, is my only problem, so No, I-I don't think that was the sound.
Can I run this? I don't know.
Like, when I first initially heard it, it sounded like, like concrete falling or something.
Butmaybe it was, though.
Are you sure this bulb wasn't here then? Dude, I looked down, and I don't think so.
I don't know.
I don't know what would've made that sound.
That was weird.
This is Dustin and K.
J.
We are heading up to the balcony here at the Garde Arts Center.
DUSTIN: So we got a bunch of apparitions, right? The one with the three people.
Yeah.
The one with the little girl and the balloon.
The one that moves back and forth in the balcony.
Yeah, shadowy one.
So any spirits that are here in the theater with us tonight, that's my buddy, K.
J.
My name's Dustin.
I'm gonna try to speak with you and communicate with you however we can.
There's a lot of seats in this theater.
We don't know where you're at.
So if you would like to maybe pull down one of the seats and let it go back up so we could hear that? We also, uh, we bought tickets for a show, and we're just trying to find our seats.
Is there an usher here that can help us? See, sometimes they hear the old tin popping sound of the old lights that they used to have here.
We'd like to hear these sounds, too.
Is there a member of the Williams family here with us? Can you try and call out so we know where you are? A weird clicking sound from the ceiling area.
If you're able to do that sound, could you do it again, please? I'm gonna come over here where the, uh, young lady with the balloon has been seen.
We don't mean you any harm.
We're not here to scare you.
Dustin brought that balloon specifically for you.
[ Whispers .]
All right.
[ Sighs .]
So this is where they've seen that man sitting down.
Back here.
Just sitting here.
Do you see any silhouettes, at least, or anything that would look like a man? Hello? Is there a man in here sleeping in a chair? Were you the light technician that used to work here? Mark invited us here.
He wants to make sure that everyone's safe here.
Is there anybody up there in the balcony? You know, he said that activity spikes during performances.
So maybe you should do a little performance.
Of what? Whatever.
I'm in the audience.
Anddisappears.
We're performing for you.
Tango is doing magic on the stage.
There's magic.
We know you like theater.
Are you in here now? This is Dustin and K.
J.
We're in the administrative part of the building.
Right now Dustin and I are on the third floor of the administration building.
There's a maintenance closet with a ladder.
Supposedly, someone was climbing the ladder when they lost their handing on one of the rungs and started falling back.
And something stopped them from falling, pushed them back up against the ladder.
The person turned around to say thank you, and there was nobody there.
Do you see a ladder? Oh, this must be it.
Yeah, this is it.
Oh, yeah? All right.
Not a lot of room.
I mean, if he was gonna fall backwards, likeit's solid.
I'm not gonna experiment enough to try to fall and trust the spirits to catch me.
It seems like if you lean up against the backside of that wall, the, uh, the cubby right here, I mean, that would save your life if you fell.
Obviously, you would feel, like a wall or something like this hitting your back.
Right.
You know, you wouldn't mistake that for someone grabbing you and holding on to you.
Could that have possibly been the lighting engineer? [ Breathy sound .]
What was that? What was that? Obviously, you would feel, like a wall or something like this hitting your back.
Right.
You know, you wouldn't mistake that for someone grabbing you and holding on to you.
Could that have possibly been the lighting engineer? [ Breathy sound .]
What was that? What was that? That was loud.
[ Breathy sound .]
What was that? What was that? That was loud.
Are you the spirit that was able to catch the gentleman that fell off this ladder? Hello? Mr.
Williams? [ Lowered voice .]
The reason why we're asking about the Williams family is because where the theater sits now, there used to be a mansion.
The Williams family lived there, and so there are thoughts that some of the experiences that people have had here on the property may relate to the Williams family.
If somebody's up there and I fall, you catch me, okay? Okay.
That's really ominous from here.
You're disappearing up into a black hole.
Mr.
Williams? Whoa! [ Bleep .]
Hey.
Hey! What was that? I [ Laughs .]
I came out here on the roof, and there was this huge bird.
He, like, took off.
A bird? Yeah.
No way.
Oh, man.
Literally, it was, like, right nested here.
So he jumped up.
That would've scared me.
Yeah, and because you're not expecting it, you know.
Oh, there he goes.
He's flying off.
There might be more.
I was coming out nice and slow 'cause I didn't want him, you know, it sounded like somebody's voice.
Then I see all this crap up here.
Come around the corner, it's just a big bird.
Whoa.
[ Bird cries .]
Man, that's nuts.
All right, guys, it's late.
Let's get these lights on.
It's time to wrap.
So we just wrapped the investigation here at the Garde Arts Center in New London, Connecticut.
There's been a lot of activity that definitely backs up the claims that Mark was telling us earlier.
I was able to hear things.
Steve was able to hear things.
Many investigators were able to have some experiences.
And I definitely think we've covered the place to the best of our ability.
It's great because we know that we do have some stuff already to show Mark to try to answer some of these questions.
So now it's just, what else do we have that we're not aware of yet? I really think that we had some experiences that are sort of telling us that a lot of the claims that they're experiencing could be legitimate, and that's pretty exciting.
The team did a great job.
And I really can't wait to see what they bring to us after they analyze everything, uh, things that we didn't even know where in the evidence.
And that's all gonna help us sort of piece together the puzzle, you know.
Who's haunting this place? Why are they still here? Does it have anything to do with the Williams family? And we still have a lot of work cut out for us even though the investigation is over.
But, uh, we're excited for it.
And we'll get back here and fill Mark in on everything that we found.
Okay, so Garde Arts Center.
Our client Mark.
