I'm often accused of not believing in ghosts and paranormal activity. Such is not the case. It's not that I do not believe, it's that I want it proven to me. I discovered a long time ago not to take anything sight unseen and with no questions asked. I want to see it with my own two eyes or experience the event in a way that I can judge for myself whether or not it's really happening. I got what I was looking for back in July of 2003 at Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder, Kentucky.

Just outside of Covington, Kentucky across the Ohio River from Cincinnati sits the easily overlooked town of Wilder, Kentucky. Situated along the Licking River, the nightclub known as Bobby Mackey's Music World is part country western honkey-tonk, part tourist attraction, and part ghost story. In an industrial area kind of out of the way and fairly hard to find unless you're really looking for it, the nightclub caters to a fairly well liquored up crowd most of the Friday and Saturday nights it's in operation. A friendly enough bunch, but not the type of place you would probably be looking for if you had grade schooler's out for a field trip. But, we didn't come here to drink and dance in the darkened interiors. We came in search of the ghosts.

HELL'S GATE

The UNEXPLAINED Poltergeist - Bobby Mackey's

 

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On the July 4th weekend back in 2003 my future wife and I along with two others made the hundred mile road trip up from Louisville in search of the elusive entities said to haunt the 150-year-old slaughter house turned speakeasy, turned modern day nightclub circa around 1975. Bobby Mackey's has an interesting history it seems. Starting out originally as a slaughter house in the 1850's, it later became an underground speakeasy during the prohibition days of the 1920's and later was turned into a nightclub with a country western theme ala the club's current owner, one Bobby Mackey. The story goes that several people have died in the building, the last being a deputy sheriff inside near the entrance sometime back in the 1970's according to the legends.

 

Arriving in the mid-afternoon one Saturday, we soon discovered the nightclub was far from a 24-hour destination and upon arriving at the door noticed the signs that stated it opened at 7 P.M. So much for getting there early. We spent part of the day taking in the local attractions in Covington until the magical hour was near. Returning around 7 P.M. we were then greeted with the news that the tours of the lower level, where some of the paranormal activity supposedly took place, did not start until 10 P.M. So, the four of us spent the next three hours playing pool at the well worn tables and drinking Coca-Cola and dining on the extremely limited snack bar that consisted mostly of potato chip and pretzels. The band came to life close to the 10 o'clock hour and by then we were more than ready to take the much anticipated tour of the lower region.

What we found somewhat strange before even taking the tour was the sparse number of party goers that made up the small crowd in the nightclub. Counting us four, there couldn't have been much more that two dozen people in the whole building, many of which made up the work force and the band. We thought since this was a holiday weekend the place would be packed, but the small numbers did not discourage us from what we had come to see. So, as the 10 o'clock hour approached, we lined up at the front desk near the door with our $5 tickets in hand, (or should I say we had our names on the list), and awaited for our tour guide, complete with cowboy hat, to take us on the adventure.

It turned out we were the complete tour that night, at least at 10 P.M. It was the tour guide and the four of us. Well, at least we would have extra access when it came to asking questions and getting the first rate treatment. The guide assembled us in a group and we proceeded out the front door, down the rear of the building, to a large garage type door that opened onto the lower level. (This way was changed later on, and on future tours we were led to a small door on the opposite site of the lower level and entered there) Once inside, the guide flicked on the light switch and fluorescent lights illuminated what seemed like acres of a dusty, dirty, era of a bye gone age that made up the bottom part of Bobby Mackey's. As we stepped inside the guide showed us the 1940's era dressing rooms supposedly used by the showgirls, an old car that looked like it had been parked in the same spot for the last five decades or so, an assortment of gambling devices and gaming tables, and an ever larger and more diverse assortment of useless crap and leftover junk that the previous owners apparently didn't have the heart to thrown away.

Now, here's where it gets interesting.

As we meander through what looks like a warehouse full of meaningless crap, we stumble upon a smell. A smell of wet hay or wet straw. A barnyard type of odor. Now mind you, this place hadn't been a slaughter house or housed animals of any kind in probably a hundred years or so. But, the smell was there. And, it was distinct.

We then approached the area known as "the well." The story goes back to 1896 when two men supposedly sacrificed a woman to the devil in this location following a botched attempt at an abortion, cutting her head off and throwing it down the well which leads to the Licking River less than a hundred yards away. The well is little more than a hole in the now concrete floor, but the story apparently has some documentation because the two killers were later convicted and hanged in downtown Covington. There are historical records of the crime at the local library detailing the trial. It is said the prosecutor offered the convicted killers a chance to save themselves from the gallows. You see, the victim's body was later found in Ohio, but her head was never found. The court offered the killers the chance to spare their own lives if they would tell the parents of the young girl where her head was so they could reunite it with the body. They refused. According to the story, one of the killers stated, "The wrath of the devil himself would come down upon us if we told you what we did with her head." So, they both suffered the ultimate penalty. And, the woman's head remains missing to this day.

So much for the story. Now back to the tour.

