Approximately one year ago, the Rhine Research Center of Durham, North Carolina, contacted me about my work as a paranormal field investigator. Scott Crownover and I run the Ghost Research Foundation. At that time, some of the Rhine staff was interested in learning about the role of field investigators in paranormal studies. The late Dr. J.B. Rhine and his Institute, through its work, became famous for debunking psychics and also for the controlled investigation of human anomalies such as ESP. Dr. Rhine began his work under the auspices of Duke University but later conducted independent investigations through his Institute. His interest in human life after death became his initial area of concentration. Over the years, the organization that Dr. Rhine created focused only in the area of ESP and left field research on ghost phenomena untouched. Recently, however, some of the staff hoped to steer the research back to its original mission and goals. That was how it was explained to me.
            Scott and I were cautious but happy when asked to speak at the Rhine Research Center.   We were doubly cautious but happier yet when they asked us to conduct a teaching investigation. We were e-mailed a list of potential sites for investigation and asked to choose one. The Institute was hosting several research groups and field investigations at various sites that fall. Scott and I were the first such group honored to both speak and teach. We reviewed the various sites and were looking for a site that had a good mix of paranormal activity—from sightings to sounds and an indoor location out of the elements.  We knew that we’d only have one chance to show what we did and we didn’t want rain stopping us.  Only one site met all of our criteria----North Carolina’s State Capitol.
            It presently serves as a State Historic Site, but continues to house the Offices of the Governor and his staff. The ‘hauntings’ there were varied and had been witnessed over the years by a broad spectrum of the public---from past governors, site staff and State Capitol Police officers to property guards, and custodians.
            Maggie Blackman and Lynette Minnich, then of the Rhine Research Center, arranged for our visit. Their time and dedication locating sources and history was invaluable to us.  They also made contacts with the staff at the site. We soon learned that a criminal profiler and psychic, Ms. Anne Poole, also was instrumental in assisting Maggie and Lynette.
            However, none of our research would have been possible without the assistance of the Capitol’s historian, Mr. Raymond Beck. Mr. Beck agreed to assist us while we worked at the site; to share the building’s history and hauntings, and to otherwise assist us during our investigations. Scott and I previously had worked with professional historians---stuffy gentlemen who scoffed at our studies of the paranormal. However, Mr. Beck not only was gracious, but willingly shared both his interest in our proposed investigation and his personal encounters with the building’s ‘other occupants.’ He was willing to assist us and viewed us without bias, in order to learn more about the Capitol’s paranormal activities.
            The night of our initial investigation arrived and we traveled from Durham to the State Capitol in Raleigh. From the Rhine Center, we brought staff; family and friends of the staff; and interested individuals who had been assessed a small fee to learn how a haunting is documented. Our small group was willing to both listen to and follow our instructions. Everyone involved wanted to learn how we work.
            The group was broken into three segments and each segment was assigned to one of the Capitol’s three floors. They knew nothing of the paranormal activities within the Capitol. Even Maggie and Lynette of the Rhine staff had only slight knowledge of the activity there, and they were requested to remain silent until the end of the evening. I usually conduct interviews prior to arriving at a site but, due to the 420 mile distance from my home to Raleigh, I waited until the night of the investigation to interview Mr. Beck. Scott did much of the teaching and instruction that night, while Mr. Beck and I sat in the old House of Representatives Chamber for my interview. Mr. Beck chose to sit in a representative’s chair and I set up my equipment nearby--at the 1850s newspaper reporters’ table at the front of the House Chamber. Mr. Beck provided much historical background about the Capitol including the fact that it is the least altered nineteenth century state capitol in America. From 1990 to 2000 the North Carolina capitol’s interiors were restored to their early grandeur with their documented 1840 colors and varied decorative finishes.
            Raleigh, was established as the State’s permanent capital in 1792, and was originally designed after the plan of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the nation’s capital at that time. A State House was constructed on Union Square near the center of the city and stood until its accidental destruction by fire in 1831. The present State capitol was constructed from 1833 to 1840 and stands on the site of the earlier building.
The capitol was initially designed by William Nichols, Jr., who soon was replaced by the New York architectural partnership of Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis, advocates of the Greek Revival style in its purest form. In 1835, Town and Davis were replaced by David Paton of Edinburgh, Scotland, who served as both the sole architect and project superintendent until the capitol’s completion in 1840. As completed, the building is 160 feet in length by 140 feet in width and stands 97½ feet in height to the top of the building’s central dome. The capitol was built entirely by hand without the use of any power-driven equipment. It was warmed by 32 fireplaces, and originally was lit by candled chandeliers and whale-oil lamps.
