Damn You. I Curse You, and Salem.

Three hundred and thirty one years ago, 19 people were executed in Salem, Massachusetts. Eighteen of them were hanged in front of hordes of enthralled onlookers. Among those hanged was John Proctor, a local farmer and tavern owner. Today, the house still bearing his name, is associated with some of the darkest parts of Salem's history. And, it's remarkably haunted.

Special guest: Adam Berry

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Minkie. Listener Discretion is advised. Three
hundred and thirty one years ago, nineteen people were executed
in Salem, Massachusetts. Eighteen of them were hanged in front
of hordes of enthralled onlookers. One unfortunate soul was crushed

(00:23):
to death after being pinned under boulders for three long
days in an effort to extract a plea from the
accused man. Their crime witchcraft, or so their accusers said.
Among those hanged was John Procter, a local farmer and
tavern owner. Procter and his wife Elizabeth, were both accused
of witchcraft. Today, a house bearing his name stands just

(00:47):
outside the modern borders of Salem. It may technically be
in the next town over, but the John Procter House
looms large over the darkest parts of Salem's history, and
it is absolutely full of ghosts, not only of those
who were touched by the witch trials, but by generations
of spirits who are there for a reason you might
not expect. I'm Amy Bruney, and this is Haunted Road.

(01:15):
Born in England in sixteen thirty one, John Procter Junior
emigrated to America when he was just three years old
with his parents, John Senior and Martha Proctor. The family
settled in Ipswich, a town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
about twelve miles north of Salem. The elder Procter was
well respected in Ipswich. He owned many properties and was

(01:37):
one of the town's wealthiest residence. Despite a life of prosperity,
the younger John Proctor's life was marked by loss. He
married his first wife, Martha, in Ipswich in sixteen fifty two.
They had four children together, but in sixteen fifty nine,
Martha died in childbirth. Only one of their kids, Benjamin,
survived into adulthood. After Martha's death, Proctor married Elizabeth Thorndyke

(02:01):
in sixteen sixty two, with whom he had seven more children.
Two of those kids also passed away in their youth.
In sixteen sixty six, the family relocated to Salem. The
Proctor's leased a large farm on the outskirts of Salemtown,
which today is Peebody, mass Back then, it was referred
to as Salem Fields. To give you an idea of
the level of respect the Procter family had. John leased

(02:24):
a three hundred acre farm from one of the most
prominent figures in Massachusetts Bay Colony, Emmanuel Downing, who was
one of the earliest New England settlers. His son, George Downing,
had Downing Street in London, where the Prime Minister lives,
named after him. The property included a home located on
a main road through Salemtown. Two years after settling in Salem,

(02:46):
Procter obtained a license to run a tavern. While he
and his sons farmed the land, the women ran the tavern.
Elizabeth died in sixteen seventy two. Two years later, Procter
married for a third time to Elizabeth Bassett. Between sixteen
seventy four and sixteen ninety two, they had six children.
At the time of the trials, Elizabeth was pregnant with

(03:07):
their seventh. If you're counting, that's a total of seventeen
kids for John Procter. According to the Salem Witch Museum,
When the first witchcraft accusations began in the winter of
sixteen ninety two, Procter's reaction was skeptical. From what we
can see in the records, he appears to have been
a practical and forward thinking man, successful in business and

(03:30):
hard working. He was sixty, had sired seventeen children, not
all of whom lived to adulthood, by three different wives,
and was outspoken about his feelings against the witchcraft hysteria.
The accusations first came from two very young girls, Elizabeth Paris,
the nine year old daughter of Salem's minister Samuel Paris,
and Abigail Williams, the eleven year old niece of Samuel Paris.

(03:54):
Though many people joined in on the accusations of witchcraft
as time progressed, Paris and William's remain into the main
accusers throughout the trials. Motivations for the accusations were varied,
and for some onlookers suspicious. From the start. Procter was
critical of the accusers. According to Salem Ghost City Tours,
he did not agree with the witch hunt and was

(04:15):
very vocal about his opinion. He would mention his disbelief
in the witchcraft accusations to anyone who would listen. In
her book titled Hunting for Witches, Francis Hill mentions that
Proctor publicly demanded the accusers be hanged for their deceit
instead of the other way around. In Procter's case, he
and his wife were first accused by their servant, Mary Warren.