His main concern is that, you know, they will be doing renovations.
And he wanted us to go in and check out the place and make sure everything's gonna be okay.
And they keep seeing apparitions in the theater.
In the balcony, there's a little girl with a balloon.
And they've seen an apparition of a man in the orchestra area.
You heard the story about the, uh, the lighting man, the technician -- the lighting technician.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He passes away, and all of a sudden, they start having lighting issues.
K.
J.
: Yeah.
Like he's just -- that's his way of saying, "Hey, I'm still here.
" It's quite -- quite the coincidence that that would happen, so, um, as far as experiences, did anybody have anything happen to them? No? No.
No, no.
Shari and I did make a point, though -- I don't know if anybody else went -- but we went over to the speakeasy.
And as much as the windows and doors are boarded up, um, DAVE: Mm-hmm.
I mean, music was coming in.
People down the street were singing DAVE: Really? And it sounded like they were in the room with us.
Good to know.
So most of the stuff there, we could explain.
A lot of -- Yeah, a lot of people were hanging outside.
Mm-hmm.
They were talking.
It sounded like they were actually inside the building with us.
Mm-hmm.
And even cars driving by a few streets over.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, we could hear their radios.
Wow.
Now I know Jay and Steve had a, you know, some things happen to them, and I have them here.
Uh, they were backstage? Yeah, so they're backstage, and at one point had made their way to this -- this area here with the ladder that's going up into the rigging.
I want you guys to take a listen.
JASON: Holy crap.
What is that stuff? Oh.
Hang on.
It was just a It was just like a voice or something.
Right, so he -- I think in that clip it was hard to hear because, you know, obviously Jay got to a tricky area Mm-hmm.
where his camera guy had to follow him up a ladder and everything at the same time.
So I think with that kind of movement, it was really tough to hear.
Mm-hmm.
Hang on.
This is actually the extension of what we just witnessed.
He went up to that next landing.
Okay.
And then from there, he's looking into more of the rigging that's above the stage and everything like that.
Hmm.
And he heard the voice again.
Did you just hear that? K.
J.
: Right there.
So it's right before that car.
You could definitely hear something.
Is it the breathy -- The breathy.
Yeah.
That is interesting.
Why is it up there? Right? But, uh, then the next clip, Jay was actually coming down from one of these middle landings, and, uh, this is the experience that he had there.
[ Object clatters loudly .]
What the hell? That is fantastic.
That's great.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
So I'm looking forward to really getting to the Garde Arts Center and sitting down with Mark and just showing him the things we caught, sort of getting his take on it.
JASON: The TAPS team was called to the Garde Arts Center, which is also the site of the former Williams Family Mansion in New London, Connecticut, to investigate a number of paranormal claims.
With renovations about to begin, our client, Mark, wants to make sure that the spirits rumored to be in the building won't pose a danger to employees or children who will be attending a new arts program there.
We really did get lucky there and got some incredible evidence.
Yeah, I agree with you.
How you doin'? Pretty good.
How are you? Good to see you again.
Hi.
Hey, Mark.
How's it goin'? Pretty good.
All right.
So you open up the doors for us here at the Garde Theater.
You brought us and told us about a lot of the claims that you guys have had over the years.
And, uh, just allowed us to, uh, do an investigation.
Now we do have some stuff we wanna show you and go over with you, get your take on, and just go from there.
We were able to implement a lot of different techniques, uh, to try to interact with something that may be here.
Tango and I actually put on a bit of a performance.
You know, 'cause you'd said, you know, that sort of spikes after there's some, right, um Yep.
So we -- we tried a lot of different things.
So at one point during the investigation, we were right here.
And we were trying to communicate with any of these entities that have been seen out in the audience.
And in the possibility that it might be a child or even an adult, you sort of try to create a game.
You go sit in a chair, we'll stand on stage, we'll try to figure out where you sat down.
So throughout the time we did that, you'd hear what sounded like somebody moving up there when nobody else was in here, and then you'd hear what sounds like a chair coming down.
Oh, yeah.
Same area.
That's where I told ya.
Yep.
On that side.
Oh.
[ Whispers .]
It just got brighter.
Ooh.
Whoa, man! That's great.
And it does.
It sounds as if somebody is sitting down in a chair Yeah.
Yep.
or they're standing up and you're getting that -- that bouncing that they do.
Ooh.
Whoa, man! That's awesome.
And a lot of those sounds seem like they were coming from the upper balcony areas Right.
where a lot of people claim to see that little girl with the balloons.
Right.
I could kinda see how it would be footsteps, also.
Yeah, we did hear, in a few different areas, what sounded like footsteps.
At one point, Jason was -- was up on the catwalks there and heard what sounded like some footsteps.
Even beyond that, when you get up to the top ladder, there's a landing and then, there's another ladder that feeds up again.
While we were up there, I was there with my cameraman, Kendal, and there was a female or a child voice which just came out of nowhere.
Well, that's -- that's great.
[ Chuckles .]
Yeah, it was -- it was neat.
But it was also strange because of where we were, we were trying to understand why we'd be Yeah, you wouldn't have, like, uhRight.
children's voices.
That is wicked cool, though.
Well, that -- that is.
[ Chuckles .]
That is great.
But this next piece, again, I'm still up in the same area with my cameraman, Kendal, and there's a loud bang.
Uh-huh.
I wanna get your take on what you think it sounds like.
And then we'll go from there.
Okay.
[ Object clatters loudly .]
Wow.
What does it sound like to you? It sounds like metal.
It sounds like metal.