            North Carolina’s capitol housed all of State government until 1888. The executive branch was assigned to the first floor; the legislature sat in the old House and Senate Chambers on the second floor from 1840 to 1961; and the State Library occupied the third floor from 1840 until 1888 with the State Supreme Court (1840-1843) and later the State Geologist (1852-1863). The geologist’s office also was used to store an overflow of library books and documents. Both rooms on the third floor have been recreated to their mid-1850s appearances.
            At the outset of the Civil War, the House Chamber (then called the ‘House of Commons’) was the site of the May 1861 Secession Convention and the Ordinance of Secession was adopted and signed there. During the war, the capitol warehoused war materials along with serving its governmental functions. One can only speculate on all of the building’s uses during the war; however, we can reasonably assume that great passions were expended in the building through the course of nearly four years.
            In April 1865, the city of Raleigh was surrendered to Union General William T. Sherman. During the following three weeks, Union forces plundered the State Geologist’s “Cabinet” or mineral display and recovered many captured Union banners. The extent of theft from the building has never been ascertained, however Raleigh was much luckier than many other Southern capital cities, and the State capitol was not burned. We know of no deaths in the building during this period, but several Confederate officers killed in battle were allowed the honor to lie in state in the Capitol’s rotunda. Following the war, during Reconstruction, one large committee room on the second floor was used as a bar by the notorious carpetbagger and former Union General Milton Littlefield and that room was known as the “Third House” of the legislature---both for its alcoholic “treats” and the influence peddling that took place there. In later years, that room was the Keeper of the Capitol’s office and later both a post office and snack bar for legislators.
            The building’s history is too extensive to thoroughly document here but, through my conversations with Mr. Beck, I was greatly awed by the building’s well-preserved history, architecture, and symbolism.
            Approximately forty minutes into my interview with Mr. Beck, I noticed a blur of motion off to my right, in the third row behind Mr. Beck and at the far right side of that aisle. I was surprised to see a man sitting there watching us. He appeared to be in his thirties and was dressed in clothing from the mid-to-late 1800s. He was dressed as a gentleman, had dark hair brushed to one side, and was quite pleasant looking. The thing that struck me most about his appearance was his smile. He was laughing at us as we talked about the ghosts of the building and seemed immensely amused. I thought over what to do. Should I call Mr. Beck’s attention to the gentleman? Chances were that by the time Mr. Beck turned to look the fellow would have disappeared.  Should I keep quiet and observe him for as long as possible? I followed the second option, keeping him in view for several minutes while Mr. Beck and I chatted.
            Mr. Beck recounted three “legends” connected with the capitol. The first was about the so-called “secret rooms” above the House Chamber. The spaces above the House offices were not accessible from the third floor public gallery (the two rooms in the Senate Chamber’s gallery are). In the mid-1920s the spaces above the House offices finally were floored and made accessible via cast-iron spiral staircases.
            A second capitol legend recalls a “secret tunnel” used as an escape egress by the governor during the Civil War, however, there was no such tunnel. There are low crawl spaces beneath the capitol used for utility access, but the first tunnel was for the addition of steam heat and electricity to the building in the 1880s.
            The third legend states that the west staircase between the first and second floor was damaged by “whiskey barrels” associated with General Littlefield’s bar.
The gneiss (granite) steps are chipped, but the west stair served as the service stair for the building and they likely were damaged by wheelbarrows with iron-rimmed wheels hauling great quantities of wood to the more than fourteen legislative and office fireplaces above.   Yet we were there for more than “legends”—we came to hunt for ghosts---and Mr. Beck was anxious to tell me all of the stories he had collected through the years.
He gave me quite a tour of the hauntings. Mr. Beck had two experiences while he was re-creating the library room’s interior and had to cease his late nights working to complete the area due to the chilling presences he encountered there.
            When our group gathered in the House Chamber later that evening to summarize our findings, we found much activity throughout the capitol. An EMF meter spiked near the third floor library stair, where at least two people have had paranormal encounters. Energy “orbs” were digitally photographed and moving “orbs” were video-taped with infrared equipment. Cold spots were found in locations where the capitol staff had reported paranormal activities. The Rhine staff members left that evening with a better understanding of what we do and why we do it. We never allow an investigator to know a site’s history in advance so that their imagination is not working against our investigative methods.   We also do not allow anyone to speak of their experiences until the end of the evening. That validates personal experiences without the power of imagination and possible suggestion from another source. The Rhine staff prepared a “finding” paper recommending our methodologies of unbiased and uninformed individual study followed by a group discussion of the investigative evening’s events as witnessed by each investigator.
            Mr. Beck concluded the evening by inviting Scott and I to return with our regular staff for an in-depth ghost hunt and study. In order to prepare for the second study, I contacted individuals who had experiences and encounters in the capitol through the years.

