Haunted Case Files – Cripple Creek

The first of four episodes of Haunted Case Files that feature my work should air in the U.S. this weekend. It covers an investigation of the Outlaws and Lawmen Jail Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Don’t mistake Haunted Case Files for being a 100% factual account of those cases, however; much of it has been dramatized for effect, and it’s only fair to say that a number of liberties were taken with events in order for them to construct their narrative. That’s something I had no input on and no control over. I’ve learned from other writers that once you sign the rights to your story over to a media production company, they can pretty much do whatever they please with that material (unless you happen to be J.K. Rowling) which means that I don’t get to bitch along the lines of “they murdered my precious darling little story!”

From what I’ve seen of it so far, Haunted Case Files is an entertaining paranormal “reality” show (it’s entertaining if you like that sort of show, anyway) and pretty enjoyable so long as you don’t take the filmed segments as gospel.

What I can do is give a more accurate accounting of events here on my blog, primarily because I’d like to see credit given where it’s due. A good place to begin is the Outlaws and Lawmen Jail Museum case.

Contrary to what you see in the episode, far more people than myself, Catlyn, and Shaun worked this case. It was a charity investigation, put together by Colton Tapia of the Eastern Colorado Shadow Trackers (ECST). I give Colton a great deal of credit for bringing together multiple teams over the course of two nights, coordinating a complex event in order to benefit police officers, disabled veterans, suicide prevention charities, sexual assault and domestic abuse charities, and support for depression and anxiety. It was a noble undertaking, and you can both view the recording of the live feed and donate to one of these worthy causes over at the YouTube page for the playback: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rar39vbU8Lw

The teams and investigators who all came together for this case were Colton Tapia and Matt Laughlin from ECST; Aurthur and Debbie McClelland, and Erin Nichole from Cheyenne Mountain Paranormal; LaDawn and Kindra Stewart from Inner Soul Investigations; Shaun Crusha, Georgi Francois, Teresa, Mike, and Deborah Kaminski from the Colorado Paranormal Society. Everybody worked well together, and it was a textbook case of multiple groups coming together and working toward a common goal. Colton and Aurthur did a great job at the “nerve center,” keeping a watchful eye (and ear) on all of the teams, and streaming the feed out over the web for viewers to enjoy as well. Hopefully I haven’t missed anybody’s name off the list, but if I have, drop me a line and I’ll be happy to add you in if you where there.

Teams rotated throughout the building as the night wore on, checking in with Colton in the ops center. It is a fascinating location and one that is remarkably well-preserved. This is in no small part due to the tireless efforts of the museum staff, who are the true custodians of the place. Some of the graffiti that I saw in the cell-blocks brought a real tear to the eye (“they took my baby from me.”)

The scene in which we are in the cells and one of the investigators walked up and down acting like a jail warden did happen, and I remember getting a distinct chill at the thought of what it must really have felt like to be locked in one of those cells for who knows how long, completely at the mercy of the guards and jailers. He did a great job playing that part. The voices whispering all around us were experienced by multiple investigators, though we could never get a clear read on what they said. Shaun’s sighting of my doppleganger was also true, although I don’t believe that it was glowing or looked particularly otherworldly: This is based upon the fact that Shaun truly thought that it was me, until he came along and discovered me in the cell just a short while later.

The “throat cutting” EVP was also one hundred percent genuine, but it wasn’t recorded by me. It was recorded on Shaun’s digital voice recorder, and was doubly strange because (unlike most EVPs) it was heard aloud by the investigators (Colton and Matt) at the time, rather than on playback, which is usually the case. Whether it’s the sound of a throat being cut — there’s a display case full of home-made blades that officers confiscated from inmates over the years — or somebody hacking up a lung, it’s impossible to say, but it really is one heck of a strange sound. Just prior to the sound being heard, two of Shaun’s motion sensors located down there in the basement of the old jail alarmed, without apparent cause. Strange indeed…

All of which brings us to the ending. Now, as a storyteller myself, I appreciate the need for a strong ending. You don’t want your narratives to just fizzle out. But sadly, real life is seldom so obliging. In the episode, you see Shaun, Catlyn, and myself basically fleeing the jail “because it’s so active.” In reality, the more active the case gets, the more interested we are, and the more likely we are to stick around and keep investigating. Over the course of a twenty year career in paranormal investigation, I have fled a location precisely zero times. The same is true of Shaun, Catlyn, Colton, and I suspect every other investigator who was there that night. When things heat up, we tend to dig in and entrench, not pick up and leave.

On the episode, however, the three of us take off like the proverbial bat out of hell, presumably because we’re afraid of what is going on at the location. In reality, by the time the sun came up over the mountains, the Cripple Creek jail was quiet again. Activity had dwindled to the point where all of us felt like it was simply time to go home. There were plenty of handshakes and a lot of cameraderie, rather than the terrified retreat that you saw dramatized in the episode.

So that, in a nutshell, is what happened at Cripple Creek. I’ll be writing the entire thing up for a future book, going into more detail about the events of that night. For now, I hope you enjoy the episode, but remember that it is intended as entertainment. The most important thing, as far as I am concerned, is that those who were there on the night get the credit that they are due. So, Colton, Matt, Aurthur, Debbie, Erin, LaDawn, Kindra, Shaun, Georgi, Teresa, Mike, Deborah (and anyone that I might have inadvertently missed) — it was a real pleasure delving into the mysteries of the old jail with you all! 🙂