August 31, 2022 • 40 mins
Lemp Mansion is one of St. Louis’s grandest homes, which housed generations of one of the city’s most prominent — and troubled — families. Among tragic accounts of untreated mental illness and untimely deaths are stories of underground passages, false claims to the family fortune, rumors of a generational curse, and even a child hidden away in the attic. Special guest: Jeff Belanger
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky listener. Discretion is advised. St. Louis,
February fourteenth, nineteen o four. This is taken from the
(00:23):
Southern Standard. William J. Limp, president of the lymp Brewing Company,
shot himself through the temple with the revolver at his
home thirty three twenty two Lamp Avenue, at nine thirty
o'clock Saturday forenoon, while in a fit of grief over
the recent death of his son Edward. He died an
hour later, without having been conscious after the shot was fired.
(00:45):
The first known of the act at the Frewery office
was at a little after nine thirty, when a messenger
ran into the office and told the son of the
brewer to hurry to the residence a few doors away.
It was an hour later when word was received at
the office that Mr Limp had shot himself and was dead.
From what can be learned, Mr Lamp arose at his
wonted hours Saturday morning a a light breakfasts, and upon
(01:08):
complaining that he did not feel well, returned to his room.
He must have spent some time there writing and making
known his last earthly wishes. An hour later, a shot
was heard. Members of the household ran to the room,
only to find the millionaire brewer in the last throes
of death. He was partially disrobed and lay upon the
bed with his revolver smoking on the bloodstained covers. The
(01:30):
man's muscles twitched, he breathed heavily. A gaping wound in
his temple told the story. Messengers were dispatched for physicians,
and Dr Harmish was the first to arrive. He is
beyond all medical or surgical a, the doctor stated. At
ten o'clock he passed away. I'm Amy Bruney, and this
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is haunted road. If you were to visit thirty three
twenty two demental place today, you'd see a historic inn
built more than one hundred fifty years ago, filled with
happy diners and overnight guests. Well, that might not be
(02:15):
all you see. Lemp Mansion is one of St. Louis's
grandest homes, which house generations of one of the city's
most prominent and troubled families. Among tragic accounts of untreated
mental illness and untimely deaths are stories of underground passages,
false claims to the family fortune, rumors of a generational curse,
and even a child hidden away in the attic. The
(02:38):
legends linger in the Limp Mansion restaurant and end Today
after the mystery, dinners and parties are over, Guests report
strange happenings, Phantom footsteps and knocking sounds ring through the hallways,
Shadows peak around corners, small objects move on their own,
and a piano mysteriously plays by itself when no one
is nearby. But in the beginning, there was just one
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family and one very big American dream on the banks
of the Mississippi River. St. Louis, Missouri, is a city
of about three hundred thousand people. It grew rapidly in
the early nineteenth century with the advent of the steamboat,
and quickly became a major destination for Irish and German immigrants.
One of those immigrants, Johann Adam Lamp, who emigrated from
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Central Germany, arrived in the United States about eighteen thirty six.
On his arrival in St. Louis in eighteen thirty eight,
Lamp opened a grocery store where he sold his homemade beer.
People loved Adam Lamp's German style lagger beer, which was
much lighter than the strong English ales widely available in
America at the time. In a short two years, Lamp
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started a beer company using German recipes. In eighteen forty,
the first location of the Lamp Brewery was located where
the south leg of the city's iconic Gateway arch now stands. St.
Louis Magazine called Adam Lamp one of the most influential
figures in St. Louis history for his runaway success as
a brewer. Lamp Brewery became so popular so quickly that
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in just five years it moved to a larger facility
with limestone caves underneath where beer could be kept cold
in an above ground beer garden called Lemp's Cave, where
people would sit and sit. The elder Limp died in
eighteen sixty two, and his son William took over the company.
That same year. William Lymp and his wife Julia had
a son who died at birth. In the following years,
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they would have eight more children, Anna, William Jr. Lewis, Charles, Frederick, Hilda,
Edwin and Elsa. What's known today as the Limp Mansion
was actually built by William Senior's father in law Jacob
Fickert in eighteen sixty eight. It's just down the street
from the brewery, as Cathy Wiser Alexander wrote for Legends
(04:42):
of America. By the eighteen seventies, the Limp family symbolized
both wealth and power, as the Lemp Brewery controlled the St.
Louis beer market, a position it maintained until Prohibition. The
family bought the Limp Mansion in eighteen seventy six and
began renovating and expanding the thirty re room house. The
Victorian home was built in the Italianate style and stands
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three stories tall, with a basement and an attic. The
front of the home is white with black trim and
looks relatively plain from the outside, but inside there are
endless architectural curiosities, like an atrium where the lamps kept
exotic plants and birds, and a hand painted ceiling in
the parlor, which has green and yellow floral designs and
depictions of clouds. On the third floor, in addition to
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the servants quarters, there are cedar walk in closets, a skylight,
and an observation deck. As the mansion's history describes, the
main bathroom is dominated by a unique glass enclosed free
standing shower that Lamp discovered in an Italian hotel and
brought back to St. Louis for his personal use. Other
unusual fixtures in the room are a barber chair and
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a sink with glass legs. At the rear of the
house are three massive vaults that the Lamps built to
store art. The Lamps also built a tunnel that connected
the home's basement to the caves below the brewery, or
or at least the tunnel probably existed. Chris Nafzinger of St.
Louis Magazine has reviewed old records and believes that the
tunnel link between the mansion and the brewery caves is
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a myth, but staff at the Lamp mansions say there
absolutely was a tunnel, which many believe is concealed by
a bricked over portion of wall in the basement of
the home. It's said that members of the Lamp family
would walk to work through the tunnel. Lent Brewery introduced
artificial refrigeration in eighteen seventy eight, at which point parts
of the cave were converted as entertainment spaces like a
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natural auditorium and a theater. As Kathy Wiser Alexander wrote.
This underground oasis would later spawn a large concrete swimming
pool with hot water piped in from the brewery boiling house,
and a bowling alley. The caves are still used for
entertainment purposes today. They're now home to the subterranean Lent
Brewery Hunted House. By the eighteen nineties, Lent Brewery was
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selling their beer all across America, something a regional brewery
had never achieved before. As Troy Taylor wrote in Haunted, Missouri,
Lamp was the first brewery to establish coast to coast
distribution of its beer, shipping it out in refrigerated railroad cars.
After expanding across America, Lamp also spread to overseas markets,
and by the late eighteen nineties the beer could be
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found in Canada, Mexico, Britain, Germany, Central and South America,
the West Indies, the Hawaiian Islands, Australia, Japan, and beyond.
In eighteen ninety seven, William's daughter, Hilda Mary gustav passed.
You may recognize that last name. In eight William Jr.
Known as Billy, married Lillian Hanlon, whom the St. Louis
(07:38):
Post Dispatch described as a railroad supply. Harris known as
the Lavender Lady because she favored that color for everything,
even the harnesses on her horses. But the happy times
didn't last. In nineteen o one, Williams twenty eight year
old son, Frederick, who had been the superintendent of the brewery,
died of heart failure. Three years later, on the morning
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of February thirteenth, nineteen o four, William Lamp died of
a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head in his
bedroom at Limp Mansion. He was sixty eight years old.
It said that he was never the same after Frederick's death.
He was also greatly affected by the death of his
friend and fellow brewery king, Frederick past who died in
January of that year. William's son had been named after Papst.
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The day after William's death, a front page article on
the St. Louis Post Dispatch referred to him as one
of the best known brewers in America. The Lamp Brewing
plants were shut down on the day of his funeral,
with longtime employees serving as pall bearers. Among the honorary
pallbears was Adolphus Bush, the co founder of Annheuser Busch,
His son took over the brewery, but he and Lillian
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were more interested in enjoying their vast fortune than in
running the family business. They spent extravagantly staffing the house
with servants and buying opulent art and clothing. William Jr.
Also through decadent party in the limestone caves beneath the brewery,
including hiring sex workers for his friends. According to persistent,
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although entirely unsubstantiated rumors, William Junior eventually followed a child,
a boy born with Down syndrome or some type of
physical deformity, either with one of those sex workers or
with a servant at the mansion. The child was supposedly
hidden in the attic where he lived out his days,
though there is no documentation to prove this. William Junior
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and Lillian divorced in nineteen o nine in a scandal
filled trial that made headlines. The court heard that William
Junior had beaten Lillian, thrown her down the stairs, shot
neighborhood cats for sport, had been seen with other women,
and visited houses of bad repute, all of which he denied.