While He Worked, He Suddenly Felt a Hand On His Shoulder….

            My first contact was Mrs. Jane Barbot who was a member of the board of the nonprofit State Capitol Foundation and who had volunteered to install Christmas decorations in the capitol in the early 1980s. Her initial story involved her husband James and a friend, Ernie Fuller. All were involved with the decorating and were in the capitol at 1:30 AM decorating each of the four second floor rotunda niches that originally contained that area’s earliest lighting fixtures. Large urns were placed in each of the niches and a Christmas tree was placed in the urn occupying the northwestern niche. They completed that arrangement and were decorating another niche when they realized that the tree in the northwestern niche had nearly tipped and fallen over. That happened several times throughout the night and when they left the capitol the next morning all was well---until they received a phone call that the northwest arrangement had shifted yet again. The following night, Mr. Fuller returned to the capitol with plywood to support and stabilize the tree. While he worked, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, but no one was near him. He did not panic but, instead, felt a sense of calm and coolness. He completed his work and left the building.
            Mrs. Barbot related that on another occasion while they were at work on the decorations, her husband was pushed, although no one was close to him at the time. She also stated that former Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., reported a couple of such experiences to her---his sense of unexplainable presences while he worked alone late into the night in his first floor office. All of the activities caused Mrs. Barbot to seek answers. She no longer doubted the capitol was haunted, but she did wonder who might be causing it. She found some answers in the most unlikely place---her local church.
            The Barbots attend Christ Episcopal Church across from the capitol and one Sunday she brought up the question of ghosts at the capitol. One elderly member told her that the building had a long history of being haunted. He said that as a child, he and other children were warned by the night watchman of the capitol that they had better stay away from the capitol because it was haunted. He had thought at the time that it was a just story to scare children, but he now wondered if the night watchman was serious. Another person told the Barbots that a former governor had lost his wife in an accident in the capitol in the 1800s. The governor was supposedly furious at the building and the workmen there, and not only blamed them for his wife’s untimely death but returned after his own death to haunt the building where his wife had died. (I could find no credible historical documentation for this tale.)

“I Don’t Want To Be In No Elevator With No Ghosts….”
 