(04:37):
Mary began to display fits of demonic possession in March
sixteen ninety two. Salem Ghost City Tours wrote that Proctor
beat Mary to correct her behavior, which of course led
to a miraculous recovery. It seems like Mary was acting
normally until Procter went on a business trip. While he
was away, her strange symptoms returned, and she decided to

(04:57):
join the trials. Naturally, other young girls in the village
immediately followed. Some accounts suggest that Abigail Williams joined in
on those accusations because Proctor had been calling for her hanging,
and she retaliated against him to divert attention from herself.
According to the Assalem Witch Museum, Proctor would say publicly
that he felt all of the accusers would come to

(05:20):
their senses if they were thrashed. His words would come
back to haunt him. Elizabeth was arrested on April tenth
and questioned on April eleventh, sixteen ninety two. By the
end of Elizabeth's examination, John was also accused of witchcraft
and arrested. Proctor's sons Benjamin and William, and daughter Sarah
were also accused later in the year, as more and

(05:42):
more people were named in the complaints leveled against them.
They are accused of sundry acts of witchcraft. Benjamin's complaint
breaths that he is wanted on high suspicion of several
acts of witchcraft against several people, whereby great hurt and
damage hath been done to the bodies of said persons,
and therefore create justice. The biggest reason that the accused

(06:05):
were unable to successfully clear their names is that the
religious hysteria of the time dictated that they were guilty
in the court of public opinion as soon as they
were accused. Another reason is because the judges, likely acting
on their own bias, allowed spectral evidence in the court proceedings.
According to the Library of Congress, spectral evidence was testimony

(06:27):
in which witnesses claimed that the accused appeared to them
and did them harm in a dream or a vision.
Contemporary witch lore held that witches could project themselves spiritually,
either directly or with the aid of Satan, in order
to harm their victims from afar. The witches victims might
then see a spectral image of the witch approached them.
As an apparition, the specter of the witch could pinch, bite,

(06:51):
or choke its victims, or otherwise harass them. While the
witch remained in a remote location, its appearance might be
that of the witch or of an animal acting asked
the witches familiar. The court could then use the witnesses
testimony of these events to support a conviction for witchcraft
in the majority of the allegations against them. More than

(07:13):
two hundred people accused during the Salem witch hysteria. Accusers
reported spectral evidence in their claims, so essentially, a nine
year old kid could have a nightmare about a scary
dog and an innocent person could be accused of using
black magic against them. According to the Library of Congress,
the accusers called out in fright and spoke wildly during

(07:34):
the questioning of the accused, as though they were witnessing
spectral goings on that were invisible to other people in
the courtroom. When John Proctor was being investigated for witchcraft,
his accusers submitted spectral evidence against him. Samuel Paris, again
the father and uncle of the accusers, kept notes throughout
the trials which are now called the Salem Witchcraft Papers

(07:56):
and were transcribed by the University of Virginia. According to
the testimony Paris recorded on April fourth, sixteen ninety two,
Abigail Williams accused Proctor and his wife of harassing her
in the night. As Paris wrote, Abigail Williams complained of
Goodman Proctor and cried out, what are you come to?
You can pinch as well as your wife. At night

(08:17):
she complained of Goodman Proctor again and beat upon her
breast and cried he pinched her. In the courtroom, Abigail
and Mary Warren repeatedly accused Proctor of appearing spectrally, including
on the lap of the magistrate. Paris wrote that Abigail
was seized with fits and had to pause her testimony.
At the same time, Mary was unresponsive. Paris described her

(08:39):
as deaf and dumb, but still continuing her knitting when
she came to. She agreed with Abigail that Proctor was
appearing spectrally in the courtroom, and later claimed that she
was being choked by him. It's also worth noting that
at the time of the witch hysteria, Harris was wildly
unpopular as the town's minister, a massive public scandal involving