Lillian also testified that she had to restrain William Junior
from shooting a black butler after the former believed the
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latter was acting as were counted in the St. Louis
Globe Democrat Insolent and Surly. William Junior claimed that he
pulled the gun in self defense because Butler was near
a table with knives on it. William Junior had hired
a private detective to follow Lilian after reading a letter
that she claimed she had left as a trap to
see if he went through her mail, and was allegedly
coerced into signing a document saying that the baptism and moral,
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religious and collegiate teaching, direction and instruction of all children
born of our marriage shall be left absolutely and entirely
at all times to the dictation, direction and control of
William J. Lamp Jr. William Jr. Alleged that, against his wishes,
Lillian was attempting to raise their eight year old son,
William the Third, as a Catholic. Lilian claimed that she
(10:35):
had been tricked, saying, according to the St. Louis Joseph
Press News, that when she signed it, the paper was
so folded as to conceal the contents, and that she
supposed that she was signing another paper that she had
been read to her. For his part, William Junior was
embarrassed by his wife's eccentric clothing preferences. During the trial,
he told the court that he did not like his
wife's almost constant wearing of the color purple, saying I
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didn't want her to be conspict us by wearing the
same thing all the time. In fact, one of the
only times she was ever seen not wearing purple was
on the final day of the hearing, when she arrived
to court wearing all black. With a divorce finalized, William
Junior remodeled the home in nineteen eleven, converting part of
the space into brewery offices. According to Kathy Wiser Alexander,
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at this time, William allowed the company's equipment to deteriorate
without keeping abreast of industry innovations. By World War One,
the brewery was just barely limping along. In nineteen nineteen,
William Junior shut down the company after the passage of
the Nineteenth Amendment making prohibition the law of the land. However,
he didn't tell his workers about the closure. They simply
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arrived to work one day to find the gates locked.
More sadness followed and quickly. On the morning of March
twentie nine, Elsa, the youngest of the Lemp siblings, died
of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the heart. She
was thirty seven and at the time was St. Louis's
richest woman. Elsa had maladies including indigestion, nausea, and depression,
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but some speculate that her death was suspicious. She had
recently remarried her former husband, Thomas Wright, who she divorced
the previous year. Her new again husband allegedly waited almost
half an hour to call for a doctor, and several
of the servants changed their stories about the morning's events
after the fact. In June nineteen twenty two, the Limp
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Brewery was sold piecemeal at auction for five hundred eighty
eight thousand, five hundred dollars, which is nine point eight
five million by today's standards, well below its original valuation
of seven million dollars, which is a hundred twenty three
point four million today. Six months later, despondent over the
state of the family business, William Jr. Took his own
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life in his office at the Limp mansion on December
twenty ninth, nineteen twenty two, he was fifty five years old.
A contemporary newspaper report noted that Billy Lamp especially has
lived in a retired manner since prohibition went into effect
and the brewer we closed down its manufacture of beer
in nineteen forty three. William Lamp, the third William Jr.
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And Lillian's only child, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at
age forty two after collapsing on the sidewalk in nearby Clayton, Missouri.
At some point in the nineteen forties, It's alleged that
William Jr's illegitimate child died in his thirties. According to
Legends of America, he was buried on the Lamp cemetery
plot with only a small flat marker with the word Limp.
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On the morning of May tenth, ninety nine, another Lamp sibling, Charles,
was found dead of suicide. He was seventy seven years
old and was living alone in the Limp mansion. Charles
shot himself with a thirty eight caliber revolver in the
same room where his brother died. In his later years,
Charles had become increasingly eccentric. After his suicide, It was
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noted in a contemporary report that he had suffered from
nervousness in recent weeks. He was the only Limp to
leave a note which read, in case I am found dead,
blame it on no one but me. As Colin Dickey
wrote in his book ghost Land, tradition holds that Charles
shot his dog before himself, though this is nowhere mentioned
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in the police reports of the incident, It said that
the body of his Doberman pincher Serva was found halfway
up the basement stairs. The Lamp family saw an unusually
high amount of suicides, but they were also happening in
other German immigrant brewing families. On February thirteenth, nineteen thirty four,
Anheuser Busch president August Busch committed suicide by revolver, thirty
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years to the day after William Senior suicide and Otto F.
Stifle of the Old Stifle Union Brewery also ended his
own life. Police eventually started calling the act of suicide
the Dutch act, a corruption of the word Deutsche or German.
After the last Lamp to live in the mansion died
in nineteen fifty, the home became a boarding house. It
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was also used to house children from a nearby pediatric hospital,
Marian Hospital. In the early nineteen sixties, the house was
slated for demolition to room for the Ozark Expressway. Public
outcry and advocacy surrounding a nearby property, the Chatelaunde Demonial Mansion,
ended up saving the Lamp Mansion when the highway was
rerouted to preserve it. However, much of the Lamp Mansion's grounds,
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as well as the carriage house, were leveled. Edwin, the
last remaining Lamp sibling, died in nineteen seventy at the
age of ninety. As Kathy Wiser Alexander wrote, according to
Edwin's last wishes, his butler burned all of his paintings
that the Lamps had collected throughout his life, as well
as priceless Limp family documents and artifacts. These irreplaceable pieces
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of history vanished in the smoke of a blazing bonfire.
In nineteen seventy five, the mansion was bought by Dick Pointer,
who converted it into a restaurant. It still operates as
an inn and restaurant today. In a man named Andrew
Paulson appeared in St. Louis and claimed to be a
Limp descendant. He was in position of a key to
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the family mausoleum in Bellefontaine Cemetery, as well as various
other heirlooms. Paulson was eventually revealed to be an impostor
looking to make money off the Lamp name. He wasn't
the first to do so. In nineteen o one, a
man claiming to be Billy Limp bought a large diamond
brooch from a Saint Louis jewelry store, telling them to
build the Limp Brewery. He pawned the brooch and was
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never seen again. Many are convinced that some sort of
curse caused so many of the Limps to take their
own lives, especially since all the suicides took place by
firearm and in the morning hours. But as Colin Dickie
points out in ghost Land, it's more likely that the
curse was a family history of untreated mental illness. With
all the dark history surrounding the family and the home,
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it's no surprise that the Limp Mansion is often called
one of the most haunted homes in America. Betsy Burnett Blandra,
the Limp Mansion's historian and paranormal investigator, believes that there
are nine spirits in the house. In addition to the Limps,
Burnett Belangra has also come into contact with the spirit
of a servant who still cares for the spirit of
a sixteen year old named Zeke and a child named Elizabeth.
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She's also identified a spirit she calls the Stinky Man,
who told her to get out of the house. She
believes that Charles Limp may have been affected by the
presence of some of these ghosts. The building got its
haunted reputation soon after its conversion into a rooming house,
with tenants reporting phantom footsteps and knocking sounds. Allegedly, people
wouldn't stay long because of the hauntings. During the nineteen
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seventies renovations to transform the mansion into a restaurant and
in According to Legends of America, workers within the house
often told stories of apparitions, strange sounds, vanishing tools, and
a feeling of being watched. Frightened by the hauntings, many
would leave the job site, never to return. One worker
heard the sound of horses hoofs on cobblestones out the
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window on a portion of lawn later discovered to have
covered the area that was the cobblestone driveway of the
mansion while the ceiling frescoes were being restored. A worker
named Claude breck Walt told the St. Louis Post Dispatch
that he was on the job late one night when
he had this sensation that someone was staring at me.
I just knew that some one was staring at me
through the glass beveled doors. There was no doubt. I
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got chills up and down my back. My hair stood
on end. Until then, I never believed in ghosts. From
then on, Brekwalt would only work during the daytime with
others near by, and turned down working on additional rooms. Today,
the staff in the restaurant, according to Culture Trip, have
heard the piano playing itself and doors locking and unlocking themselves.
They also report cold spots and apparitions throughout the building
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and the hallways. People say they've seen a young child,
as well as the figure of an older man who
is sometimes said to be Charles Limp in his hat,
cape and shiny shoes. Some have also reported hearing gunshots
in the hallways. Where the dining room stands today is
the side of the office where William Junior and Charles
took their own lives. In that room, people have seen
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an apparition of a man sitting down to dinner, only
to vanish when approached. Glasses are said to levitate on
their own. Some claimed to have seen the apparition of Lilian,
the Lavender Lady in the room. The guest rooms are
named after family members and each has its own unique activity.
And the Charles Lamp Suite, small objects sometimes move around
on their own, and Charles has been spotted in his
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top hat in the space. And the Elsa Lamp Suite,
which is her childhood bedroom, people report mischievous behavior attributed
to kids who stayed in the mansion when it was
used as overflow for the local pediatric hospital. Guests experience
something pulling at the sheets while they are trying to sleep,
or tugging at their legs. In the William Lamp Suite,
people say they hear footsteps running up the stairs and
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someone kicking the door. As Kathy Wiser Alexander wrote, when
William killed himself, William Jr. Was known to have run
up the stairs to his father's room and, finding it locked,
began to kick the door to get to his father.
Other guests have reported hearing moaning in this room. The
womanizing William Jr. Is also rumored to haunt the women's
bathroom on the first floor. Women say something peaks over
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the tops of the stalls and turns on the water
when no one else is in the bathroom. In the basement,
in the tunnel area, which staff members allegedly called the
Gates of Hell, people report seeing a shadow figure and
sometimes hearing phantom dog barking. The darkest stories, though, come
from the attic. Some believe that William Jr's illegitimate son
haunts the attic, where he spent his life. A few
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sources claim his name is Zeke. People frequently report seeing
the face of a boy in the attic windows, but
some believe he was a ward of the state who
died there when the house was used as patient housing.