           I met with Mr. Owen Jackson at his home in a nearby community where he agreed to tell me of his many experiences and encounters in the historic capitol. Mr. Jackson served for twelve years (1980-1991) as a Capitol Police property guard and was assigned to the capitol and additionally monitored other State government buildings. He worked in the capitol after it officially closed to the public each work day, from 4:30 PM until 12:30 AM, when he went off duty. He said that several members of the capitol’s staff liked to work late into the evening.
            The first week of working there produced Mr. Jackson’s first encounter. One night he heard a hymn being sung; the song was clearly “Nearer My God To Thee.”
Mr. Jackson looked for the music’s source but he could find none. The music repeated for over a half an hour while he searched each floor for a radio, tape recorder, or a person outside the building who might be playing it. At approximately 12:15 AM, he reported to the State Capitol Police headquarters by his police band two-way radio and told the dispatcher (who took notes) about the music. The dispatcher told him, “You won’t catch me up there!” They just left the music playing.
            Throughout his twelve years of working in the building, he heard many unaccountable sounds that were more than the old structure “settling.” He heard doors slamming late at night, though he knew he was alone. He heard keys jingling and a man’s footsteps walking. He heard glass breaking but never found a broken window or any other damages. The most disturbing sound that Mr. Jackson ever heard was that of a woman giving out a single piercing scream---seemingly from the capitol’s third floor. One night he heard what sounded like an armload of books drop in the third floor library room, however, prior to the 1980-81 re-creation of the library’s interior there were no books in the library room.  Mr. Jackson searched an empty room, and no books were found anywhere within the space. (I found this particular story very interesting because Mrs. Barbot had told me that former Governor Hunt confided to her of hearing books falling one night in the late 1970s and the sound seemed to come from the third floor above, prior to the library’s refurnishing.)
            When I mentioned former Governor Jim Hunt, Mr. Jackson remembered an incident that happened in the governor’s office. A door of the suite made a particular sort of squeak---a different sound than any other in the governor’s offices.
            One night he heard that door squeaking as it did when being opened. He hurried to that area directly across from the governor’s security guard’s office. He looked at the guard and asked, “Did you hear that door open?” The guard said that he heard it as well. Both men stared at the door and realized that they could not have heard it open, as a display case stood in the doorway so that no one could walk through the doorway and all of the governor’s office doors were locked and no one was inside of his office---so who had done it? What had they heard?
            Mr. Jackson told me that the capitol’s hauntings went far beyond sights and sounds. “One night I was fixing to get up and go somewhere. I don’t remember where I was going. Somebody laid their hand upon my shoulder right there and I said that I wasn’t going nowhere. And you’d be sitting there at night and you’d hear that elevator come down and the door would never open up. I wouldn’t ride it, if I were in there by myself. I would always use the stairs. I don’t want to get trapped in no elevator with no ghosts....”  (The area of the present elevator and men’s room on the ground floor was originally the office of the House of Commons’ Doorkeeper.)
            One evening, Mr. Jackson was sitting at the receptionist’s desk in the east hall across from the elevator when a lady came out of the men’s room next door. The woman had on a blue choir robe with white trim. He described her as a short, slightly-built white lady. She walked toward the double glass entry doors and went through them without opening them. As he watched in amazement, she simply faded away on the other side.
Mr. Jackson’s most dramatic sighting was yet to come and was described as follows: “I was fixing to leave one night and I was parked out in the north driveway out there. I had a car that if you didn’t let it warm up in the wintertime it would stall out on ya. I was looking up at the second floor you know; the shades were pulled.  And there was a fellow standing there and you could see from here to here (he indicated from neck to chest). And he had on a Confederate soldier’s uniform. You could see them brass buttons up and down that uniform. He was just standing there looking out that window….It was about 12:15 A.M. I said, ‘Well he’ll take care of it; I’m gone.’”
            Mr. Jackson believes that at least one of the capitol’s ghosts is that of a crooked legislator who stole a couple of million dollars and hid it in the building. He speculated that the money was probably Confederate money and is hidden behind one of the building’s massive blocks of stone.

“You Could Always Hear Something All The Time.”