(09:02):
accusations of the devil's work. A foot in the salem
would have been a perfect an extremely convenient way to
redirect the town's disapproval and reaffirm his position in the community,
just saying, Both Procters were convicted in August sixteen ninety two.
John was sentenced to death, but Elizabeth received a stay
of execution because she was pregnant. John Procter was hanged

(09:25):
on August sixteenth, sixteen ninety two, at Gallows Hill. On
the same day, Reverend George Burrows, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs,
and John Willard were also executed. It's not known definitively
what happened to Procter's remains, but historians suspect family members
may have retrieved his body from Gallows Hill in the night.
On the History of Massachusetts blog Rebecca Brooks speculates that

(09:48):
his body was buried near where the present day John
Procter House stands. When the wife of Massachusetts Bay Colony
Governor Phipps was accused of witchcraft, he issued a general
order of dissolve the remaining one hundred and fifty three
people who had been arrested or convicted of witchcraft. Elizabeth
Proctor was exonerated in May sixteen ninety three. When all

(10:10):
was said and done, nineteen people and bizarrely, two dogs
accused of witchcraft had been executed. Elizabeth remarried in sixteen
ninety nine. After Procter's death, the land he at least
went to another tenant, but two of John's sons fought
to regain the land. Benjamin leased the land from a tenant,

(10:33):
and in seventeen hundred Thorndyke Proctor purchased the farm outright.
Rebecca Brooks suggests that the location of Procter's remains might
have been a motivating factor in the family reclaiming the land.
As she wrote, it makes one wonder why Proctor's sons
went to such great lengths to occupy and buy the land.
Perhaps it was just a good investment, seeing that farm

(10:55):
land was so valuable at the time, or maybe it
was so the family could continue to farm the land
and they had worked on for so long. It is
also entirely possible, though, that the reason Thorndyke wanted the
land was because Procter was in fact secretly buried somewhere
on the Downing Farm, and Thorndyke wanted to keep that
secret gray from being discovered. Despite its name, the John

(11:16):
Procter House was never actually lived in by John Procter.
In fact, the house didn't even exist in his lifetime.
A study by an archeological conservator dated construction to about
seventeen twenty seven, thirty years after Procter was hanged, and
records in the Peabody Historical Society confirmed that construction date.
In Thorndyke Procter's accounting book, there are entries for a

(11:39):
significant amount of construction supplies. The only building still standing
in Salem today that has any connections to the witch
trials is the Jonathan Corwyn House today also called the
Salem Witch House. Along with Judge John Hawthorne, Judge Corwyn
presided over the trials, hearing the testimony of those leveling
accusations at their fellow townsfolk, and the testimony of the

(12:02):
accused who were desperate to clear their names and avoid
being put to death for supernatural crimes. Now the house
is part of the Salem Witch Museum and is open
for tours. The John Procter House remained in the Procter
family for about one hundred and fifty years until it
was sold to someone outside the family. After that, Rebecca
Brooks wrote, the house changed owners only a number of times.

(12:24):
In nineteen sixty eight, the Rapponi family purchased the home
and owned it until Marion Rapponi died in twenty eighteen.
In December twenty eighteen, Barbara Bridgewater and her husband, Christopher
Mendes of Huntington Beach, California, bought the house. Unlike other
notorious and well known landmarks in Salem that are now
open to the public, the Procter House is a private residence.