Okay, 'cause the only thing we could find that would possibly have sounded similar was a bulb that was on the floor up there.
Now Oh.
We tried to recreate it with the bulb, and it sounds nothing like that.
[ Clink .]
No, that's -- it wasn't the sound.
What's weird is you can almost hear that initial impact with a sort of a glass breaking sound, but this bulb was completely intact.
Yeah.
Yeah, like a [ Object clatters loudly .]
If it was a bulb, it might be a neat connection because your lighting guy that did pass away.
Right.
One thing we did find was while we were on the stage, we did isolate an extremely high magnetic fields that are coming through.
Now there's two different things that can happen with that.
Um, a lot of people believe that high EMS can help fuel activity which could explain people seeing things.
Yeah.
But also there's a hyper sensitivity to it where people experience paranoia, nausea, fatigue, hallucinations.
So it could be one of both, but through the activity we caught, it definitely seemed like something with some sort of an intelligence was here because it was making contact, it was doing sounds around us, it was sort of just letting us know it was there.
And nothing malicious.
Right.
You know, we didn't get any sort of, uh, off-putting type of sensation, so your renovations should be fine.
In terms of trying to figure out who's exactly here and why they're here, unfortunately, the only thing we can sort of make any connection with is the lightbulb and perhaps the lighting guy that passed away.
But I'm not sure if we're reaching there to try to make a story that isn't quite there.
Right.
And we don't wanna do that.
Honestly, I think it was a great investigation.
We had a good time.
And we caught some neat activity.
What do you think? That is really cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, if you need anything, we're, uh, jeez, we're only 20 minutes away.
So close.
So, give us a shout.
We'd love to come back.
Thank you very much.
We'll do this again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This was a blast.
Thank you for having us.
Thanks a lot.
The main reason we called TAPS out was for the lighting issues and other things that might hamper our renovations in the future.
And I think now, knowing that, uh, whatever's here is kinda happy, that I don't think we're gonna have any problems going forward.
So we're very happy.
I think that went well.
I think that it went great.
It really did.
Mark seemed pretty excited Yeah.
about the stuff we were showing him.
Yeah, he really lit up, you know, when he heard that voice.
You could see the smile on his face.
And he started chuckling.
Yeah.
And he thought, just like we thought -- that's a child's voice.
And, you know, it might be a far leap thinking that sound was a bulb, their lighting guy So I agree with you, totally, on that.
Yeah.
But all in all, brother, this was a great investigation.
You know what? Good job, brother.
Thank you.
You, too.
On to the next, man.
On this episode of "Ghost Hunters" JASON: All right, it's the Garde Arts Center in New London, Connecticut.
Thomas Wheeler Williams built the mansion in 1831.
Mr.
Williams? Is that shuffling? We're gonna renovate one more time.
We don't wanna upset anybody.
We hear footsteps coming up the stairs of the projection room all the time.
What's that? Activity spikes during performances.
People talk about a small girl with a balloon, full-body apparition of a man hunched over in a chair.
Is there anybody up there in the balcony? It sounded like a chair.
Whoa! [ Bleep .]
Hey! That was not me.
Whoa, whoa.
-- Captions by VITAC -- CAPTIONS PAID FOR BY PILGRIM FILMS AND TELEVISION, INC.
JASON: TAPS is on their way to the Garde Arts Center in New London, Connecticut, a site of the former Williams family mansion.
The Williams family was actually a very important part of the area.
They made all their money whaling, but the father went on to become the mayor of the town and Sad part was that five Williams kids died on the property before the age of 22.
And then over the years, the property fell into disarray.
But they ended up tearing it down to build the Garde Theater.
And they've had all different claims of activity, from seeing full-body apparitions of a man hunched over in a chair, a child holding balloons in the balcony, and the list just goes on and on.
STEVE: Yeah, and there are some confirmed deaths on the property, of family members.
It's been five or six people that actually passed away on the property.
It makes you wonder if that man in the back of the theater might just be Mr.
Williams.
Mr.
Williams.
JASON: TAPS case -- Garde Arts Center, New London, Connecticut.
It's definitely a good-sized building.
DUSTIN: Yeah.
Yeah, we got a couple floors we can investigate.
You guys wanna start getting everything set to bring in, go from there, all right? Sure will.
All right, thank you.
STEVE: This is beautiful.
It's gorgeous.
It's very, like, "Star Wars" Cantina.
[ Jason laughs .]
Hey, how are ya? Hey, Mark.
How are ya? I'm Jason.
It's nice to meet ya.
Nice to meet you, too.
Hi.
Steve.
Hey, Steve.
I'm Dave.
Hi, Dave.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.
How many people can you seat? 1,432.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
So what's some of the history of this place? Thomas Wheeler Williams built the mansion in 1831.
He was a prominent member of society.
He was a Congressman.
And he was part of the start of the whaling community here.
And they call this city "The Whaling City" because of that.
After his death, a couple generations lived at the mansion.
William Williams is the last one to own it.
He sold it, and then the mansion was torn down in 1925.
And then in 1926, this theater opened.
It was like vaudeville and film and stuff like that.
We heard that there were some deaths, uh, that happened on the property here.
Uh, possibly some family members? Yeah, of the Williams.
Thomas Wheeler Williams -- out of nine children, 5 of them died before the age of 22.
Did they actually die on the property here or they just -- Yes.
Back then, they were just laid out in the house.
Right.
So you guys have been having a lot of weird things that have been going on here.
Yeah, there's voices and lights.
How long has this activity been happening? Since I've been here, 10 years.
Okay.
And there are stories before me, too.