In Missouri's Haunted Route sixty six, Jane Tremire wrote, another
legend concerning the boy is that he was William's brother,
born when William's mother, Julie, was close to fifty, and
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that the child was deformed because of her advanced age.
Some sources say Zeke died at sixteen, others say he
was aged thirty paranormal investigators report that toys left in
the attic will be moved when they return, and the
voice of a child saying help me, help me has
been reported here. Betty Burnett Balanger says this spirit is
very scared, afraid of people, and believes that he's looking
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for his mother. To talk more about the hauntings at
Limp Mansion, I have a special treat for you. My
dear friend Jeff Belanger will be joining us. Both of
us have investigated the Limp Mansion and we can't wait
for you to listen in on our conversation about what
we and others have experienced there. That's coming up after
the break. All right, So I am now joined by
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one of my dearest friends, Mr Jeff Blanger. Who is
I mean, I don't know you are? You wear many hats,
your paranormal researcher, author now podcast hosts like I don't
even know what to call you anymore? Jeff, What what
should we call you? Just don't call me late for
dinner or happy hour? This is true. That's why I
brought you here because I know that you are very
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familiar with Limp Mansion. You've been there. I've been there.
You're all so very familiar with beer, so it also
seemed fitting. Wow, that's yeah, both are true. I guess yep.
I can't argue either one of those. But before we
get started, you know, anytime I have a guest on
who's someone that, like, I've known for a long time,
there's always this kind of little trip down memory lane.
And I think that what listeners might not know is
(22:20):
I would say, if you were to like turn back
time and say who was the most influential person and
Amy Brunei's paranormal career, I say, with air quotes, who
would that be? And I think that person would be
Jeff Balanger. Get out of here. I mean it because
I think many people think that I just kind of
appeared on ghost Hunters and that's when I first existed,
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but well before that, I was in the paranormal scene.
And I just remember you and I connected at a
conference and then you came out to a little conference
I was holding with my paranormal group, and you were
just always really great to bounce ideas off of. And
I remember particularly I was doing this kind of paranormal
(23:04):
group dynamics lecture, which is like my first lecture, and
you were always super helpful with stuff like that. So, well,
that's nice memory. Yeah, I remember we were in Volcano, California,
a town slightly larger than my living room, and I
don't live in a mansion, just to be clear. Uh
and uh. At one point we were out in the cemetery,
(23:24):
which is a tiny little spot of land. It was
close to midnight, and this drunk guy walks out holding
a gun and says, what do you guys want to
become a ghost tonight? And so when people say, like,
have you ever been scared during an investigation, that's one
of the ones I point to. I completely forgot about
the shotgun wielding man drug man. So volcanoes so small
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that like literally if someone is born or dies, they
just like they just cross off the po They don't
even paint it. I don't think i've been back there since.
I think that I think you have worked. He won
games that match, But yeah, I was like, yeah, that's
because that's one of those stories I point to, like, Yep,
I was genuinely scared. But I do recommend your books
(24:09):
on the regular too. Well, thank you, so lent Mansion.
I investigated the Lamp Mansion many many years ago. I
actually rewatched the episode of ghost Hunters that we filmed.
They're just you know, to get kind of nostalgic before
I recorded this podcast. I'm not sure if it was
the best idea. But do you remember the place very
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well now in your recollection? And I know you've done
a lot of interviews, I know you've been there. What
do you think people probably experience the most at the
Limp Mansion. Well, you know you've already established this family
was just plagued by suicide, which is it runs in families,
it really does. And so when you understand, when you
know what happened, I mean today, if you're in the
restaurant dining area, or if you're by the bar, you're
(24:55):
in the former lamp offices, and two people shot themselves
right there. One guy shot his dog and then himself
right Charles and and Billie, and I sort of feel
like you tune into that sadness when you're inside there.
You I'm the kind of person that researches everything before
I go. I mean, I want to know where everything happened,
what rooms and so on. So when I walked in there,
(25:16):
I was just you know, you look around the bar area,
and you're like, oh, this is where someone chose to
end his own life, and that's different than a murder
or a natural cause death, you know what I mean,
Like someone was in a really dark, bad place and
ended it right here. And I remember speaking with one
of the tour guides at the house who said there
was one night she was camped out in a cot
down in that area because I guess the rooms were full,
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and she was sleeping there and she woke up to
find a man pacing around her cot and he bent
down over her head and he started to like make
some moaning sound, and she said to him, you know
you're you're frightening me, and the man disappeared, and that's
when she said she realized she believed these spirits were interactive.
People have been pushed and touched. I spoke to one
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employee who said he saw it looked like, you know,
heat waves coming off a hot road in one of
the stairwells. And their stories in the bedrooms and so on.
But I think the most prominent spirits would be Billy
and Charles Limp. And then also there's a lady in
White that some people believe is Julia Limp, who was
also died there. I believe she died of cancer though, right.
It is a place that's filled with a lot of sadness.
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And it's strange because you know, they were just kind
of such this influential family and then just it just
kind of descended into darkness and literally like the last
one died and it was just completely snuffed out. It's
a very sad story. Regardless of any hauntings you might encounter,
the energy there is definitely heavy sometimes. I think it's
really kind of interesting how some of these places that
(26:43):
we investigator frequent so often become places like bars and
restaurants and inns, and then you walk in and there's
these people and they're just like laughing and you know,
have getting married and having the best times of their lives.
And as investigators and researchers, like we look around and
we think, oh my gosh, like I know what happened here.
(27:03):
And I don't know that everyone who goes there knows
exactly what happened there. No, I'm sure they don't. They
just sort of look right past it. And forgive me
if I'm wrong, but I believe alcohol is a depressant,
So so there's that and I mean when you say
this family was an empire, all empires fall, they just do.
But I mean, if you've heard of beer, so they
(27:24):
were the first to make Falstaff beer, which you may
have heard of a little obscure, and they sold that
label to someone else who continues to make it to
this day. But Leam's best friend was a Dolphus Bush
of course, Budweiser, right, and William Lem's daughter Hilda married
into the Papst family, perhaps Blue Ribbon, perhaps Budweiser, Falstaff.
I mean, these are the biggest names in beer, and
(27:44):
they all have a connection to this mansion, to this
empire that that you know, rose and then eventually fell. Well,
they also have suicides in their families as well. We
went into it in the first half already, but they
also kind of had not to the extent the Lamps did.
But it was just strange that like kind of around
the same time these deaths occurred in these big beer families.
(28:06):
So I know, when I'm kind of looking back to
my experience there, like I was there with Ghostenders. I
believe we were there for two nights and investigated and
so I was investigating with Chris Williams if anyone knows
Chris Williams. She is like the biggest skeptic you will
ever meet. Like, I remember us having experiences and she
would say she saw a shadow, and then she would
second guest herself twenty minutes later, and maybe I saw
(28:29):
a shadow. I'm not sure what I saw, you know,
but it Lent mansion. We did have this kind of
crazy experience where we were in the basement looking at
these this set of stairs and there's this little kind
of emergency light that sits at the foot of the
stairs so you don't fall down them. And both of
us saw some like feet cross in front of that light.
(28:53):
On two or three occasions, were just staring at it
looked like someone was walking up those stairs. And so
then when we kind of went closer to investigate, you know,
we were trying to kind of recreate it. We heard
upstairs someone walking around and stomping around upstairs, and you know,
we were convinced like maybe someone was up there. We
weren't aware of our crew or something like that. We
(29:14):
account for everyone, but no one was there. It was
almost like something was leading us up the stairs. And
I think people experienced stuff like that on a regular
basis there. No. I remember talking to someone who had
worked in the building for ten years, and he was
telling me there was one night he was locked out
of one section of the building and he was walking
up the stairways and he saw a shadow suddenly coming
(29:38):
towards him quite quickly. All he remembers was that it
was very dark, and it was like the silhouette of
a man with a top hat. And he said, he said,
I swung my fist at it. I thought it was
getting jumped or something. My my fist went right through it.
I literally fell over from the inertia of the thing.
And then no one's there. And then of course he's
reminded that he's in a very haunted building, and this
(29:58):
is you know, he's heard things and heard other employees
talk about their experiences, and that happened to him. I mean,
he took a swing at a ghost. Uh. This is
not something you forget, obviously. It's a very real experience.
If your istoral reaction is to like try to hit it,
you're clearly seeing something in that moment, right, yeah, right exactly.
And then to me, places like let mansion you said before,
(30:19):
how people could be having parties and weddings and in
all kinds of things and not even know the history,
but you probably know it's haunted. I mean, this is
one of the most prominent haunts in the United States.
I mean it comes up on lists again and again.
But if you ask the question, well, why is this
place haunted? Well, now you've got to go back and
learn why and then connect connect to that history and
those suicides and the tragedy tragedies that we know, you know,
(30:42):
have happened before and will happen again. Wealthy families, you
know that that get rich and prosperous and then lose
everything and rather than be poor, that they'll take their
own lives. It's the tragic story that sadly has played
out many times even since. Now what do you think
of the rumors concerning the attic? Now suppose said ly
there is the spirit Zeke? Yes, So what do you
(31:04):
think of Zeke? Do you think what do you think
he actually haunts the I do you think Zeke existed?