(12:47):
It has been modified over the years. Now, the thirty
nine hundred square foot house has two stories with six bedrooms,
seven fireplaces, a swimming pool, and only two bathrooms. Although
you can't visit the house now, the owners are crowdsourcing
enough funds to be able to open the Proctor House
for tours. Barbara and her family don't spend as much
time at the house as they want to because of

(13:08):
the paranormal activity they report experiencing there. Unhaunted Salem Live
Adam and I investigated the home with Chip Coffee and
Dana and Greg Newkirk. On the show, Barbara described some
of the activities she's witnessed, saying, I've heard footsteps above
and a piano playing which is downstairs, but it's just
sitting there. They've also heard voices and seen shadows in

(13:30):
the house. Her daughter, Katherine Mendez, has experienced recurring nosebleeds
in the home and has even been pushed down the stairs.
As she said, it's just kind of scary thinking that
there's something else that's in the house with us. During
the investigation, we collected multiple EVPs, some unintelligible, but all
clearly the voice of a gruff male. Dana, who often

(13:53):
uses tarot cards as an investigative tool, repeatedly pulled the
devil card, which could mean the literal devil, but also
could indicate a person with bad intentions present. We sensed
a menacing present and the name we kept coming back
to was Giles Corey. Corey was the man executed during
the witch trials by being pressed to death. He refused

(14:14):
to enter a plea In an attempt to coerce one
out of him. Authorities tortured him by placing heavy stones
on his prone body. They added more and more weight
for three days until Corey eventually died. Some historic accounts
have his last words as more weight in defiance of
those who tortured him. Other accounts have Corey uttering a

(14:34):
much darker final thought, damn you, I curse you and Salem.
Because that investigation was on a live television show, we
couldn't investigate as thoroughly as we wanted, So Adam and I,
along with Gregg, Dana, and Chip, went back the next
year for an episode of Kindred Spirits. What happened seems unbelievable.

(14:54):
Dana did another terror reading and again she kept pulling
the devil card sooom. It indicated the presence of a
dark entity in the house, but as we investigated, we
couldn't make contact with anything that seemed to have ill intent.
Eventually we realized that it was generations of Procter's relatives
who had lived in the house for more than a
century we were contacting. They saw us come in with

(15:16):
our tarot cards and our rituals and our investigative equipment,
talking loudly about witchcraft, and what we realized astonished us.
The spirits in the house, having lived with the burden
of a legacy of witchcraft, accusations for their whole lives.
Were scared of us. They thought we were coming in
and doing the devil's work, and they were protecting the
home as best they could. Once we explained to them

(15:39):
that we were there with good intentions and we're trying
to help, the conversation completely changed, but that does not
mean the activity has ceased. And so to talk more
about that, I had to bring on my bff once again,
mister Adambury. He's been investigating the Procter House outside of
television for quite a while and he's got some really

(16:01):
interesting stories and theories to tell, So that's coming up
after the break. It would not be a Proctor House
chat if I did not bring on mister Adam Berry,
who has spent a lot of time at the Proctor
House investigating. I have been there for a lot of it,

(16:24):
but he's also been investigating it on his own quite
a bit, and not a lot of people get to
go in there and do those things. So welcome to
the program, mister Barry, thank you, thank you. I'm a
very lucky bird. I think it's to go in there
and hang out with all these ghosts. It's funny because
since we did the Proctor House. I have moved into

(16:45):
a house that was built right around the same time
as the Proctor House in seventeen thirty, and whenever I
post photos or videos, people are always like, it looks
like the Proctor House and I'm like, yes, except it's
not haunted, unfortunately, but it's got really history. It's funny
because it does remind me a lot of the Proctor House,
minus the ghost. I wish my house was haunted, but

(17:05):
no Proctor House has it going on. So we've had
some pretty wild experiences there over the years. Let's get
right down to it. Most unnerving thing that has ever
happened is, you know, when Dana Knew Kirk, who is
helping us on those investigations, like it's doing her taro
spread just to like, you know, we want to feel
the vibe. You and I are like up for a

(17:26):
lot of different ideas, and he flips the devil card
how many times? Like five times over the course of
two investigations. Yes, and the crazy thing. So we investigated
the Proctor House on live television like one does. Yes,
it was the Haunted Salem Live special that Travel Channel
did a few years back, and it was a really

(17:47):
cool idea. So basically, the the concept was that we
were investigating the Proctor House. It was me Adam, Chip
and Greg and Dana were there, and then there was
the jail nearby, which I believe the Ghost brothers were in,
and then Jack and Katrie, Jack Osborne and Katrina Wide