            Mr. John Johnson worked on the custodial staff of the N.C. Department of Administration’s Facilities Maintenance Division and for approximately eighteen years at the capitol. He would enter the capitol each workday at 4:30 AM and be almost alone in the building until at least 7:00 A.M. Mr. Johnson returned to the capitol, for the first time since his retirement, for my interview. During his first few years at the capitol, Mr. Johnson heard the ghost stories but had no personal encounters. However, that would change.
            His first experience was hearing a baby cry. In fact, he said that many on the custodial staff had heard the infant’s wails. (He later introduced me to Patricia, a woman on the current custodial staff, who also has heard an infant crying.) The sound came from somewhere on the third floor or perhaps the attic area.
            One of the most disturbing incidents in Mr. Johnson’s career occurred on the morning he walked by the elevator doors in the eastern first floor hallway. The doors of the elevator suddenly closed and the elevator started to the second floor.  On the second floor he heard the doors open again. He pressed the call button to bring the elevator back down but it would not return, so he took the stairs. On the second floor he could find no one. He has always wondered who had ridden the elevator up to the legislative floor that morning. After his experience, Mr. Johnson also decided that the stairs were safer than the elevator.
            Mr. Johnson’s daily activities became a routine. In his own words, “I always closed the doors behind me, you know. I always worked with my doors locked behind me ’cause you could always hear something all the time. Doors closing, people walking…I’ll tell ya what I’d hear, somebody walking with spurs on---like you ride a horse. You could hear them-- clink, clink, clink…I guess they was going up to the third floor…I could feel the presence of someone sometimes---especially when I came up here, you know (the second floor).  And frankly, I’d be afraid to look back.  I’d just try to move as quickly as possible.”
            Mr. Johnson’s most personal experience came many years into his service at the capitol. He worked with a man named Jesse for several years.  Jesse was then transferred to the custodial staff of the nearby old State Revenue Building where he died of a massive heart attack while on the job one night.  Several months later, his friend, John Johnson, entered the capitol at 4:30 A.M. and turned on the office lights throughout the building. He entered the old House Chamber to make sure its lights were on and turned to leave. On the balcony above him stood Jesse. For a split second, Mr. Johnson forgot that Jesse was dead.  Jesse was leaning forward on the balcony rail and slightly lifted his hands and seemed to fade backward toward the balcony’s rear wall. Once he was gone, Mr. Johnson never saw him again. However, Jesse had worked in the capitol; would have been there during the early morning; and knowledge of his presence in the capitol did not bother Mr. Johnson.
            John Johnson’s words of advice regarding the capitol’s “other” occupants was simple: “You see what you have to do, if you got to work here, you got to put that stuff out of your mind. You don’t stop and try to listen for something, ‘cause you’ll sure hear something!”
            Members of the maintenance and security staffs are not the only people to notice the ghosts of the capitol. Samuel P. Townsend, Sr., served as the Administrator of the State capitol from 1975 until 1998. His first words to me set the tone for our interview. “I never use the “G” word. I have always looked for explanations for what has happened and I have found them. I will not use the “G” word.” Mr. Townsend was very clear that he had found explanations for many of his experiences---even if he had to ‘stretch’ to make his explanations seem logical.