As the guide is relating the spooky story from 1896, I'm standing about ten feet away on a landing that makes up the bottom of a staircase leading up to the ceiling. It's a staircase that runs directly into the ceiling. About this time, the guide starts telling everyone about this "staircase to nowhere" and how it once led up to the top floor but was later sealed off after a fire. He also starts to tell about the rumors of hearing unseen footsteps on this "stairway to nowhere." By this time I am poking my head in the doorway of an adjacent room filed with copper pipe and PVC tubing because I'm curious as to what's in there. All the while, you can hear footsteps overhead, but somewhat muted, from the kitchen, bathrooms, and dance floor of the nightclub. Then, out of nowhere, a different sound is heard. At first, I'm not sure what it is, so I kind of pull my head back from the doorway of the adjacent room and listen more closely. All of this is taking place inside of a second or two. Then I realize what it is I hear. I hear footsteps. On the staircase. Only no one is there. I look in amazement as the disembodied footsteps seem to start at the top of the staircase nearest the ceiling and proceed at a decent pace down to where I am standing at the bottom. The sound is clear and unmistakable. It's so clear and distinct, I shout out "Goddamn," and step out of the way fearing I am going to be run over by whatever it is that is coming towards me. I drop the 9-volt EMF meter I am holding and jump back several feet with what I am sure is a pretty weird look on my face. The three others and the guide all look over my way. Two of the three, and the guide, all hear the footsteps. The forth person is a little bit further away and said he didn't hear anything. Whatever it was is gone in seconds. We spend the next 15 minutes trying to replicate the sound. We can't. The sound upstairs in the nightclub is still there, but the sounds on the staircase are gone.

BOBBY MACKEY'S GHOST PHOTO, sent to Haunted America Tours by Tyler Pratt. Could this be the real ghost of Johanna?

What was it? I don't know. Looking back on things now can I say with 100% certainty it happened exactly as I remembered it? I don't know. All I can say for sure is that it sure seemed real while I was standing there on that landing at the bottom of that staircase.

We went back at least three other times after that. We took the same tour. It never happened again. The barnyard smell was gone, the footsteps never returned. During a tour just a few weeks later with the nightclub filled with many more people than that first night, we never heard those footsteps.

Was it real or just my imagination? Who knows? But if it was my imagination, three other people shared it with me that night.

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About Bobby Zoeller

Bobby Zoeller is a former member of Louisville Ghost Hunters Society. At one time he was the Case Manager of LGHS. Please Also see: Bobby Zoeller: THE LOUISVILLE GHOST HUNTERS AND THE INVOLVEMENT OF KEITH AGE AT WAVERLY HILLS

Born in 1959 in Louisville, Kentucky Bobby Zoeller has been interested in the paranormal his entire life. Never having experienced what he would term a "supernatural event" with one minor exception, that nonetheless hasn't stopped him from seeking out and trying to answer questions that have always fascinated him. Raised as a Roman Catholic, his interest in demonic possession has always been foremost in this field of study, but unfortunately reliable documentation regarding those events are few and far between. Researching prior cases that have come to light in recent years has not convinced him to date that the phenomena actually exists to any great degree, and looking over some of the more well publicized cases he tends to doubt most of what he has read and seen from the so-called experts that comment on the events.

He joined a local paranormal group based in Louisville back in January of 2003 known as the Louisville Ghost Hunters Society headed by Founder and President Keith Age. He later met his future wife there and they married in May of 2004. While a member of the organization, he became a lead investigator with the group and was appointed the group's Case Manager in the fall of 2004. Both he and his wife participated in close to two dozen on-site investigations during their time there, and the high profile 2004 investigation of the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana was his opportunity to showcase the LGHS.

Following several questionable accounts involving the group's president, he resigned as Case Manager on February 28, 2006 and within a week quit the group altogether. His wife was removed from the group by the actions of the president. Upon leaving LGHS and discovering much of what he had been told in the past and been led to believe to be facts turned out to be mostly misinformation or outright lies on the behalf of the group's leader, both he and his wife undertook a campaign to expose what they considered fraud and the scamming of the general public all in the name of making the group's leader famous. Documented evidence was gathered from sources around the country to prove their case and the information was first displayed publicly on an independent web site and later on two Yahoo message groups. The web site was taken down by the actions of the former group's leader and the first Yahoo group disappeared after complaints were lodged against it by the very people it was designed to expose.

He has been fighting what he see's as corruption and fraud within the paranormal field now for the past two-and-a-half years, and has had a very difficult time when it comes to the "experts" in the field as it seems no one wishes to speak ill of the others. In short, he has discovered more deception and more media manipulation over the past two years than most people will witness in an entire lifetime. The "experts" refuse to answer direct questions put forth to them, they in many cases continue to con the public out of both their money and their common sense, and the only reason he continues on at this point is because he does not want the uninformed or the more gullible members of the public and the media conned like he was for three years.

He currently work as the shipping and receiving manager for a large sheet metal fabrication plant in Louisville, Kentucky and spends his spare time researching and exposing what he considers fraud and deception within the paranormal field.

If you have any questions you would like answered or have information regarding any high profile "paranormal experts" that you find troubling, you can contact him at r_zoeller@bellsouth.net. And Please Share your Paranormal And Ghost Hunting opinions responsibly!

 

 

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