What are your opinions on that? So? Yeah, William and
Lillian right, so allegedly had a child named Zeke who
was physically deformed and had other problems, and they sort
of kept him locked away, which um sounds today, you know,
sort of ludicrous, but there was a time where that
(31:26):
was normal. Before the days of institutions, having someone in
your family like that was seen as a huge embarrassment,
which is tragic, right, I mean, these are human beings,
but that was a different time. You you would literally
lock folks in basements and in rooms and in addicts
and so on, rather than have people know that you know,
this is a family member. So it's not impossible. But
(31:47):
I found no documentation either, and I looked and looked, um,
but the story sticks around, and you know, sometimes as
you know, when there's smoke, there's fire with this stuff.
So it's not impossible, but I can't say it absolutely
happened either. But then you know, who knows, do Zeke
become almost like this thought form, this idea that well, yeah,
this family probably had all kinds of secrets, and that
(32:09):
secret manifest itself as something haunting the attic, and then
those who may not know better or no for sure,
call it Zeke. And it might not be it might
be something else. It could be, you know, something weirder
than we can even guess, but we attach it to
that story and I sort of like that it sticks
around because there was a time where that happened and
(32:30):
we can't let that happen again to human beings. No,
we definitely cannot. It is interesting to me because there's
different reports as far as weather Zeke passed away at
sixteen or at thirty, and but you do have activity
that kind of lends itself to being childlike, which could
have something to do with when it was kind of
overflow for the local pediatric hospital as well. So it's
(32:51):
one of those things that we may never know. And
like you were saying that, it does bring into play
the whole idea that it could be some sort of
thought form. I mean, this place is invest deigated on
the regular They do do ghost tours a lot. You
do have a lot of investigators going in there. You know,
are they kind of bringing Zeke to life a little bit?
Who knows? Well? Yeah, well, you know, to like you
(33:12):
have a false sense of control. When you put a
name on a thing that bumps in the night, you're like, oh,
that's Zeke. You could be totally wrong, but if enough
people say it over and over, you think like, I've
labeled it. Therefore you know it's not so scary. We
do it all the time. I've called it like most
famous phenomenon, right, Like, you know, you're at an old
bed and breakfast in Virginia that says George Washington slept here,
and there's like a knock on the wall and it's
(33:33):
the ghost of George Washington, right, who slept there one night.
You know, there are these kind of figures that have
stayed everywhere apparently, or have served time in every prison.
And yeah, George Washington al capone high on that list,
Abraham Lincoln, so we've met them all. I actually have
another sort of theory on it, and maybe maybe Washington
is haunting all those places, or Carpona or anybody else,
(33:55):
because when you go into a location and you sort
of tune into that story in in a weird way,
you kind of summon it. You've done group investigations where
we bring people in to have these experiences, and how
many times has someone said, like, you know, you're at
the Stanley Hotel in Colorado and someone's like, oh my gosh,
my grandmother's coming through and you're like, wow, did she
work here? Did she used to live here or visit
(34:16):
it a lot? No, she's never been to Colorado, right,
and you go, oh, and I'm not saying that they're wrong.
I'm just saying that they're in a mindset that they're
in a haunted place. It's dark, it's late at night,
and now they're open to things that are probably around
us all the time. We just don't think about them
when we're in the grocery store, you know, getting chips
and Falstaff beer. I think this goes for a lot
(34:39):
of haunted locations, even not necessarily people that you might know,
but just enough people investigating. I mean, there is this
kind of idea that any nearby spirits or anyone that
you might kind of connect to my kind of heads
your way, you know, And so that could be the
case for the Lamp Mansion as well. I mean, when
people think about haunted places and Missouri, the Limp Mansion
(35:01):
is kind of like the top on the list. I
would say, yeah, absolutely, And I have these tops trading
cards from years ago, and they only made a dozen
of them, but they were haunted places and the Lamp
was one of them. It's one of those places that
and you know, as investigators, it's it's been on every show.
Let's be honest, all of them, right, if have been
at Lamp at some point, and it just makes it
more famous and for those of people that like to
(35:23):
check it out for themselves, it sort of calls to
you in a way. Meanwhile, you're also stepping in the
footprints of hundreds, if not thousands, of other investigators over
the years who have left their own, you know, residual
stuff behind as well. Yeah. Well, I mean I do
love that they embrace that past, like and when you
go to their website, it's you know, the hauntings are
front and center. There are a brewery, there's a Lamp
(35:47):
brewery there now, and they're kind of embracing all of it,
which and not much has changed either. When you go
in there, it is kind of a step back in time,
Like obviously it had some other incarnations since the family
left it, but I mean you walk in and it
looks like you would imagine it looked when that family
lived there, And and that's a big part of it,
isn't it. Right. I Mean, if it was completely renovated
(36:08):
with like neon lights and whatever, it takes you out
of the moment. But when you when you see that,
like you're there. I've said that like about the Queen Mary.
You walk onto that ship and you're like, wow, it
feels like it could be like I'm wearing a tuxedo
or something. It's that context is such an important part
of this, and I think it helps you tune in.
And if you're all open to the notion of history
(36:29):
being alive and and ghosts and spirits and so on,
a place like that, you know, no wonder. It's such
a hot bed. Absolutely, lots of hauntings. There are lots
of experiences I need to get back. I feel like
every time I go to Missouri, I'm kind of like
in the Kansas City area, but I need to like
mosey on over to St. Louis apparently and go see
some ghosts and have a beer. Absolutely, and what I love,
(36:51):
you know to it, and it's not lost you know
when you're when you're there, especially if you're from out
of state. Missouri is of course the show me state.
And that's all we want to see, isn't it. Just
show me the ghosts, Show me the ghosts. There's a
lot of them there. I think we're good now. Okay, okay, So,
(37:14):
first of all, your podcast, which I have listened to
quite a few episodes of New England Legends. Correct, thanks,
we don't ask much of you. They're only like fifteen
minutes long. Well, I love it because, like I have
become a New Englander in the last ten or twelve years,
which is so strange. When when we met, I was
still living in California, and so I love that showcases
local haunts. But I mean it really resonates with anyone,
(37:37):
Like even when I lived in California, I would have
listened to this podcast. Well, thank you, Yeah, no, it's
been so much fun. And what's cool is like our audience.
I mean, the stories are really crowdsource now, and my
favorite stories are the totally obscure ones that I've never
heard of, you know, where someone's like, hey, I grew
up in this little town in Maine and we had
this like cursed grave, or there's this bottomless well or
(37:57):
that kids say is haunted. You know, just these story
worries that sounds familiar no matter where you live, because
you know, these these things travel, but we have our
own local versions of them, and it's a connection to
incredible history, whether it's witches and witch trials or history
that left a mark or a scar or a stain,
if you will, And that's you know, the haunting that's
still around today. I just I absolutely adore and we
(38:19):
get to cover all kinds of weird stuff, not just ghosts,
but aliens and bigfoot and cryptids and every weird thing
in between. No, I love it because I'm always discovering
new stories on it. You guys have done just a
really great job with it. I super enjoy it. For real.
Is there anything else you want people to know about
what you're working You're always working on so much. You're
you're like as busy as I am. Use so many
irons in the fire. No. I've been doing a lot
(38:41):
of shock docs for Discovery plus have done seven of
them now, so um, that's that's been sort of fun.
I'm actually on camera for those, so I'm not just
behind the scenes and that's been good. And working on
a new book just in time for Christmas next year,
and uh, it's it's gonna It's gonna save Christmas. That's
my objective. I can't wait. Well, you have been awesome
(39:02):
as always. I super appreciate you taking the time. And
someday maybe we'll be at the Lamp Mansion together looking
for ghosts and having a beer or two. Maybe they
have chardonnay for me, but I will have a beer
when one necessary. All right, Thank you, Jeff, I appreciate you.
Thanks Amy. Clearly, stories of the lamps still fascinate as
(39:27):
much today as they did when they were alive. While
I do believe the mansion to very much be haunted,
part of me hopes it's not by that family. With
all those demons haunting them in life. I so hope
they have moved on and aren't haunting us in death.
So next time you stop into Limp Mansion and pop
open a beer, think about all the history and turmoil
(39:48):
that fueled the beverage you are about to sip. I'm
Amy Brunei, and this was Haunted Road. M Haunted Road
is a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and
(40:10):
Mild from Aaron Mankey. Haunted Road is hosted and written
by me Amy Bruney, additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn. The
show is edited and produced by rema El Kali and
supervising producer Josh Thing and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams,
and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio.
Visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
(40:34):
you listen to your favorite shows. H
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky listener. Discretion is advised. St. Louis,
February fourteenth, nineteen o four. This is taken from the
(00:23):
Southern Standard. William J. Limp, president of the lymp Brewing Company,
shot himself through the temple with the revolver at his
home thirty three twenty two Lamp Avenue, at nine thirty
o'clock Saturday forenoon, while in a fit of grief over
the recent death of his son Edward. He died an
hour later, without having been conscious after the shot was fired.
(00:45):
The first known of the act at the Frewery office
was at a little after nine thirty, when a messenger
ran into the office and told the son of the
brewer to hurry to the residence a few doors away.
It was an hour later when word was received at
the office that Mr Limp had shot himself and was dead.
From what can be learned, Mr Lamp arose at his
wonted hours Saturday morning a a light breakfasts, and upon
(01:08):
complaining that he did not feel well, returned to his room.
He must have spent some time there writing and making
known his last earthly wishes. An hour later, a shot
was heard. Members of the household ran to the room,
only to find the millionaire brewer in the last throes
of death. He was partially disrobed and lay upon the
bed with his revolver smoking on the bloodstained covers. The
(01:30):
man's muscles twitched, he breathed heavily. A gaping wound in
his temple told the story. Messengers were dispatched for physicians,
and Dr Harmish was the first to arrive. He is
beyond all medical or surgical a, the doctor stated. At
ten o'clock he passed away. I'm Amy Bruney, and this
(01:51):
is haunted road. If you were to visit thirty three
twenty two demental place today, you'd see a historic inn
built more than one hundred fifty years ago, filled with
happy diners and overnight guests. Well, that might not be
(02:15):
all you see. Lemp Mansion is one of St. Louis's
grandest homes, which house generations of one of the city's
most prominent and troubled families. Among tragic accounts of untreated
mental illness and untimely deaths are stories of underground passages,
false claims to the family fortune, rumors of a generational curse,
and even a child hidden away in the attic. The
(02:38):
legends linger in the Limp Mansion restaurant and end Today
after the mystery, dinners and parties are over, Guests report
strange happenings, Phantom footsteps and knocking sounds ring through the hallways,
Shadows peak around corners, small objects move on their own,
and a piano mysteriously plays by itself when no one
is nearby. But in the beginning, there was just one
(02:58):
family and one very big American dream on the banks
of the Mississippi River. St. Louis, Missouri, is a city
of about three hundred thousand people. It grew rapidly in
the early nineteenth century with the advent of the steamboat,
and quickly became a major destination for Irish and German immigrants.
One of those immigrants, Johann Adam Lamp, who emigrated from
(03:19):
Central Germany, arrived in the United States about eighteen thirty six.
On his arrival in St. Louis in eighteen thirty eight,
Lamp opened a grocery store where he sold his homemade beer.
People loved Adam Lamp's German style lagger beer, which was
much lighter than the strong English ales widely available in
America at the time. In a short two years, Lamp
(03:40):
started a beer company using German recipes. In eighteen forty,
the first location of the Lamp Brewery was located where
the south leg of the city's iconic Gateway arch now stands. St.
Louis Magazine called Adam Lamp one of the most influential
figures in St. Louis history for his runaway success as
a brewer. Lamp Brewery became so popular so quickly that
(04:01):
in just five years it moved to a larger facility
with limestone caves underneath where beer could be kept cold
in an above ground beer garden called Lemp's Cave, where
people would sit and sit. The elder Limp died in
eighteen sixty two, and his son William took over the company.
That same year. William Lymp and his wife Julia had
a son who died at birth. In the following years,
(04:22):
they would have eight more children, Anna, William Jr. Lewis, Charles, Frederick, Hilda,
Edwin and Elsa. What's known today as the Limp Mansion
was actually built by William Senior's father in law Jacob
Fickert in eighteen sixty eight. It's just down the street
from the brewery, as Cathy Wiser Alexander wrote for Legends
(04:42):
of America. By the eighteen seventies, the Limp family symbolized
both wealth and power, as the Lemp Brewery controlled the St.
Louis beer market, a position it maintained until Prohibition. The
family bought the Limp Mansion in eighteen seventy six and
began renovating and expanding the thirty re room house. The
Victorian home was built in the Italianate style and stands
(05:04):
three stories tall, with a basement and an attic. The
front of the home is white with black trim and
looks relatively plain from the outside, but inside there are
endless architectural curiosities, like an atrium where the lamps kept
exotic plants and birds, and a hand painted ceiling in
the parlor, which has green and yellow floral designs and
depictions of clouds. On the third floor, in addition to
(05:27):
the servants quarters, there are cedar walk in closets, a skylight,
and an observation deck. As the mansion's history describes, the
main bathroom is dominated by a unique glass enclosed free
standing shower that Lamp discovered in an Italian hotel and
brought back to St. Louis for his personal use. Other
unusual fixtures in the room are a barber chair and
(05:47):
a sink with glass legs. At the rear of the
house are three massive vaults that the Lamps built to
store art. The Lamps also built a tunnel that connected
the home's basement to the caves below the brewery, or
or at least the tunnel probably existed. Chris Nafzinger of St.
Louis Magazine has reviewed old records and believes that the
tunnel link between the mansion and the brewery caves is
(06:10):
a myth, but staff at the Lamp mansions say there
absolutely was a tunnel, which many believe is concealed by
a bricked over portion of wall in the basement of
the home. It's said that members of the Lamp family
would walk to work through the tunnel. Lent Brewery introduced
artificial refrigeration in eighteen seventy eight, at which point parts
of the cave were converted as entertainment spaces like a
(06:32):
natural auditorium and a theater. As Kathy Wiser Alexander wrote.
This underground oasis would later spawn a large concrete swimming
pool with hot water piped in from the brewery boiling house,
and a bowling alley. The caves are still used for
entertainment purposes today. They're now home to the subterranean Lent
Brewery Hunted House. By the eighteen nineties, Lent Brewery was
(06:56):
selling their beer all across America, something a regional brewery
had never achieved before. As Troy Taylor wrote in Haunted, Missouri,
Lamp was the first brewery to establish coast to coast
distribution of its beer, shipping it out in refrigerated railroad cars.
After expanding across America, Lamp also spread to overseas markets,
and by the late eighteen nineties the beer could be
(07:18):
found in Canada, Mexico, Britain, Germany, Central and South America,
the West Indies, the Hawaiian Islands, Australia, Japan, and beyond.
In eighteen ninety seven, William's daughter, Hilda Mary gustav passed.
You may recognize that last name. In eight William Jr.
Known as Billy, married Lillian Hanlon, whom the St. Louis
(07:38):
Post Dispatch described as a railroad supply. Harris known as
the Lavender Lady because she favored that color for everything,
even the harnesses on her horses. But the happy times
didn't last. In nineteen o one, Williams twenty eight year
old son, Frederick, who had been the superintendent of the brewery,
died of heart failure. Three years later, on the morning
(08:00):
of February thirteenth, nineteen o four, William Lamp died of
a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head in his
bedroom at Limp Mansion. He was sixty eight years old.
It said that he was never the same after Frederick's death.
He was also greatly affected by the death of his
friend and fellow brewery king, Frederick past who died in
January of that year. William's son had been named after Papst.
(08:24):
The day after William's death, a front page article on
the St. Louis Post Dispatch referred to him as one
of the best known brewers in America. The Lamp Brewing
plants were shut down on the day of his funeral,
with longtime employees serving as pall bearers. Among the honorary
pallbears was Adolphus Bush, the co founder of Annheuser Busch,
His son took over the brewery, but he and Lillian
(08:47):
were more interested in enjoying their vast fortune than in
running the family business. They spent extravagantly staffing the house
with servants and buying opulent art and clothing. William Jr.
Also through decadent party in the limestone caves beneath the brewery,
including hiring sex workers for his friends. According to persistent,
(09:07):
although entirely unsubstantiated rumors, William Junior eventually followed a child,
a boy born with Down syndrome or some type of
physical deformity, either with one of those sex workers or
with a servant at the mansion. The child was supposedly
hidden in the attic where he lived out his days,
though there is no documentation to prove this. William Junior
(09:28):
and Lillian divorced in nineteen o nine in a scandal
filled trial that made headlines. The court heard that William
Junior had beaten Lillian, thrown her down the stairs, shot
neighborhood cats for sport, had been seen with other women,
and visited houses of bad repute, all of which he denied.