(18:10):
Men they were in another location. I can't remember where
they were exactly Rockefellers. Oh right, it's like a restaurant.
So we were all investigating simultaneously around Salem and it
was a really cool special But what we did created
a sigil on live television to kind of create like
more activity. I think what was the sigil? What did

(18:30):
it stand for? Like open a door? Yeah, this is
a doorway. First and foremost, we fought for that location.
When this idea came up and was pitched to us,
we were like, this sounds awesome. We love Salem. But
they told us three locations and you and I both
immediately were like, no, we have to do the Proctor House.
Not only did it fit our vibe like it fits

(18:52):
the Kindred Spirits vibe, but me personally, I think the
history and that location and on that land is like
way more interesting than you know an old restaurant right,
so that out of the way, we knew that we
had to do something special. We got Greg and Data involved,
and I think Greg said something like, you know, why

(19:14):
don't we make a sigil that is a doorway to
the other side, and we're gonna put it on live television.
We'll tell everybody to kind of focus and concentrate on
this sigil and we will see what happens in the
investigation because we only had what three hours three and

(19:34):
a half hours to investigate on live television, so we
needed something that would charge the environment immediately and be
careful what you wish for, as they say, you know, seriously,
I think we work a lot with the idea of
intention and energy and kind of bringing things about, and
that was an ultimate experiment for us. We were like,

(19:55):
this could go a couple of ways, and hopefully we're
entertaining enough that if it doesn't work, we'll just keep
people happy on live TV. But I think it did
raise the activity in the house quite a bit, and
also we had people complaining at home that the sigil
was causing activity in their houses, Like, don't know that

(20:16):
that's ever happened before. People come to us all the
time and they're like, I think somebody tweeted us the
other day because our episodes are airing, and they were like,
be careful watching these ghost shows. A ghost will come
through your television and get you. And I was like, look,
that's never happened. And then I was thinking, but on
live television, when there's an actual live investigation. There were

(20:36):
I think there were about a million people online looking
at that sigil at one point, and people were saying
their lights were flickering, static was going off, weird feelings,
had to like get out of their living room and
come back. And I remember toward the end of that investigation,
because we could hear the live feed from the truck,

(20:57):
like the producers talking and they were really adamant. They
were like they were like, Okay, we're gonna film you
guys closing the sigul, but we're gonna show it during
the credits. And we were like no, no, no no, no, no,
you have to show it live on TV. Everyone has
to see that we've closed the sigil, that everything is fine,
that you are fine, otherwise the world may explode. Yeah.

(21:18):
I remember like the host Dave Schrader was hosting, and
they had they sent him like a last minute like
script where they were like talk about closing the sigel,
show them closing the sigel, Like to close it, we
had to turn it upside down and then fun fact,
Adam stole the sigil after that and took it home.
I think I had it for a while and then
it just never made it back to Greg and Dana
for a period of time, and I can't what's weird

(21:41):
is I don't know if that was just like me
being lazy, probably or if there was something about it
that I was drawn to and I kind of wanted
to keep it for a little bit because that thing
is literally charged by millions of people and the intention
behind it. But it was good that I had it
because when we went back to the Proctor House on
our own to kind of figure out what was going

(22:03):
on from our point of view, because we only had
three hours on live television, and I know that Barbara,
who owns the property, was adamant about getting us in
there for a real investigation, and so we went back.
I'm glad I had it because we were able to
utilize that sigil again on the second investigation. Yeah, so basically,

(22:25):
once she kind of got to know us and saw
how we investigated. She really wanted us to come back
and give the Proctor House the full Kindred Spirits treatment,
as they say, And so we did. And now I'll
have you speak to this more just because I feel
like you kind of are more familiar with the activity
because you do go there like at least every six months.
At this point, Adam runs like private investigations there, So