The “G” Word…

            In the summer of 1976, while the capitol was undergoing an earlier restoration, Mr. Townsend was using the historic governor’s office as his own.  The governor’s suite is located in the southwest suite on the building’s first floor.
            It was late June and Mr. Townsend was still at his desk at 8:00 PM in the evening and because of ‘daylight savings time’ it remained light outside. Mr. Townsend heard the north door of the building open, footsteps, keys rattling in a lock and a door opening. He knew that then-Secretary of State Thad Eure had been out for the day and may have stopped by his office in the northeast suite of the first floor.  Mr. Townsend needed to speak to Mr. Eure, so he stepped up the hall toward his office. The Secretary’s office was dark---no one was there. Puzzled, Mr. Townsend returned to his office where he soon heard more footsteps and keys opening the capitol’s south door. Mr. Townsend stepped into the central rotunda and there realized that the capitol’s south entry door was bolted from the inside.
            He searched the entire first floor and also looked around the capitol’s exterior. Not a single person was nearby.
            Mr. Townsend’s explanation was that, “All of this happened rather quickly. I believe that there is the greatest chance that a policeman was checking the doors. However, I was not able to catch up with him.”
            Soon after this initial event, the governor returned to his traditional office on the first floor of the building.   Mr. Townsend moved his office to the northeast corner of the second floor Senate Chamber and occupied the former Senate Principal Clerk’s office until his retirement in 1998.
            A few months later, Mr. Townsend was in his office at 8:30 PM when he heard footsteps, or what he took to be the footsteps of a colleague coming around the Senate Chamber toward his office.  His door was slightly ajar and he looked up to see who it might be…but no one appeared. He took a few steps outside his office but he saw no one and thought he was alone in the building. No one was there and the footsteps stopped. Townsend said, “I have to tell you that I was never afraid of this. I was mystified by it.”             The same experience recurred several times over the years and the footsteps always started from a small committee room at the rear of the Senate Chamber and progressed toward Townsend’s office. At one point, it was happening two to three times per week. In true skeptical style, Townsend believed that the Senate’s floors were expanding and contracting because of the weather.  As further proof of his theory, Mr. Townsend stated that after a large copy machine was placed in the Senate committee room he only heard the steps only two to three times per year.
            Townsend worked until 1:00 AM one morning when he left the building. On the way to his car he remembered that he had forgotten an item and re-entered the capitol. As he stepped into the Senate Chamber, he quickly sidestepped, as if to avoid someone. It startled him, as he knew the capitol was empty. He said, “I think that possibly the mantelpiece and iron sign stand that sat at the near edge of the fireplace appeared to take the shape of a human being, due to the glare from the outside lights on my steel-rimmed glasses. At the time, it was quite real.”  There was no room in Mr. Townsend’s world for the possibility of a ghost that night.
            The State Library room is on the third floor of the capitol. After 1:00 AM one morning, Mr. Townsend needed to obtain the dimensions of a table in the library. Upon entering the library, he sensed that he was not alone. He feared that a street person had surreptitiously entered the capitol to sleep there. He looked toward the Senate Chamber gallery but saw no one. He started toward the library doorway and was three feet from it when he felt a chill on his neck and the hair stood up on his arms. He entered the library and felt the same chill at its north window at the far end of the room. The same experience occurred again at the doorway.
            He told no one of the events of that evening until a few weeks later, when Mr. Beck, the historian, recounted a similar experience. Townsend jotted a few notes, and when Mr. Beck finished his story, showed them to Mr. Beck. They had shared a similar experience. That event was difficult to explain adequately, since both men had the same experience independently. However, Mr. Townsend refrained from using the “G” word---even for this unusual coincidence.
            This is a very active haunting and the staff each tells their own tales. The most intriguing and dramatic story of recent times was recounted by Arlene “Dutchie” Sexsmith who works in a small Senate committee room. In August 2002,
as she was completing necessary work prior to a vacation, she heard the sound of a small crowd on the first floor. The voices and accompanying sounds of doors opening and closing were typical of a working day. Dutchie assumed the governor’s staff members were at work and paid little attention. The noises continued until she completed her work at 7:00 PM, when she thought she would be alone in the capitol. As she descended to the first floor, the noises ceased and she realized that all of the office lights on the first floor were out and all of the offices had been locked. Where were all of the persons causing such a commotion that she had heard so clearly? Dutchie later added a great new ghost story to the capitol’s collection!

“We’re Around Here!”