Lillian also testified that she had to restrain William Junior
from shooting a black butler after the former believed the
(09:51):
latter was acting as were counted in the St. Louis
Globe Democrat Insolent and Surly. William Junior claimed that he
pulled the gun in self defense because Butler was near
a table with knives on it. William Junior had hired
a private detective to follow Lilian after reading a letter
that she claimed she had left as a trap to
see if he went through her mail, and was allegedly
coerced into signing a document saying that the baptism and moral,
(10:14):
religious and collegiate teaching, direction and instruction of all children
born of our marriage shall be left absolutely and entirely
at all times to the dictation, direction and control of
William J. Lamp Jr. William Jr. Alleged that, against his wishes,
Lillian was attempting to raise their eight year old son,
William the Third, as a Catholic. Lilian claimed that she
(10:35):
had been tricked, saying, according to the St. Louis Joseph
Press News, that when she signed it, the paper was
so folded as to conceal the contents, and that she
supposed that she was signing another paper that she had
been read to her. For his part, William Junior was
embarrassed by his wife's eccentric clothing preferences. During the trial,
he told the court that he did not like his
wife's almost constant wearing of the color purple, saying I
(10:58):
didn't want her to be conspict us by wearing the
same thing all the time. In fact, one of the
only times she was ever seen not wearing purple was
on the final day of the hearing, when she arrived
to court wearing all black. With a divorce finalized, William
Junior remodeled the home in nineteen eleven, converting part of
the space into brewery offices. According to Kathy Wiser Alexander,
(11:20):
at this time, William allowed the company's equipment to deteriorate
without keeping abreast of industry innovations. By World War One,
the brewery was just barely limping along. In nineteen nineteen,
William Junior shut down the company after the passage of
the Nineteenth Amendment making prohibition the law of the land. However,
he didn't tell his workers about the closure. They simply
(11:42):
arrived to work one day to find the gates locked.
More sadness followed and quickly. On the morning of March
twentie nine, Elsa, the youngest of the Lemp siblings, died
of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the heart. She
was thirty seven and at the time was St. Louis's
richest woman. Elsa had maladies including indigestion, nausea, and depression,
(12:04):
but some speculate that her death was suspicious. She had
recently remarried her former husband, Thomas Wright, who she divorced
the previous year. Her new again husband allegedly waited almost
half an hour to call for a doctor, and several
of the servants changed their stories about the morning's events
after the fact. In June nineteen twenty two, the Limp
(12:24):
Brewery was sold piecemeal at auction for five hundred eighty
eight thousand, five hundred dollars, which is nine point eight
five million by today's standards, well below its original valuation
of seven million dollars, which is a hundred twenty three
point four million today. Six months later, despondent over the
state of the family business, William Jr. Took his own
(12:44):
life in his office at the Limp mansion on December
twenty ninth, nineteen twenty two, he was fifty five years old.
A contemporary newspaper report noted that Billy Lamp especially has
lived in a retired manner since prohibition went into effect
and the brewer we closed down its manufacture of beer
in nineteen forty three. William Lamp, the third William Jr.
(13:06):
And Lillian's only child, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at
age forty two after collapsing on the sidewalk in nearby Clayton, Missouri.
At some point in the nineteen forties, It's alleged that
William Jr's illegitimate child died in his thirties. According to
Legends of America, he was buried on the Lamp cemetery
plot with only a small flat marker with the word Limp.
(13:28):
On the morning of May tenth, ninety nine, another Lamp sibling, Charles,
was found dead of suicide. He was seventy seven years
old and was living alone in the Limp mansion. Charles
shot himself with a thirty eight caliber revolver in the
same room where his brother died. In his later years,
Charles had become increasingly eccentric. After his suicide, It was
(13:48):
noted in a contemporary report that he had suffered from
nervousness in recent weeks. He was the only Limp to
leave a note which read, in case I am found dead,
blame it on no one but me. As Colin Dickey
wrote in his book ghost Land, tradition holds that Charles
shot his dog before himself, though this is nowhere mentioned
(14:09):
in the police reports of the incident, It said that
the body of his Doberman pincher Serva was found halfway
up the basement stairs. The Lamp family saw an unusually
high amount of suicides, but they were also happening in
other German immigrant brewing families. On February thirteenth, nineteen thirty four,
Anheuser Busch president August Busch committed suicide by revolver, thirty
(14:30):
years to the day after William Senior suicide and Otto F.
Stifle of the Old Stifle Union Brewery also ended his
own life. Police eventually started calling the act of suicide
the Dutch act, a corruption of the word Deutsche or German.
After the last Lamp to live in the mansion died
in nineteen fifty, the home became a boarding house. It
(14:51):
was also used to house children from a nearby pediatric hospital,
Marian Hospital. In the early nineteen sixties, the house was
slated for demolition to room for the Ozark Expressway. Public
outcry and advocacy surrounding a nearby property, the Chatelaunde Demonial Mansion,
ended up saving the Lamp Mansion when the highway was
rerouted to preserve it. However, much of the Lamp Mansion's grounds,
(15:14):
as well as the carriage house, were leveled. Edwin, the
last remaining Lamp sibling, died in nineteen seventy at the
age of ninety. As Kathy Wiser Alexander wrote, according to
Edwin's last wishes, his butler burned all of his paintings
that the Lamps had collected throughout his life, as well
as priceless Limp family documents and artifacts. These irreplaceable pieces
(15:35):
of history vanished in the smoke of a blazing bonfire.
In nineteen seventy five, the mansion was bought by Dick Pointer,
who converted it into a restaurant. It still operates as
an inn and restaurant today. In a man named Andrew
Paulson appeared in St. Louis and claimed to be a
Limp descendant. He was in position of a key to
(15:55):
the family mausoleum in Bellefontaine Cemetery, as well as various
other heirlooms. Paulson was eventually revealed to be an impostor
looking to make money off the Lamp name. He wasn't
the first to do so. In nineteen o one, a
man claiming to be Billy Limp bought a large diamond
brooch from a Saint Louis jewelry store, telling them to
build the Limp Brewery. He pawned the brooch and was
(16:16):
never seen again. Many are convinced that some sort of
curse caused so many of the Limps to take their
own lives, especially since all the suicides took place by
firearm and in the morning hours. But as Colin Dickie
points out in ghost Land, it's more likely that the
curse was a family history of untreated mental illness. With
all the dark history surrounding the family and the home,
(16:37):
it's no surprise that the Limp Mansion is often called
one of the most haunted homes in America. Betsy Burnett Blandra,
the Limp Mansion's historian and paranormal investigator, believes that there
are nine spirits in the house. In addition to the Limps,
Burnett Belangra has also come into contact with the spirit
of a servant who still cares for the spirit of
a sixteen year old named Zeke and a child named Elizabeth.
(17:00):
She's also identified a spirit she calls the Stinky Man,
who told her to get out of the house. She
believes that Charles Limp may have been affected by the
presence of some of these ghosts. The building got its
haunted reputation soon after its conversion into a rooming house,
with tenants reporting phantom footsteps and knocking sounds. Allegedly, people
wouldn't stay long because of the hauntings. During the nineteen
(17:22):
seventies renovations to transform the mansion into a restaurant and
in According to Legends of America, workers within the house
often told stories of apparitions, strange sounds, vanishing tools, and
a feeling of being watched. Frightened by the hauntings, many
would leave the job site, never to return. One worker
heard the sound of horses hoofs on cobblestones out the
(17:42):
window on a portion of lawn later discovered to have
covered the area that was the cobblestone driveway of the
mansion while the ceiling frescoes were being restored. A worker
named Claude breck Walt told the St. Louis Post Dispatch
that he was on the job late one night when
he had this sensation that someone was staring at me.
I just knew that some one was staring at me
through the glass beveled doors. There was no doubt. I
(18:05):
got chills up and down my back. My hair stood
on end. Until then, I never believed in ghosts. From
then on, Brekwalt would only work during the daytime with
others near by, and turned down working on additional rooms. Today,
the staff in the restaurant, according to Culture Trip, have
heard the piano playing itself and doors locking and unlocking themselves.
They also report cold spots and apparitions throughout the building
(18:28):
and the hallways. People say they've seen a young child,
as well as the figure of an older man who
is sometimes said to be Charles Limp in his hat,
cape and shiny shoes. Some have also reported hearing gunshots
in the hallways. Where the dining room stands today is
the side of the office where William Junior and Charles
took their own lives. In that room, people have seen
(18:49):
an apparition of a man sitting down to dinner, only
to vanish when approached. Glasses are said to levitate on
their own. Some claimed to have seen the apparition of Lilian,
the Lavender Lady in the room. The guest rooms are
named after family members and each has its own unique activity.
And the Charles Lamp Suite, small objects sometimes move around
on their own, and Charles has been spotted in his
(19:11):
top hat in the space. And the Elsa Lamp Suite,
which is her childhood bedroom, people report mischievous behavior attributed
to kids who stayed in the mansion when it was
used as overflow for the local pediatric hospital. Guests experience
something pulling at the sheets while they are trying to sleep,
or tugging at their legs. In the William Lamp Suite,
people say they hear footsteps running up the stairs and
(19:33):
someone kicking the door. As Kathy Wiser Alexander wrote, when
William killed himself, William Jr. Was known to have run
up the stairs to his father's room and, finding it locked,
began to kick the door to get to his father.
Other guests have reported hearing moaning in this room. The
womanizing William Jr. Is also rumored to haunt the women's
bathroom on the first floor. Women say something peaks over
(19:55):
the tops of the stalls and turns on the water
when no one else is in the bathroom. In the basement,
in the tunnel area, which staff members allegedly called the
Gates of Hell, people report seeing a shadow figure and
sometimes hearing phantom dog barking. The darkest stories, though, come
from the attic. Some believe that William Jr's illegitimate son
haunts the attic, where he spent his life. A few
(20:17):
sources claim his name is Zeke. People frequently report seeing
the face of a boy in the attic windows, but
some believe he was a ward of the state who
died there when the house was used as patient housing.