Have you ever experienced anything yourself? I did.
Up in the projection booth, I was taking some film off a reel.
And, uh, once the machine stopped and it got kinda quiet, there were footsteps coming up the stairs, and then a big inhale and an exhale.
I turned to see who that was, and nobody was there.
Okay.
So that was very freaky.
JASON: Others also claim to have had strange experiences near the projection booth.
Actually, coming up the stairs of the projection room, you hear footsteps coming up all the time.
You'd be in here running a movie and you'd hear somebody walking up the stairs.
And you go out and look, and there's nobody there.
In the back of the house right here, I can see, on occasion, a person who's kinda sitting in a chair, kinda slumped over, an older gentleman.
Has anybody else seen that same gentleman? I mean, there are other people who said I saw a person.
I was standing up on the stage, and I look over to the side of the mural over here, and I saw a shadow.
The shadow looked like a-a male figure.
I was terrified.
You know, people also talk about a small girl with a balloon.
Little girl with a balloon is in the balcony just behind us.
She runs across and plays.
People often look up to see somebody's up there, so So numerous people have seen the little girl up there? Yeah.
JASON: Unexplained noises and voices have also been heard coming from underneath the stage and above it.
We have a doorway up in our grid, which is the area up above the stage.
And there will be banging of a door.
[ Door slams .]
There's no wind.
There's no rain.
There's no reason the door should be open, but you hear it banging open and closed.
JASON: The theater has also been plagued by various lighting issues.
During concerts, lights would just flash on and off.
The audience -- lights would come on and off.
JASON: In the administration building, an employee claimed that his life was saved when he fell off a ladder and felt someone catch him but there was no one there.
In the speakeasy section of the complex, voices, footsteps, and music have been heard.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up when I'm working alone in this place.
[ Woman screams .]
I'm convinced that this place has got some ghosts in it.
So what are you mainly hoping that we're able to accomplish? We're gonna renovate one more time.
We don't wanna upset anybody.
Last time we renovated, we had a lot of activity.
JASON: Our client is hoping that this new renovation won't stir up any aggressive activity, as they are starting a new arts program for children and want to ensure that students and employees will be safe.
Okay, we pretty much got full access to the whole place? Everywhere you wanna go.
Awesome.
It's exciting.
From here, we're gonna go talk to the crew, start figuring out how to set up.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
JASON: So we just got done talking with Mark over there.
Yeah.
And, uh, he was filling us in.
They have claims that have been going on for a little over 10, 15 years.
Little girl up in the, uh, top part with a balloon, a guy just hunched over in a chair.
I think he was telling us, too, is they have a guy who was in charge of the lighting.
He ended up dying when he fell.
Whoa.
And ever since, they -- they started having all these weird lighting issues.
I don't know if they're connected, but Seems that it all Yeah.
Seems to have happened around the same time.
A lot of good ammunition for this investigation.
Got a lot of ground to cover.
Cool.
Yeah.
All right, well Yeah.
Excited.
Let's do it.
So we just finished talking with Mark about a lot of the activity going on here at the Garde Arts Center.
And there's claims of a full-body apparition of a man hunched over in a chair.
DAVE: I'm setting up a full-spectrum camera in the main theater.
There's an apparition of a man sitting down, uh, in the orchestra area.
We have a nice, big view of the whole place, so we've got this camera in a good spot.
JASON: A little girl holding balloons in the balcony So I'm placing this camera up here on the balcony.
And basically, we're gonna be aiming it straight across because that is where the young girl with the balloons had been seen.
This camera will cover all of that tonight.
Mark's main concern is that they're getting ready to do more renovation here, and he wants to make sure that this is gonna be safe, that they're not gonna really be dealing with a lot of issues.
And so we wanna really get in there, set up, and -- and just start investigating.
So I'm in the administration building at the Garde Arts Center, and I'm in the second hallway, outside the door where the ladder is, where the man fell and was supposedly caught by someone who wasn't there.
So I'm setting the camera up as far back in the corner as possible.
I'm routing the entrance to the hallway, the exit to the hallway, and lots of doors.
It's always tough when you're investigating a theater because audio tends to really travel 'cause that's the way the theater was set up.
So that is one obstacle that we're gonna have to overcome here.
But, you know, we've investigated many of these theaters and, uh, we're looking forward to checking this out.
There are a few things that are unique about this theater.
One is that our client has had experiences as well, and that's very, very important.
He's here every day.
He's been here for 10 years, and he has experienced things.
Also, we have the names of people who have passed away here.
of people in the Williams family that actually died here on the property when it was a mansion.
To have those names, that's gonna be quite helpful.
All right, Jersey.
I'm up here in the balcony, man.
What do you wanna do? Let's pan left a little bit.
Keep going, keep going, keep going, right Right there.
That looks good.
I like it.
Hey.
Hey, guys.
All right.
So we all set? Yeah, uh, we have, uh, five cameras.
Camera one -- this is the stage, the orchestra area, and the balcony all in one -- one shot.
Camera two -- this is the stage towards the orchestra and the balcony area.
This is where they see the little girl with the -- JASON: Yep, little girl with the balloon.
The, uh, that's -- What about that slumped over guy? Right over here in the back.
Yeah, in the back.
In the back left.
Yep.
Camera three -- this is the office hallway where that ladder is.
So we've got a nice wide angle getting the -- down this hallway and some of this area right here in the elevator.
Camera four -- this is the lobby where those apparitions are seen wandering in and out of the auditorium.
And camera five -- this is a closer shot of the balcony.
So, you know, if we do capture that girl, it'll be a little bit closer.
