Before I became the Celebrities Psychic and a relatively well known author myself, in fact way back when I was nothing more than a kid writer trying to hack away for national publications, the world renowned paranormal investigator and trail-blazer for paranormal research Vincent Gaddis took me under his wing. And a very big wing it was, how lucky could anyone have been! He later told me he saw something in my talent and enthusiasm that he felt I might not have been completely clear about in my youth. He told me he made it his goal at that time to nurture my gift!
Gaddis, a newspaperman, had formerly written numerous articles for national publications and was world famous as the author of many paranormal books by the time I met him. He was most notably famous for coining the phrase “Bermuda triangle” and identifying the area in the Atlantic Ocean known to take down numerous aircraft and sink ships. To this end he wrote his best selling book INVISIBLE HORIZONS, True Mysteries of the Sea. (Chilton 1965). After that it was clear you could pretty much find him on many television shows talking about his most interesting and favorite subject, the strange occurrences in the Bermuda Triangle.
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Of course that book was only one of his best sellers. Some of the other books to his credit were and are: Mysterious Fires and Lights, 1967, Wide World of Magic, 1967, Strange World of Animals and Pets, 1970, The Curious World of Twins, 1972, Courage in Crisis: Dramatic Tales of Heroism in the Face of Danger, 1973, American Indian Myths and Mysteries, 1977, and of course the book we wrote together, my first GOLD RUSH GHOSTS book in 1990. Before I knew Vince he was also a writer-editor for a Warsaw, Indiana radio station, was a public relations writer for Studebaker-Packard, cars most of us do not remember, but he also did the same for Mercedes Benz in South Bend, Indiana. All the time he also worked as a free lance writer.
All but the GRG book happened way before my time of knowing Vincent. Over the years he confided in me that he was born on December 28, 1913 in Ohio, and he first wrote about the Bermuda Triangle for an article cover piece for Argosy Magazine. He said he had always been interested in anything to do with the bizarre and unknown. He married the love of his life, a pretty woman by the name of Margaret Paine Rea on July 14, 1947, and he loved her unconditional, devoted to her, until her death many years later. I never really got to know Margaret. When I first met Vincent, Margaret had recently had a stroke and was unable to speak or move. When doctors could do no more, Vincent took her home and cared for her himself. He committed himself totally to her care until it was clear he could no longer do it at his age. They had no children, and their relationship to this day remains one of the most beautiful I have ever encountered.
I was a young mother just coming off a dancing career when I met Vincent at a local writers club called ‘The Scribblers’ in Escondido, California. I was star-struck of course! I joined the group of writers because I was looking for people with similar interests, and I brought to the group a great interest in the bizarre and unknown, most notably ghosts, spirits, UFO’s and Bigfoot. I had some articles under my belt that had been published. I was inquisitive, and felt I had a knack for writing. I was an explorer, good at research and wanted to be in the trenches of separating fact from fiction in the paranormal world. Vincent said he saw a younger version of himself in me, a kindred type of soul. We caught on fast, he the teacher and friend, me the student and friend.
We didn’t always agree. He was more staid in his approach, me a rebel. I pushed ahead sometimes stepping on toes to get to the paranormal truth, often exposing fraudulent research practices and phony psychics. He was more cautious, not willing to burn bridges, but never disagreeing and seemingly proud and anxious to hear what I had done and accomplished. We worked well together, collaborating on many a story, and we looked to each others strengths in the literary world as we went about the work we both loved. He critiqued my work endlessly, and I commented on his. He was, all and all, a soft man, a decent man, and one that did not take liberties with our friendship. He lived in a small cabin in Del Dios a place I loved to go to, a little lake community not far from Escondido, surrounded by more little old cabins. It was quaint, a little spooky up on a hill, lots of foliage, little light at night, and just the right atmosphere for our type of writing.
And so our friendship went on, and we went to that little class and we continued to explore all things strange and in our mist, and we wrote about them. But Escondido was becoming boring to me, and I wanted something new and different. The itch for expanding my writing goals could not be scratched in Escondido, so when an opportunity arrived, my family moved to the Gold Rush Country of Northern California. Vince and I continued our friendship through writing letters, (these were the days before everyone had computers), and occasionally we talked on the phone.