In Missouri's Haunted Route sixty six, Jane Tremire wrote, another
legend concerning the boy is that he was William's brother,
born when William's mother, Julie, was close to fifty, and
(20:38):
that the child was deformed because of her advanced age.
Some sources say Zeke died at sixteen, others say he
was aged thirty paranormal investigators report that toys left in
the attic will be moved when they return, and the
voice of a child saying help me, help me has
been reported here. Betty Burnett Balanger says this spirit is
very scared, afraid of people, and believes that he's looking
(21:01):
for his mother. To talk more about the hauntings at
Limp Mansion, I have a special treat for you. My
dear friend Jeff Belanger will be joining us. Both of
us have investigated the Limp Mansion and we can't wait
for you to listen in on our conversation about what
we and others have experienced there. That's coming up after
the break. All right, So I am now joined by
(21:34):
one of my dearest friends, Mr Jeff Blanger. Who is
I mean, I don't know you are? You wear many hats,
your paranormal researcher, author now podcast hosts like I don't
even know what to call you anymore? Jeff, What what
should we call you? Just don't call me late for
dinner or happy hour? This is true. That's why I
brought you here because I know that you are very
(21:56):
familiar with Limp Mansion. You've been there. I've been there.
You're all so very familiar with beer, so it also
seemed fitting. Wow, that's yeah, both are true. I guess yep.
I can't argue either one of those. But before we
get started, you know, anytime I have a guest on
who's someone that, like, I've known for a long time,
there's always this kind of little trip down memory lane.
And I think that what listeners might not know is
(22:20):
I would say, if you were to like turn back
time and say who was the most influential person and
Amy Brunei's paranormal career, I say, with air quotes, who
would that be? And I think that person would be
Jeff Balanger. Get out of here. I mean it because
I think many people think that I just kind of
appeared on ghost Hunters and that's when I first existed,
(22:42):
but well before that, I was in the paranormal scene.
And I just remember you and I connected at a
conference and then you came out to a little conference
I was holding with my paranormal group, and you were
just always really great to bounce ideas off of. And
I remember particularly I was doing this kind of paranormal
(23:04):
group dynamics lecture, which is like my first lecture, and
you were always super helpful with stuff like that. So, well,
that's nice memory. Yeah, I remember we were in Volcano, California,
a town slightly larger than my living room, and I
don't live in a mansion, just to be clear. Uh
and uh. At one point we were out in the cemetery,
(23:24):
which is a tiny little spot of land. It was
close to midnight, and this drunk guy walks out holding
a gun and says, what do you guys want to
become a ghost tonight? And so when people say, like,
have you ever been scared during an investigation, that's one
of the ones I point to. I completely forgot about
the shotgun wielding man drug man. So volcanoes so small
(23:47):
that like literally if someone is born or dies, they
just like they just cross off the po They don't
even paint it. I don't think i've been back there since.
I think that I think you have worked. He won
games that match, But yeah, I was like, yeah, that's
because that's one of those stories I point to, like, Yep,
I was genuinely scared. But I do recommend your books
(24:09):
on the regular too. Well, thank you, so lent Mansion.
I investigated the Lamp Mansion many many years ago. I
actually rewatched the episode of ghost Hunters that we filmed.
They're just you know, to get kind of nostalgic before
I recorded this podcast. I'm not sure if it was
the best idea. But do you remember the place very
(24:31):
well now in your recollection? And I know you've done
a lot of interviews, I know you've been there. What
do you think people probably experience the most at the
Limp Mansion. Well, you know you've already established this family
was just plagued by suicide, which is it runs in families,
it really does. And so when you understand, when you
know what happened, I mean today, if you're in the
restaurant dining area, or if you're by the bar, you're
(24:55):
in the former lamp offices, and two people shot themselves
right there. One guy shot his dog and then himself
right Charles and and Billie, and I sort of feel
like you tune into that sadness when you're inside there.
You I'm the kind of person that researches everything before
I go. I mean, I want to know where everything happened,
what rooms and so on. So when I walked in there,
(25:16):
I was just you know, you look around the bar area,
and you're like, oh, this is where someone chose to
end his own life, and that's different than a murder
or a natural cause death, you know what I mean,
Like someone was in a really dark, bad place and
ended it right here. And I remember speaking with one
of the tour guides at the house who said there
was one night she was camped out in a cot
down in that area because I guess the rooms were full,
(25:38):
and she was sleeping there and she woke up to
find a man pacing around her cot and he bent
down over her head and he started to like make
some moaning sound, and she said to him, you know
you're you're frightening me, and the man disappeared, and that's
when she said she realized she believed these spirits were interactive.
People have been pushed and touched. I spoke to one
(25:58):
employee who said he saw it looked like, you know,
heat waves coming off a hot road in one of
the stairwells. And their stories in the bedrooms and so on.
But I think the most prominent spirits would be Billy
and Charles Limp. And then also there's a lady in
White that some people believe is Julia Limp, who was
also died there. I believe she died of cancer though, right.
It is a place that's filled with a lot of sadness.
(26:21):
And it's strange because you know, they were just kind
of such this influential family and then just it just
kind of descended into darkness and literally like the last
one died and it was just completely snuffed out. It's
a very sad story. Regardless of any hauntings you might encounter,
the energy there is definitely heavy sometimes. I think it's
really kind of interesting how some of these places that
(26:43):
we investigator frequent so often become places like bars and
restaurants and inns, and then you walk in and there's
these people and they're just like laughing and you know,
have getting married and having the best times of their lives.
And as investigators and researchers, like we look around and
we think, oh my gosh, like I know what happened here.
(27:03):
And I don't know that everyone who goes there knows
exactly what happened there. No, I'm sure they don't. They
just sort of look right past it. And forgive me
if I'm wrong, but I believe alcohol is a depressant,
So so there's that and I mean when you say
this family was an empire, all empires fall, they just do.
But I mean, if you've heard of beer, so they
(27:24):
were the first to make Falstaff beer, which you may
have heard of a little obscure, and they sold that
label to someone else who continues to make it to
this day. But Leam's best friend was a Dolphus Bush
of course, Budweiser, right, and William Lem's daughter Hilda married
into the Papst family, perhaps Blue Ribbon, perhaps Budweiser, Falstaff.
I mean, these are the biggest names in beer, and
(27:44):
they all have a connection to this mansion, to this
empire that that you know, rose and then eventually fell. Well,
they also have suicides in their families as well. We
went into it in the first half already, but they
also kind of had not to the extent the Lamps did.
But it was just strange that like kind of around
the same time these deaths occurred in these big beer families.
(28:06):
So I know, when I'm kind of looking back to
my experience there, like I was there with Ghostenders. I
believe we were there for two nights and investigated and
so I was investigating with Chris Williams if anyone knows
Chris Williams. She is like the biggest skeptic you will
ever meet. Like, I remember us having experiences and she
would say she saw a shadow, and then she would
second guest herself twenty minutes later, and maybe I saw
(28:29):
a shadow. I'm not sure what I saw, you know,
but it Lent mansion. We did have this kind of
crazy experience where we were in the basement looking at
these this set of stairs and there's this little kind
of emergency light that sits at the foot of the
stairs so you don't fall down them. And both of
us saw some like feet cross in front of that light.
(28:53):
On two or three occasions, were just staring at it
looked like someone was walking up those stairs. And so
then when we kind of went closer to investigate, you know,
we were trying to kind of recreate it. We heard
upstairs someone walking around and stomping around upstairs, and you know,
we were convinced like maybe someone was up there. We
weren't aware of our crew or something like that. We
(29:14):
account for everyone, but no one was there. It was
almost like something was leading us up the stairs. And
I think people experienced stuff like that on a regular
basis there. No. I remember talking to someone who had
worked in the building for ten years, and he was
telling me there was one night he was locked out
of one section of the building and he was walking
up the stairways and he saw a shadow suddenly coming
(29:38):
towards him quite quickly. All he remembers was that it
was very dark, and it was like the silhouette of
a man with a top hat. And he said, he said,
I swung my fist at it. I thought it was
getting jumped or something. My my fist went right through it.
I literally fell over from the inertia of the thing.
And then no one's there. And then of course he's
reminded that he's in a very haunted building, and this
(29:58):
is you know, he's heard things and heard other employees
talk about their experiences, and that happened to him. I mean,
he took a swing at a ghost. Uh. This is
not something you forget, obviously. It's a very real experience.
If your istoral reaction is to like try to hit it,
you're clearly seeing something in that moment, right, yeah, right exactly.
And then to me, places like let mansion you said before,
(30:19):
how people could be having parties and weddings and in
all kinds of things and not even know the history,
but you probably know it's haunted. I mean, this is
one of the most prominent haunts in the United States.
I mean it comes up on lists again and again.