Okay.
So you have multiple, uh, cameras getting a lot of different things.
And the GoPros and And the GoPros.
Yeah.
Well, cool.
You know, let's get the lights out Yeah.
And get the investigation going.
Yeah, nice job, Dave.
Thank you.
[ Switches clicking .]
Jay and Steve.
The Garde Theater, New London, Connecticut.
STEVE: [ Whispers .]
Yeah.
Should've gotten some balloons.
Now if they see a little girl with balloons, that must mean the balloons are part of the vision, right? Yep, that's exactly what it would mean.
They're not here physically.
That's been manifested, along with the little girl.
So that would make it more of a residual type of project.
I would think so.
They also say the lights turn on and off when they've seen a man sitting in these chairs.
Hello? STEVE: Is there more than one person in here with us? Anybody in here know Mr.
Williams? Is that shuffling or is that air conditioning that you hear? I heard, like, a [ Imitates clicking sounds .]
Yeah.
Hey, if you're out there, wanna play a game? Maybe push down one of the seats on the chairs? Make a noise? You do it, and we gotta point in the direction it came from.
We won't even get off the stage.
How 'bout at the count of three? One Two Three.
Whoa.
Oh.
That sounded like a chair.
JASON: Wanna play a game? Maybe push down one of the seats on the chairs? Make a noise? You do it and we gotta point in the direction it came from.
How 'bout at the count of three? One Two Three.
Whoa.
Oh.
That sounded like a chair.
DAVE: That did sound like the seat of a chair, maybe.
[ Whispers .]
What is that? I don't know.
It's We can hear you over here on our right.
Can -- Can you go over to our left? If you can make a sound that's louder than that, then we can be sure it's you.
We're not gonna come up there.
We won't come and bother you.
We're just gonna go right here.
Like, it had the boom, initial sound.
It had the boom, but not the after.
Like this.
[ Chair rattles .]
Yeah, see, it's not doing the What if it was the sound of it just coming down and staying down? [ Chair thuds .]
Oh.
[ Chair thuds .]
That sounds a little more like it.
For all we know, that one chair making the sound.
Could be that guy that people claim to see hunched over.
It could.
It really could.
[ Whispers .]
Whoa.
Same area.
Yeah.
Are you switching seats? [ Soft bang in distance .]
Oh, yeah.
Same area.
It's where I told ya.
Yep.
On that side.
Oh.
[ Whispers .]
It just got brighter.
Ooh.
[ Gasps .]
Whoa, man.
Oh, ho! That sounded like a chair.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
This is Sam and Shari in the speakeasy.
So what were the claims? Oh, sweet [bleep.]
.
Oh, my God.
[Bleep.]
[ Chuckles .]
How funny.
[ Laughing .]
Okay, so they've heard footsteps, they've heard bangs, they've heard voices, they've -- they've just had lots of experiences when nobody's in here with them, so Okay.
We'll see.
I'm just looking at the fact that it's, like, a big open building.
'Cause I mean, you hear somebody walking around, they could be anywhere.
Look at this.
I hear music.
[ Whispers .]
Oh, my God.
The other claim for the property is the sound of music.
We're not only hearing cars drive by and their music, but, I mean, we were hearing people standing outside, singing right now.
So just the fact that sound comes in here so easily, we need to put that into consideration.
Let's keep walking through.
Let's keep doing a sweep of this place.
Well, if there's anybody here in with us We're just here checking the place out.
So if you wanna make a sound to let us know that you are here, we would love to hear it.
Is there anybody here with us? Can you tell us your name? I would think with some of the stuff, especially when you're in a theater, usually EMFs off the charts.
Yeah.
There must be something under the stage.
Here we've got a 3.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yep, there you go.
Oh, jeez, right under your feet, too.
And that seems like a constant source.
We need to look under the stage.
That right there is going to give people fatigue, hallucinations, nausea, paranoia.
They can hear voices.
So Would this be under the stage or just It's a green room.
Jeez.
Yeah.
All right.
You humming or what back here? Yeah, oh, yeah.
All right.
Yep.
Got the 12s.
Make -- Whoa! Yeah! We're up to 40 now, Jay.
[ Bleep .]
This is right under their feet, probably.
[ Scoffs .]
All right, so that brings us to two conclusions to start off with.
Either the high EMFs are fueling the activity and allowing it to manifest itself, or the high EMFs are making people believe they're seeing things that are not really there.
DUSTIN: Coming up to the projection booth.
This is an area, maybe, that you work in, that you're familiar with.
We just wanna come in and see if we can hear some of the sounds that people say they hear.
So, uh, right now we're up in the projection booth, all the way in the top in the back of the theater.
And people say they hear the sounds of some of the cannisters falling over, then everything's okay.
They see lights go on.
So we're hoping to see if we have any activity while we're up here.
Is the gentlemen who takes care of the lights here tonight? Apologize.
I don't know your name, sir.
Apparently, you like to climb things quite a bit, had an unfortunate accident.
If you can hear us, please just give us a simple "yes.
" Are you the one that turns the lights on here at night? We need to change these reels.
We need to change the, uh, the movie over.
Where's the other reel? Whoa.
What was that? We need to change these reels.
We need to change the, uh, the movie over.
Where's the other reel? Whoa.
What was that? Did you hear that sound? It's like something dropped or something.
Are you the lightning engineer? Have you come back here, playing tricks on your friends? Can you help us figure out how to work these lights, sir? Is the lighting gentleman here, the lighting engineer? Is he here tonight? JASON: Here's the boiler room.