(22:47):
if anybody's interested, we'll find out about that at the
end here. But just tell me, like, what kind of
activity do you remember was she experiencing that made her
think like, okay, we need to get Kindred involved here.
It's the same sort of activity that she had talked
about when we were there for four hours. But as
you know, in a four hour investigation, we can only
do so much. And the activity that we had was

(23:07):
rather intense. We thought at that point Giles Corey was
there or his ghost was there, and he was manipulating
the situation. He was lying to us, taking advantage, and
I think, you know, Barbara really appreciated us getting those
kind of answers. But when you're left with like that
on the table, it's almost a bit more frightening because

(23:28):
you're like, wait, there's this ghost in this house that's
like being manipulative and mean, and so for her, she
wanted us to come back and finish the job, and
so did we. I mean, I felt like we had
unfinished business with that location. And so we all got
back together and it was you, me, Greg, and Dana
came again, and sure enough, we started with those tarot

(23:50):
cards and she split that double card two more times,
and we were very concerned about I mean, god, we
were just concerned about the whole situation. And spoiler alert,
obviously we're going to talk about the end of that investigation.
It turned out that the spirits there were concerned about
what we were doing because what we are doing gave

(24:11):
them the impression of witchcraft and the occults and things
like using tarot cards, and they were just afraid that
they were going to get caught again and be brought
up to trial. I mean, it was it was literally
this weird memory that they could not shake, and rightly so,
and we were the problem, like you know, they were
not the problem. It was us. People ask us about

(24:33):
tarot cards all the time, like why are you bringing
tarot cards into investigations? And we obviously you and I
will try anything at this point when it comes to investigating, Like,
we really like to experiment. And you know, the idea
behind tarot cards is that they are kind of a
divination type tool and like some people look at them
as ways to provide insight into their lives. So maybe

(24:53):
you're just trying to get a little guidance on an investigation,
you know, why not bring a tarot reading into the mix.
And so that's that's kind of what our intention was
with that to begin with, and it just really resonated
with that location in particular. So yeah, and I think
what's interesting is, you know, we figured out what it
was right and we had a heart to heart with
them and the act. By the end, the activity had

(25:15):
changed because we let them know that it is a
different year, is a different time period. We respect their boundaries,
we understand where they're coming from. We obviously don't mean
any harm, but they're safe. Like that was the key.
I think, you know you're safe. And since going back there,
like I I was there in October, So Salem in
October is like so charged with all kinds of really

(25:36):
wonderful things. And if you've never been to Salem in October.
You've got to get there, just because the feeling of
the location is so powerful. And what's interesting is the
first two nights, so we did a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The first two nights it was the same sort of activity.
We were using the paranormal trip wires and we had
our little lanterns out and there was so much activity

(25:57):
and they understood what we were doing at that time.
They weren't afraid of us. And I actually have that
Salem Witch Trials document from sixteen ninety four signed by
Samuel Parris, who was the you know, the gentleman that
kicked off the whole fury of the witches. And so
I brought that book and I brought that document and

(26:17):
what's interesting is they didn't care about it. They did
not care for it. They did not react to it.
We got we were getting activity, and then as soon
as I brought that document out, it almost like stopped.
So maybe they did care and they were like, nope,
they didn't want to touch it, they didn't want to
interact with it. But on Sunday, the activity was a
one eighty Sunday it was quieter, it seemed a little

(26:40):
more peaceful. Less talkative, less activity with the lights, and
I was like, this is so weird. I don't understand
why this is happening. And then I realized that it
was the Sabbath, right, I was going to say, because
it was Sunday, right, And so it's like they're they're
occupied with other things and maybe you know they don't
they don't have time to mess with us, lay this

(27:01):
their day of rest, and so I thought that was
really strange. But it seems now that you know they
are interacting, they do want to speak with us. I
think a couple of times whatever was in the attic
that we did not get to touch on, there's like
this weird male energy in the attic. He started making
himself known a bit more. And I don't think he's

(27:21):
connected to the Procter family at all. I think he's,
you know, somebody who existed at some point and just
is a bit angry and aggressive. But he started coming
out of the woodworks. So you know, there's always there's
things changing constantly there and I can't wait to go back,
going back at the end of April of twenty twenty three,
and then again probably in the fall. So I think

(27:45):
that it's really easy to forget that. You know, the
Proctor House has three hundred years of history to it
and so a lot of people have lived there. And
then I also wonder too, and what I wonder what
you think about this just kind of that they're not
there all the time, Like, obviously the place is very secured,
so please nobody go try to break in there or anything.