            Throughout the winter and spring of 2002-2003, Mr. Beck and I stayed in contact. He sent me both resources and items of information because we were planning to return to the North Carolina capitol for a full investigation of the building. The first investigation was used as a teaching tool, but now were offered an opportunity for the Ghost Research Foundation to have unrestricted access to the entire building.  In June of 2003, we traveled to North Carolina and set up our equipment. We would be observed by students from the Rhine Center as well as a TV crew from the University of North Carolina’s Center for Public Television (PBS).
            I was surprised by the cooperation we received from the capitol’s staff and the courtesies extended to us by Governor Michael F. Easley’s staff.
            On the evening of June 28, 2003, we set up our equipment throughout the Capitol and divided our team among the three floors. Linda I. was assigned the third floor, where a woman had been heard either screaming or crying. Interestingly, two of the Rhine observers insisted they had heard a woman sobbing that evening. The television crew captured the sounds on their video equipment.
            Linda I. also captured those sounds on her audiotape.
            At 10:30 PM, Mr. Beck and the television reporter, Rebecca Lindstrom, sat at the top of the east staircase to the first floor discussing the investigation and stood to walk over to the third floor staircase when they heard the distinctive sounds of a person ascending the staircase behind them and breathing extremely hard and as if very asthmatic. Ms. Lindstrom left the area, but one of the Ghost Research Foundation staff, Charlie H. was nearby and snapped two quick digital photos. On the staircase two large orbs were captured. The second image showed the orbs passing into the wall of the staircase.
            We gathered in the House Chamber at 11:00 PM to perform an experiment. Linda I. placed a CD of Civil War music on her computer and began to play it. Within minutes, many orbs were photographed in the House Chamber. The argument that the phenomena was caused by dust was negated by the fact that everyone in the room was stationary. Linda’s husband, a confirmed skeptic, reported seeing dark circles that when photographed appeared as orbs of energy. Suddenly, when the computer began playing the tune “John Brown’s Body” or “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the CD would stop suddenly in mid-tune and move to the next song.
            We have found no logical explanation for the switching CD--the CD was not damaged, the computer not faulty, and every time we later played it outside of the capitol, it played through.
            All of our attempts to play the song failed while we were in the House Chamber.
However, the highlight of the evening, occurred the next day, after the events in the capitol were concluded. We had dozens of audio and video tapes to review, but the next morning, we heard an amazing piece of EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena or a ghostly voice on tape) captured by team member Steve K.  He requested that he be allowed to sit alone in the Senate Chamber the previous night. Steve is from the South and felt an affinity for it that a “Yankee” cannot understand. On his tape, you could hear him sitting down, sighing, and saying, “I know there’s something up here. I sure hope it ain’t no damn Yankee!”
`            Following that statement, Steve was quiet for several seconds. He later found that he had captured a gruff male voice that said, “We’re around here…” in a thick Southern accent, different from our Pennsylvania voices. The voice print analysis determined that Steve spoke a level of 4,000 hertz. The unknown male voice heard modulated at 22,000 hertz (well above the normal range of human speech)!  It was clear that the voice was neither Steve’s nor that of anyone who participated in the evening’s extensive study. I can only recall Mr. Jackson’s story of sighting a Confederate officer in the Senate window over a decade earlier. Whoever the “fellow” is, he remains there and is willing to communicate.
            The haunting of the North Carolina State Capitol is significant due to the sheer volume of paranormal events that occur. Collectively, for all of the individuals cited, this is a very active historic site. There are, at least, five known entities that haunt the building consistently and many more shades of former occupants who occasionally frequent its halls and offices. There are probably many unreported sightings , however the current levels of activity likely will continue for many years into the future--perhaps until their presences and reasons for residing there are better understood. The State capitol was the focus of North Carolina’s government activities from 1840 to 1888 (when the State Library and Supreme Court departed) and until 1961 for the Legislature. Perhaps the spirits who dwell there are being held by the power and passions “bottled up” within its walls---especially those of the 1861 to 1865 era. It is well worth seeing for its beauty, grandeur, and for its more recent acclaim as “the most haunted capitol in America.”

**A special thanks to Mr. Beck who has become a friend throughout our visits to the Old State Capitol Building.  His help has allowed us access to this wonderful building and has given us insights that have helped us greatly.

Patty A. Wilson

(Originally published in FATE Magazine.)