Hello? Mr.
Williams? If you're here, we need you to talk to us.
Can you make a sound, let us know you're here? We're gonna get to the bottom of this one.
Mr.
Williams? [ Loud bang .]
Steve.
Know where you are.
You just made a loud sound.
[ Laughs .]
Oh, wait, did I scare you? Was that not you? I went through a bunch of doors, yeah.
Were you just banging on the I didn't bang on anything.
I did slam a door -- not slam, but it closed behind me.
But you weren't just banging on this piece of metal right here? No.
I'll walk my same path to see if -- No, I'll go.
Okay, but even beyond that I was not banging on that wall.
[ Laughs .]
Came through here.
That -- No, there was literally just [ Metal rattles .]
That's what it was.
[ Metal rattles .]
Was it when this door closed, maybe? 'Cause I opened this, went through here, and this would've had to have closed.
[ Door bangs .]
[ Sighs .]
Maybe.
Iit could be.
It was just [ Metal rattles .]
You know, go on the other side and see if the sound matches.
All right.
[ Door bangs .]
No, that's friggin' -- that's way louder than this was.
Okay.
Stay there and tell me if this sounds like it.
All right.
[ Metal rattles .]
That what it sounds like? Yeah, that's exactly what it was.
That was not me.
How'd it go over there next door? Good.
I mean, it's very quiet.
Steve and I just had some really cool experiences in the theater.
Yeah.
Uh, voices, movement, things shuffling.
It sounded like walking and something moving all around up there.
So I think you guys should at least go check that out Okay.
See what you can find.
All right.
All right, the recorder is smack-dab in the center of the stage.
Hello? Is there anybody in here? My name's Sam, and this is Shari.
Hello.
We think you may have met our friends.
They were in here a little while ago talking to you.
We understand someone from the Williams family might be here.
Thomas? If you're sitting in one of the seats, can you make a really loud noise, just so we know whereabouts you are? SAMANTHA: Our friends think they may have heard a child.
If there is a child in here, could you tell us your name? The gentleman who used to do the lighting for the theater, are you here? If you're listening, could you turn on a light? Any light in this room.
I headed up into the upper areas above the stage and the catwalk area.
And, of course, Steve being scared of heights, my cameraman followed me.
Leads to another old ladder.
Holy crap.
What is that stuff? Oh.
Hang on.
There was just a There was just a sound or, like, a voice.
This is all the pulley systems for the theater.
Did you just hear that? Sounded like a female or a kid or something? Why the hell would there have been a a female or a child voice up here then? Up here of all places? I would love to head in there and actually see.
But I have to be honest with you, safety-wise, I'd prefer not to be one of the things that the rest of the TAPS team is looking for.
[ Object clatters loudly .]
What the hell? [ Flashlight clicks .]
[ Object clatters loudly .]
What the hell? [ Whispers .]
Here's your flashlight.
What was that? I don't know.
But, I definitely heard that.
Oh, is it Was it over here when you hit the board, though? Yeah, it definitely wasn't over there.
I would've seen it.
I looked down right there.
I think if -- if I dropped this, it's gonna shatter, is my only problem, so No, I-I don't think that was the sound.
Can I run this? I don't know.
Like, when I first initially heard it, it sounded like, like concrete falling or something.
Butmaybe it was, though.
Are you sure this bulb wasn't here then? Dude, I looked down, and I don't think so.
I don't know.
I don't know what would've made that sound.
That was weird.
This is Dustin and K.
J.
We are heading up to the balcony here at the Garde Arts Center.
DUSTIN: So we got a bunch of apparitions, right? The one with the three people.
Yeah.
The one with the little girl and the balloon.
The one that moves back and forth in the balcony.
Yeah, shadowy one.
So any spirits that are here in the theater with us tonight, that's my buddy, K.
J.
My name's Dustin.
I'm gonna try to speak with you and communicate with you however we can.
There's a lot of seats in this theater.
We don't know where you're at.
So if you would like to maybe pull down one of the seats and let it go back up so we could hear that? We also, uh, we bought tickets for a show, and we're just trying to find our seats.
Is there an usher here that can help us? See, sometimes they hear the old tin popping sound of the old lights that they used to have here.
We'd like to hear these sounds, too.
Is there a member of the Williams family here with us? Can you try and call out so we know where you are? A weird clicking sound from the ceiling area.
If you're able to do that sound, could you do it again, please? I'm gonna come over here where the, uh, young lady with the balloon has been seen.
We don't mean you any harm.
We're not here to scare you.
Dustin brought that balloon specifically for you.
[ Whispers .]
All right.
[ Sighs .]
So this is where they've seen that man sitting down.
Back here.
Just sitting here.
Do you see any silhouettes, at least, or anything that would look like a man? Hello? Is there a man in here sleeping in a chair? Were you the light technician that used to work here? Mark invited us here.
He wants to make sure that everyone's safe here.
Is there anybody up there in the balcony? You know, he said that activity spikes during performances.
So maybe you should do a little performance.
Of what? Whatever.
I'm in the audience.
Anddisappears.
We're performing for you.
Tango is doing magic on the stage.
There's magic.
We know you like theater.
Are you in here now? This is Dustin and K.
J.
We're in the administrative part of the building.
Right now Dustin and I are on the third floor of the administration building.
There's a maintenance closet with a ladder.
Supposedly, someone was climbing the ladder when they lost their handing on one of the rungs and started falling back.
And something stopped them from falling, pushed them back up against the ladder.
The person turned around to say thank you, and there was nobody there.
Do you see a ladder? Oh, this must be it.