(28:05):
But it's not their primary residence, so it's empty and
like the ghosts kind of own it for a lot
of the time. So do you get the vibe that
when you go in there and you do your investigations,
do you feel like they are like, hey, we like
being alone, or do you think they kind of welcome
the interaction. I think it's a mixed bag. I think

(28:25):
there is an entity. I forgot to mention it. We
didn't even go down into the second basement. So there's
like that cellar area that we went to and investigate it,
But then there's one that's right next to the main
bathroom entrance that you sort of have to duck down
and go under. There was something down there messing with
everybody last time, and it was as if they enjoyed

(28:46):
the idea that like, oh, look, I can do this.
The guy in the attic does not want anything to
do with us, makes himself known in that way, meaning
that like he's saying, you know, okay, you're here, but
I'm not going to tell you anything. I don't want
to talk to you. I don't anything to do with you.
And then I think the family we speak to that
we've gone there. I think they are there and it

(29:08):
is their house, and I don't necessarily believe that they're
fully aware and active, but just like we did, we
sort of conjured them into the space, you know, in
a weird way. And I think they can be called
to that house their energy or their their whatever that is.
I think that they show up if they are asked

(29:31):
to and if you ask them the right appropriate questions.
We just need to say this here and now because
people say to us all the time the John Procter
House isn't in Salem. We're very aware of that. It's
in Peabody, right, Peabody, Or if you don't live in
New England, that's Peabody. It's so much easier to say

(29:51):
Salem because people know where Salem is. I know, and
it's very steeped in Salem history. And so there are
people who come at us all the time about that,
and like we're very aware. We're just trying to make
it easier for you, dear listener. The connections are very big. Like,
even though the Procter family lived as far as they
did from Salem, they had to go into Salem for trial,

(30:14):
Like they were connected to Salem no matter what. So
even though it's been three hundred years and now it's
Peabody and you know, things have changed in terms of
like lines of cities, they still were extremely active in
Salem and they were tried and prosecuted in Sale. Right,
thinking to like what are the most common occurrences there,

(30:36):
Like if someone's investigating, like I kind of envisioned that
one day the Proctor House might even turn into like
some sort of museum or something. I don't know, but
that's kind of what I think will happen eventually. But
if someone's visiting the Procter House, either with you or privately,
what kind of activity can they expect to experience there?
You're gonna get interaction. Spirits are going to interact with
your equipment, but not as a as a circus trick,

(31:01):
like you have to give them conversation. You have to
spark conversation and give them something worth talking about. You
have to know your history, you have to know you
know who you're speaking to, because at this point, I
think they are aware that we know that they are there.
So if you go and saying, oh, what's your name,
They're not going to answer you because you know it's

(31:23):
to them. They're like, you should know my name. I've
talked too many times. So that's the kind of activity
you're going to get. Now. The new activity is strange.
In the attic and we were doing the STS method
where you wear the blindfold, the and the headphones, and
our friend Amanda was there and she literally was getting

(31:43):
hit on by this creepy dude in the attic because
I was listening to the headphones and I kept saying,
I want to talk to you. I want you to
do it. And then I took my headphones down. I
was like, who, who's asking the questions? And they were
like Amanda, and I was like, Amanda here, and so
she like she was like okay, and she puts on
the headphones and sits there for a minute and then

(32:04):
she was like, yep, creepy dude. Oh that's so funny.
Oh my gosh, so creepy dude in the attic. Check yeah, check,
creepy dude in the attic. And also he doesn't mind
being creepy to everybody. It's an equal opportunity. Yeah, this
guy is an equal opportunist. I think he likes se
mess with everybody. So the next time we go, when
we get there in April, I think I'm going to
focus a bit more in that attic space. We got