But if you ask the question, well, why is this
place haunted? Well, now you've got to go back and
learn why and then connect connect to that history and
those suicides and the tragedy tragedies that we know, you know,
(30:42):
have happened before and will happen again. Wealthy families, you
know that that get rich and prosperous and then lose
everything and rather than be poor, that they'll take their
own lives. It's the tragic story that sadly has played
out many times even since. Now what do you think
of the rumors concerning the attic? Now suppose said ly
there is the spirit Zeke? Yes, So what do you
(31:04):
think of Zeke? Do you think what do you think
he actually haunts the I do you think Zeke existed?
What are your opinions on that? So? Yeah, William and
Lillian right, so allegedly had a child named Zeke who
was physically deformed and had other problems, and they sort
of kept him locked away, which um sounds today, you know,
sort of ludicrous, but there was a time where that
(31:26):
was normal. Before the days of institutions, having someone in
your family like that was seen as a huge embarrassment,
which is tragic, right, I mean, these are human beings,
but that was a different time. You you would literally
lock folks in basements and in rooms and in addicts
and so on, rather than have people know that you know,
this is a family member. So it's not impossible. But
(31:47):
I found no documentation either, and I looked and looked, um,
but the story sticks around, and you know, sometimes as
you know, when there's smoke, there's fire with this stuff.
So it's not impossible, but I can't say it absolutely
happened either. But then you know, who knows, do Zeke
become almost like this thought form, this idea that well, yeah,
this family probably had all kinds of secrets, and that
(32:09):
secret manifest itself as something haunting the attic, and then
those who may not know better or no for sure,
call it Zeke. And it might not be it might
be something else. It could be, you know, something weirder
than we can even guess, but we attach it to
that story and I sort of like that it sticks
around because there was a time where that happened and
(32:30):
we can't let that happen again to human beings. No,
we definitely cannot. It is interesting to me because there's
different reports as far as weather Zeke passed away at
sixteen or at thirty, and but you do have activity
that kind of lends itself to being childlike, which could
have something to do with when it was kind of
overflow for the local pediatric hospital as well. So it's
(32:51):
one of those things that we may never know. And
like you were saying that, it does bring into play
the whole idea that it could be some sort of
thought form. I mean, this place is invest deigated on
the regular They do do ghost tours a lot. You
do have a lot of investigators going in there. You know,
are they kind of bringing Zeke to life a little bit?
Who knows? Well? Yeah, well, you know, to like you
(33:12):
have a false sense of control. When you put a
name on a thing that bumps in the night, you're like, oh,
that's Zeke. You could be totally wrong, but if enough
people say it over and over, you think like, I've
labeled it. Therefore you know it's not so scary. We
do it all the time. I've called it like most
famous phenomenon, right, Like, you know, you're at an old
bed and breakfast in Virginia that says George Washington slept here,
and there's like a knock on the wall and it's
(33:33):
the ghost of George Washington, right, who slept there one night.
You know, there are these kind of figures that have
stayed everywhere apparently, or have served time in every prison.
And yeah, George Washington al capone high on that list,
Abraham Lincoln, so we've met them all. I actually have
another sort of theory on it, and maybe maybe Washington
is haunting all those places, or Carpona or anybody else,
(33:55):
because when you go into a location and you sort
of tune into that story in in a weird way,
you kind of summon it. You've done group investigations where
we bring people in to have these experiences, and how
many times has someone said, like, you know, you're at
the Stanley Hotel in Colorado and someone's like, oh my gosh,
my grandmother's coming through and you're like, wow, did she
work here? Did she used to live here or visit
(34:16):
it a lot? No, she's never been to Colorado, right,
and you go, oh, and I'm not saying that they're wrong.
I'm just saying that they're in a mindset that they're
in a haunted place. It's dark, it's late at night,
and now they're open to things that are probably around
us all the time. We just don't think about them
when we're in the grocery store, you know, getting chips
and Falstaff beer. I think this goes for a lot
(34:39):
of haunted locations, even not necessarily people that you might know,
but just enough people investigating. I mean, there is this
kind of idea that any nearby spirits or anyone that
you might kind of connect to my kind of heads
your way, you know, And so that could be the
case for the Lamp Mansion as well. I mean, when
people think about haunted places and Missouri, the Limp Mansion
(35:01):
is kind of like the top on the list. I
would say, yeah, absolutely, And I have these tops trading
cards from years ago, and they only made a dozen
of them, but they were haunted places and the Lamp
was one of them. It's one of those places that
and you know, as investigators, it's it's been on every show.
Let's be honest, all of them, right, if have been
at Lamp at some point, and it just makes it
more famous and for those of people that like to
(35:23):
check it out for themselves, it sort of calls to
you in a way. Meanwhile, you're also stepping in the
footprints of hundreds, if not thousands, of other investigators over
the years who have left their own, you know, residual
stuff behind as well. Yeah. Well, I mean I do
love that they embrace that past, like and when you
go to their website, it's you know, the hauntings are
front and center. There are a brewery, there's a Lamp
(35:47):
brewery there now, and they're kind of embracing all of it,
which and not much has changed either. When you go
in there, it is kind of a step back in time,
Like obviously it had some other incarnations since the family
left it, but I mean you walk in and it
looks like you would imagine it looked when that family
lived there, And and that's a big part of it,
isn't it. Right. I Mean, if it was completely renovated
(36:08):
with like neon lights and whatever, it takes you out
of the moment. But when you when you see that,
like you're there. I've said that like about the Queen Mary.
You walk onto that ship and you're like, wow, it
feels like it could be like I'm wearing a tuxedo
or something. It's that context is such an important part
of this, and I think it helps you tune in.
And if you're all open to the notion of history
(36:29):
being alive and and ghosts and spirits and so on,
a place like that, you know, no wonder. It's such
a hot bed. Absolutely, lots of hauntings. There are lots
of experiences I need to get back. I feel like
every time I go to Missouri, I'm kind of like
in the Kansas City area, but I need to like
mosey on over to St. Louis apparently and go see
some ghosts and have a beer. Absolutely, and what I love,
(36:51):
you know to it, and it's not lost you know
when you're when you're there, especially if you're from out
of state. Missouri is of course the show me state.
And that's all we want to see, isn't it. Just
show me the ghosts, Show me the ghosts. There's a
lot of them there. I think we're good now. Okay, okay, So,
(37:14):
first of all, your podcast, which I have listened to
quite a few episodes of New England Legends. Correct, thanks,
we don't ask much of you. They're only like fifteen
minutes long. Well, I love it because, like I have
become a New Englander in the last ten or twelve years,
which is so strange. When when we met, I was
still living in California, and so I love that showcases
local haunts. But I mean it really resonates with anyone,
(37:37):
Like even when I lived in California, I would have
listened to this podcast. Well, thank you, Yeah, no, it's
been so much fun. And what's cool is like our audience.
I mean, the stories are really crowdsource now, and my
favorite stories are the totally obscure ones that I've never
heard of, you know, where someone's like, hey, I grew
up in this little town in Maine and we had
this like cursed grave, or there's this bottomless well or
(37:57):
that kids say is haunted. You know, just these story
worries that sounds familiar no matter where you live, because
you know, these these things travel, but we have our
own local versions of them, and it's a connection to
incredible history, whether it's witches and witch trials or history
that left a mark or a scar or a stain,
if you will, And that's you know, the haunting that's
still around today. I just I absolutely adore and we
(38:19):
get to cover all kinds of weird stuff, not just ghosts,
but aliens and bigfoot and cryptids and every weird thing
in between. No, I love it because I'm always discovering
new stories on it. You guys have done just a
really great job with it. I super enjoy it. For real.
Is there anything else you want people to know about
what you're working You're always working on so much. You're
you're like as busy as I am. Use so many
irons in the fire. No. I've been doing a lot
(38:41):
of shock docs for Discovery plus have done seven of
them now, so um, that's that's been sort of fun.
I'm actually on camera for those, so I'm not just
behind the scenes and that's been good. And working on
a new book just in time for Christmas next year,
and uh, it's it's gonna It's gonna save Christmas. That's
my objective. I can't wait. Well, you have been awesome
(39:02):
as always. I super appreciate you taking the time. And
someday maybe we'll be at the Lamp Mansion together looking
for ghosts and having a beer or two. Maybe they
have chardonnay for me, but I will have a beer
when one necessary. All right, Thank you, Jeff, I appreciate you.
Thanks Amy. Clearly, stories of the lamps still fascinate as
(39:27):
much today as they did when they were alive. While
I do believe the mansion to very much be haunted,
part of me hopes it's not by that family. With
all those demons haunting them in life. I so hope
they have moved on and aren't haunting us in death.
So next time you stop into Limp Mansion and pop
open a beer, think about all the history and turmoil
(39:48):
that fueled the beverage you are about to sip. I'm
Amy Brunei, and this was Haunted Road. M Haunted Road
is a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and
(40:10):
Mild from Aaron Mankey. Haunted Road is hosted and written
by me Amy Bruney, additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn. The
show is edited and produced by rema El Kali and
supervising producer Josh Thing and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams,
and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio.
Visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
(40:34):
you listen to your favorite shows. H
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