Yeah, this is it.
Oh, yeah? All right.
Not a lot of room.
I mean, if he was gonna fall backwards, likeit's solid.
I'm not gonna experiment enough to try to fall and trust the spirits to catch me.
It seems like if you lean up against the backside of that wall, the, uh, the cubby right here, I mean, that would save your life if you fell.
Obviously, you would feel, like a wall or something like this hitting your back.
Right.
You know, you wouldn't mistake that for someone grabbing you and holding on to you.
Could that have possibly been the lighting engineer? [ Breathy sound .]
What was that? What was that? Obviously, you would feel, like a wall or something like this hitting your back.
Right.
You know, you wouldn't mistake that for someone grabbing you and holding on to you.
Could that have possibly been the lighting engineer? [ Breathy sound .]
What was that? What was that? That was loud.
[ Breathy sound .]
What was that? What was that? That was loud.
Are you the spirit that was able to catch the gentleman that fell off this ladder? Hello? Mr.
Williams? [ Lowered voice .]
The reason why we're asking about the Williams family is because where the theater sits now, there used to be a mansion.
The Williams family lived there, and so there are thoughts that some of the experiences that people have had here on the property may relate to the Williams family.
If somebody's up there and I fall, you catch me, okay? Okay.
That's really ominous from here.
You're disappearing up into a black hole.
Mr.
Williams? Whoa! [ Bleep .]
Hey.
Hey! What was that? I [ Laughs .]
I came out here on the roof, and there was this huge bird.
He, like, took off.
A bird? Yeah.
No way.
Oh, man.
Literally, it was, like, right nested here.
So he jumped up.
That would've scared me.
Yeah, and because you're not expecting it, you know.
Oh, there he goes.
He's flying off.
There might be more.
I was coming out nice and slow 'cause I didn't want him, you know, it sounded like somebody's voice.
Then I see all this crap up here.
Come around the corner, it's just a big bird.
Whoa.
[ Bird cries .]
Man, that's nuts.
All right, guys, it's late.
Let's get these lights on.
It's time to wrap.
So we just wrapped the investigation here at the Garde Arts Center in New London, Connecticut.
There's been a lot of activity that definitely backs up the claims that Mark was telling us earlier.
I was able to hear things.
Steve was able to hear things.
Many investigators were able to have some experiences.
And I definitely think we've covered the place to the best of our ability.
It's great because we know that we do have some stuff already to show Mark to try to answer some of these questions.
So now it's just, what else do we have that we're not aware of yet? I really think that we had some experiences that are sort of telling us that a lot of the claims that they're experiencing could be legitimate, and that's pretty exciting.
The team did a great job.
And I really can't wait to see what they bring to us after they analyze everything, uh, things that we didn't even know where in the evidence.
And that's all gonna help us sort of piece together the puzzle, you know.
Who's haunting this place? Why are they still here? Does it have anything to do with the Williams family? And we still have a lot of work cut out for us even though the investigation is over.
But, uh, we're excited for it.
And we'll get back here and fill Mark in on everything that we found.
Okay, so Garde Arts Center.
Our client Mark.
His main concern is that, you know, they will be doing renovations.
And he wanted us to go in and check out the place and make sure everything's gonna be okay.
And they keep seeing apparitions in the theater.
In the balcony, there's a little girl with a balloon.
And they've seen an apparition of a man in the orchestra area.
You heard the story about the, uh, the lighting man, the technician -- the lighting technician.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He passes away, and all of a sudden, they start having lighting issues.
K.
J.
: Yeah.
Like he's just -- that's his way of saying, "Hey, I'm still here.
" It's quite -- quite the coincidence that that would happen, so, um, as far as experiences, did anybody have anything happen to them? No? No.
No, no.
Shari and I did make a point, though -- I don't know if anybody else went -- but we went over to the speakeasy.
And as much as the windows and doors are boarded up, um, DAVE: Mm-hmm.
I mean, music was coming in.
People down the street were singing DAVE: Really? And it sounded like they were in the room with us.
Good to know.
So most of the stuff there, we could explain.
A lot of -- Yeah, a lot of people were hanging outside.
Mm-hmm.
They were talking.
It sounded like they were actually inside the building with us.
Mm-hmm.
And even cars driving by a few streets over.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, we could hear their radios.
Wow.
Now I know Jay and Steve had a, you know, some things happen to them, and I have them here.
Uh, they were backstage? Yeah, so they're backstage, and at one point had made their way to this -- this area here with the ladder that's going up into the rigging.
I want you guys to take a listen.
JASON: Holy crap.
What is that stuff? Oh.
Hang on.
It was just a It was just like a voice or something.
Right, so he -- I think in that clip it was hard to hear because, you know, obviously Jay got to a tricky area Mm-hmm.
where his camera guy had to follow him up a ladder and everything at the same time.
So I think with that kind of movement, it was really tough to hear.
Mm-hmm.
Hang on.
This is actually the extension of what we just witnessed.
He went up to that next landing.
Okay.
And then from there, he's looking into more of the rigging that's above the stage and everything like that.
Hmm.
And he heard the voice again.
Did you just hear that? K.
J.
: Right there.
So it's right before that car.
You could definitely hear something.
Is it the breathy -- The breathy.
Yeah.
That is interesting.
Why is it up there? Right? But, uh, then the next clip, Jay was actually coming down from one of these middle landings, and, uh, this is the experience that he had there.
[ Object clatters loudly .]
What the hell? That is fantastic.
That's great.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
So I'm looking forward to really getting to the Garde Arts Center and sitting down with Mark and just showing him the things we caught, sort of getting his take on it.