It was not long after moving to the Gold Rush Country that I realized that there were many ghosts residing there. So many in fact they appeared to supercede the numbers in well known haunted sites, such as the graveyards and fields of the Civil War and the witch hunts of New England. I began to explore, and anxiously wrote everything I found to Vince. We decided a book was necessary to alert people to the ghosts in the area. I would call it GOLD RUSH GHOSTS and I enlisted Vincent to be my co-author. He readily accepted.
What fun we had! We wrote the book ‘long distance’, me writing about a sighting, and sending the manuscript on to Vince, he writing the history, and returning it to me. I feel it was (and is) one of his finest works, not to mention my own, and I have since gone on to write 2 more GOLD RUSH GHOST BOOKS. Today the original GOLD RUSH GHOST book is still available via Amazon.Com, and in vintage new condition is commanding $117.78. I believe it originally sold for something like $9.00, can’t remember really. Of course you can still obtain copies at ridiculously reduced prices depending on condition.
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Gold Rush Ghosts: Strange and Unexplained Phenomena in the Mother Lode
By Nancy Bradley, Vincent Gaddis
It was after the release of the book that I went through a divorce. Vince and I continued to communicate through the mail, and on several occasions he asked me to marry him. It was out of the question of course, I never thought of him in romantic terms although I can clearly say without hesitation that I loved him. The age difference was something I could not bridge and much as I hate to admit it, I am one of those old fashioned girls that had to be romantically in love to be with someone. I had never even kissed him in a romantic way, and I refused his offers and we did not converse for over a year after that. Some people say I may have broken his heart. I trust and hope I didn’t. But soon we were back on track as friends and colleagues, and at some point Vincent, getting older now and concerned about his research notes, had mailed me all his lifelong collection, articles written about him, and some of his research books, wanting me to have them in the event of his death. His then wrote that his family, his sisters I believe he said, asked for them back, and I immediately mailed them back to him. I wish that I had them to this day, but I do still have some of the letters he wrote to me, beautiful sentiments, beautiful words.
And then there was the day when coming out of an afternoon shower I saw Vincent sitting on one of the speakers in my living room. I had a towel wrapped around me and my hair was dripping wet. It did not dawn on me until later that he did not have my address, nor a key to my home, we always wrote through my PO Box because that is where I get my mail. I looked up at him perhaps just a little startled, but I remember being clearly happy to see him, and realizing the condition I was in said “Hi, oh, hang on” and I went into the bedroom to get dressed, all the while talking to him through the walls. When I came back out into the living room I said, “It is so good to see you, what
are you doing here Vince?” He replied, “I died” and with that he was gone. I did not want to believe it, though his leaving so abruptly into the thin air certainly attested to the fact. I immediately began calling around, checking all the places I knew he had been living and visiting. I finally contacted someone from an organization he was known to be with, and a woman said “Yes, he has died.” I broke down and cried, and he has not shown himself to me since that day.
Still, I do know when he is around and when he is encouraging me from the other side. When I am writing and in a bind for something, a word, a thought, the answer easily comes as I write well into the night. There could be no other explanation than it is outside help from my father, a genius, and my dear friend Vincent, also brilliant in his own way. Both of these men, both on the other side now, loved me unconditionally, and what gifts they have given me just to have known them.
Vincent Hayes Gaddis died in Eureka, California, Feb. 26th, 1997. I am certain he was immediately met by his beloved Margaret. But in reality he has never left any of us. How lucky we are to have had such a wonderful forerunner in this crazy world of paranormal research and science as every day another mystery originally thought to be nothing more than imagination and wishful thinking is solved. He is one of the greats in our field, pushing forward a path that we can all be thankful for. He said and believed that nothing was impossible, and that is being proven by all of us as truth every day we live the same continual dream now. It was my pleasure to be his friend. And that friendship never dies.
Copyright @ 2009 Nancy Bradley, all rights reserved.
For more about the Celebrities Psychic Nancy Bradley and her paranormal research
The Incredible World of Gold Rush Ghosts (The Big Picture): True Stories of Hauntings in the Mother Lode From Celebrity Psychic Nancy Bradley
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Bizarre and Ghostly Tales for the Campfire
By Nancy Bradley
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