(32:25):
a lot of activity down in the fireplace where you
would just kind of sit and have a where you
would commune. I guess that seemed to be a lot
of the family, the families in the first floor and
then the attic in the basement, people that really aren't
the original family are kind of hanging out there. I
do remember having We got a lot of EVP there.
We heard a disembodied voice at one point upstairs, and

(32:50):
that was kind of when we first started investigating. Like
what's interesting about that place is no one had really
investigated it until we got there. And I always I'm
always so interested in kind of like what the vibe
is in a location, like when you come in as
kind of the first time investigators acknowledging these spirits versus
like coming in to a place that's been investigated regularly,

(33:13):
and it really does kind of dictate how you approach
the investigation and how you communicate with the spirits there.
So I think that's really useful information for people who
want to investigate. So if people do want to join you,
you're going back in October, right, Yeah, We're going to
do one other time closer to the spooky season. But

(33:33):
if anybody wants any information, they can go to ghost
hunt Salem dot com. I love those. I love that
you do those. Those kind of intimate investigations. I think
are really great because I think people I don't think
they realize how approachable we are. It's so funny because
sometimes we do these big, major events and these conventions
where there's like hundreds of people there, and those are

(33:54):
so much fun, like yeah, strange escapes, strange escapes, like
you cannot be a Strange Escapes party on a Friday
night in a lecture is an investigation, it's like so
much fun. But when we get to do these more
intimate moments, like there are twelve people at the Parker
House with me and I'm going to be there with
you the whole time and we're going to talk about ghosts.
It's like it's it's a very unique experience. And the

(34:14):
last time we were there the Peabody Police Department, they
were like they kept being like, Okay, what are you doing?
What's happening there? That called me to check in? And
really I just think they wanted to like come and
like hang out. So people don't realize how often like
law enforcement shows up at our investigations and it's never
because we're doing anything wrong. Especially in some of these

(34:34):
more sleepy towns. They're just like, so we heard you
guys are looking for ghosts here, and they're just they're
asking questions like they just wanted to. I've been pulled
over before and it was all because they just wanted
to know how the investigation went. So I love that. Listen,
if they're going to pull you over, they can have
instant access to what has happened anyways. All right, So
anything else on the horizon you want to tell people about.

(34:56):
I mean, obviously watch Kindred Spirits on Discovery Plus and
Travel Channel even if new episodes aren't airing. Just keep
watching over and over again. Please do Yeah, please watch
Gary Spirits. Come see us at Strange Escapes, Come see
us at another event. I know that you and I
are working on a lot of really great projects. On
the side, I have a book coming out in September

(35:17):
that people can get excited about. I'll be posting, so
follow me on the internet. All right, Well, thank you,
mister Barry. It's been lovely as always. I miss you
and we'll hang out soon. Yeah, thank you. Toxing the

(35:39):
Propter House presents such a strange conundrum when it comes
to paranormal cases. I don't truly feel like the spirits
in the house are wholly conscious beings. I think it's
that bit of their energy and stress of what they
endured that was so reactionary to our investigative methods. It
makes you wonder how many hauntings aren't necessarily a person

(36:00):
regretful or not ready to move on, but just energy
awakened by something we did that was completely unintentional. It
just lends more and more to the mystery of all
things ghostly and another prime example of why I do
what I do. But it also makes me wonder how
much energy we all put out there, and how much
attention we should be paying to it. We have more

(36:23):
power than we think, power that can apparently span centuries.
I'm Amy Bruney and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road
is hosted and written by me Amy Bruney, with additional
research by Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassandra day Alba. This show

(36:47):
is edited and produced by Rima l Kaali, with supervising
producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams,
and Matt Frederick. Haunted Road is a production of iHeartRadio,
Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manke. Learn more about this
show over at Grimm and Mild dot com, and for
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

(37:11):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.