JASON: The TAPS team was called to the Garde Arts Center, which is also the site of the former Williams Family Mansion in New London, Connecticut, to investigate a number of paranormal claims.
With renovations about to begin, our client, Mark, wants to make sure that the spirits rumored to be in the building won't pose a danger to employees or children who will be attending a new arts program there.
We really did get lucky there and got some incredible evidence.
Yeah, I agree with you.
How you doin'? Pretty good.
How are you? Good to see you again.
Hi.
Hey, Mark.
How's it goin'? Pretty good.
All right.
So you open up the doors for us here at the Garde Theater.
You brought us and told us about a lot of the claims that you guys have had over the years.
And, uh, just allowed us to, uh, do an investigation.
Now we do have some stuff we wanna show you and go over with you, get your take on, and just go from there.
We were able to implement a lot of different techniques, uh, to try to interact with something that may be here.
Tango and I actually put on a bit of a performance.
You know, 'cause you'd said, you know, that sort of spikes after there's some, right, um Yep.
So we -- we tried a lot of different things.
So at one point during the investigation, we were right here.
And we were trying to communicate with any of these entities that have been seen out in the audience.
And in the possibility that it might be a child or even an adult, you sort of try to create a game.
You go sit in a chair, we'll stand on stage, we'll try to figure out where you sat down.
So throughout the time we did that, you'd hear what sounded like somebody moving up there when nobody else was in here, and then you'd hear what sounds like a chair coming down.
Oh, yeah.
Same area.
That's where I told ya.
Yep.
On that side.
Oh.
[ Whispers .]
It just got brighter.
Ooh.
Whoa, man! That's great.
And it does.
It sounds as if somebody is sitting down in a chair Yeah.
Yep.
or they're standing up and you're getting that -- that bouncing that they do.
Ooh.
Whoa, man! That's awesome.
And a lot of those sounds seem like they were coming from the upper balcony areas Right.
where a lot of people claim to see that little girl with the balloons.
Right.
I could kinda see how it would be footsteps, also.
Yeah, we did hear, in a few different areas, what sounded like footsteps.
At one point, Jason was -- was up on the catwalks there and heard what sounded like some footsteps.
Even beyond that, when you get up to the top ladder, there's a landing and then, there's another ladder that feeds up again.
While we were up there, I was there with my cameraman, Kendal, and there was a female or a child voice which just came out of nowhere.
Well, that's -- that's great.
[ Chuckles .]
Yeah, it was -- it was neat.
But it was also strange because of where we were, we were trying to understand why we'd be Yeah, you wouldn't have, like, uhRight.
children's voices.
That is wicked cool, though.
Well, that -- that is.
[ Chuckles .]
That is great.
But this next piece, again, I'm still up in the same area with my cameraman, Kendal, and there's a loud bang.
Uh-huh.
I wanna get your take on what you think it sounds like.
And then we'll go from there.
Okay.
[ Object clatters loudly .]
Wow.
What does it sound like to you? It sounds like metal.
It sounds like metal.
Okay, 'cause the only thing we could find that would possibly have sounded similar was a bulb that was on the floor up there.
Now Oh.
We tried to recreate it with the bulb, and it sounds nothing like that.
[ Clink .]
No, that's -- it wasn't the sound.
What's weird is you can almost hear that initial impact with a sort of a glass breaking sound, but this bulb was completely intact.
Yeah.
Yeah, like a [ Object clatters loudly .]
If it was a bulb, it might be a neat connection because your lighting guy that did pass away.
Right.
One thing we did find was while we were on the stage, we did isolate an extremely high magnetic fields that are coming through.
Now there's two different things that can happen with that.
Um, a lot of people believe that high EMS can help fuel activity which could explain people seeing things.
Yeah.
But also there's a hyper sensitivity to it where people experience paranoia, nausea, fatigue, hallucinations.
So it could be one of both, but through the activity we caught, it definitely seemed like something with some sort of an intelligence was here because it was making contact, it was doing sounds around us, it was sort of just letting us know it was there.
And nothing malicious.
Right.
You know, we didn't get any sort of, uh, off-putting type of sensation, so your renovations should be fine.
In terms of trying to figure out who's exactly here and why they're here, unfortunately, the only thing we can sort of make any connection with is the lightbulb and perhaps the lighting guy that passed away.
But I'm not sure if we're reaching there to try to make a story that isn't quite there.
Right.
And we don't wanna do that.
Honestly, I think it was a great investigation.
We had a good time.
And we caught some neat activity.
What do you think? That is really cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, if you need anything, we're, uh, jeez, we're only 20 minutes away.
So close.
So, give us a shout.
We'd love to come back.
Thank you very much.
We'll do this again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This was a blast.
Thank you for having us.
Thanks a lot.
The main reason we called TAPS out was for the lighting issues and other things that might hamper our renovations in the future.
And I think now, knowing that, uh, whatever's here is kinda happy, that I don't think we're gonna have any problems going forward.
So we're very happy.
I think that went well.
I think that it went great.
It really did.
Mark seemed pretty excited Yeah.
about the stuff we were showing him.
Yeah, he really lit up, you know, when he heard that voice.
You could see the smile on his face.
And he started chuckling.
Yeah.
And he thought, just like we thought -- that's a child's voice.
And, you know, it might be a far leap thinking that sound was a bulb, their lighting guy So I agree with you, totally, on that.
Yeah.
But all in all, brother, this was a great investigation.
You know what? Good job, brother.
Thank you.
You, too.
On to the next, man.