#1 Un-Debunking the Moundsville Penitentiary Shadow Man
#2 The Black Plague Cemetery Subdivision of Massillon, Ohio
#3 The Pipe Smoking Ghost
The Massillon Ghost Hunters Society went to Moundsville Penitentiary for an investigation. While we was there we wanted to try an experiment with the famous shadow picture.
Date:
July 19th 2008
Members present:
Brian, Lena, Carolyn, Christine, Ron, Rick, Sarah, Garann & Elizabeth.
Equipment Used:
Back up battery, IR (inferred) light, Sony Camera, Sony video camera.
Debunking made for TV:
When TAPS visited the Moundsville Penitentiary to record for their TV show Ghost Hunter on Sci-fi. They clamed to “de-bunk” the shadow man. Jason and Grant claimed that what Polly Gear captured was nothing more than her own shadow because someone was behind her with a IR light that was casting her own shadow onto the door. Per Polly Gear she was by herself when she took the photo and she was standing 110 feet away from the cafeteria door.
When Jason and Grant tried to preformed their experiment to recreate the shadow man the only way they could reflect Jason’s shadow on the cafeteria door was for him to stand approximately 10 to 20 feet from the yellow cafeteria door. Grant held a inferred light from their camcorder behind Jason, he was about 10 feet behind Jason.
Looking at the specification on the Sony HVL-IRM Night Shot Infrared Light, its effective range is 3 to 20 meters (9 to 65 feet, most of theses units has 12 to 14 IR LED) So even if someone was behind her with an inferred light, due to the design it would never be have to illuminate the cafeteria door from 110. The light would fall 45 feet short.
Our Experiment:
We attended a trip to Moundsville Penitentiary with Sherri Brake Recco of Haunted Heartland Tours. We went to the hallway where the photo was taken and found the 110 foot mark. Setting up our back-up battery, an IR light (48pcs IR LED) at 116 feet, we aimed it down the hall way. I stood in front of the IR light and had Lena start taking photos behind me.
We took standard photos and photos in night vision. In the night vision that can see IR light clearly at 110 feet ours could not even get close to reaching the end of the hallway.
Now when we all shined our flashlight behind me the shadow that was cast on the far wall was that of a giant! My shadow was nowhere close to even fitting inside the door as in Polly Gear picture.
Lastly we used the light on our camcorder and once again my shadow that was cast on the far wall was that of a giant! My shadow was nowhere close to even fitting inside the door again.
Man made shadow Vs. Shadow people:
TAPS said that what Polly Gear captured on her camera was her shadow, but this is impossible, due to this fact:
On a wall you have two human shaped shadows, one is yours, one is a shadow person. At the very moment you snap off a picture the flash is triggered, illuminating the room or hall and canceling out any “natural” shadows
So the natural shadow would vanish while the shadow person would remain, keep in mind, a shadow person is not really a shadow, its an apparition, but has no features, therefore made of energy and even in a ethereal form it would still remain during the flash.
The science of LUX :
The lux (symbol: lx) is the International System of Units of illuminance and luminous emittance. It is used in photometry as a measure of the intensity of light.
We have one of these meters to tell us the level of light in a room or area. I did a test to see how much light weakens when it moves from the source.
Distance: Lux reading:
0 feet 412
1 foot 380
2 feet 365
3 feet 340
4 feet 291
5 feet 233
As you can see the further the lux meter get from the flash the weaker the light becomes. So if the shadow was her own it would have been transpairent, enough to be able to see the color of the door through it, and by her photo you can not see the door behind it.
In Conclusion:
It is the opinion of the attending members that the photo of the shadow man at Moundsville Penitentiary by Polly Gear is 100% authentic. During our experiment we were unable to validate the statement made by Jason and Grant that the shadow was a result of an IR light behind Polly Gear. From the distance Jason was standing was approximately about 10 feet. In our experiment standing 10 feet from the door was the only way to make a human shaped shadow fit on the door.
Polly Gear was 110 feet away, the shadow is NOT her. At 110 feet her shadow would have been giant, also the shadow in her photo had NO connecting shadow on the floor, from her body to the shadow on the door (On the picture, look at the floor, no connecting shadow.) finally when she took the photo she was at a angle, the shadow would not have been cast on the door, it would have been on the wall. Polly Gear photo is verified authentic by recreation and research.
Date: Feb 20th 2005
Researchers: Christine
Location: Undisclosed (For respect for the people in that area we are not releasing this infomation, tho if you follow our notes and use the internet you might be able to find it yourself.
T here is a housing subdivision in Massillon that is built atop the old Black Plague Cemetery. There were four years in the history of Massillon that the cholera plague hit the city, 1831, 1833, 1849, and 1852. During this time 100’s of people died. People were dying so quickly that is was near impossible to dig individual graves and by letting the bodies stack up it just let the plague spread faster.
It was decided that the bodies were to be taken outside the city limits and buried in a mass grave to control the disease. The dead were taken to the middle of nowhere and there a large pit was dug, the bodies were placed in and covered, no marker, no headstones just a mass grave. This continued in till the plague ended
(Editor’s Note: There have been reports of people who have encountered coffins and makeshift headstone when digging gardens or making additions to their houses, so someone made an attempt to remember there loved ones but this was rare)
Every time the cholera plague returned once again people were dying faster then they could be buried, again the dead was taken back to the same area and another a pit was dug in the same area and the countless amount of bodies was placed in those.
Time went by and so did 2 other cholera plague epidemics in later years. After the fourth time it never returned, but the people that died and placed in a mass grave were all but forgotten.
As Massillon started to grow so did the development of the land roughly 16 years after the last plague in 1852. Housing starting to be built around in Massillon now I can only speculate that whomever buried the dead never recorded where the mass graves were at. It appears that the building of houses started at Lincoln Way E and moved North, researching the housing records the years that the houses were built move up 1855, 56, 57 and so on till 1867 when the construction workers was laying in roads that’s when they uncovered hundreds of bones, that’s when they found where the location of the lost plague pits were, leftover from one of the cholera outbreaks *but the developers did a pretty poor job of clearing out the bodies; several people have encountered coffins or bones when digging gardens or making additions to their houses. A little girl's tombstone was once found in this area. During construction bulldozers were unearthing bones buy the truckload.
One of the neighbors remembers when the city was putting in newer sewers and roads, workmen would unearth skulls and bones that they would pile up along side of the road. Another house that was built in the same area in the year 1923 and at this point there were 500+ bodies exhumed from the plague pits. There has been a ghostly apparition of an old woman seen near this area. Ghostly occurrences are fairly widespread, ranging from voices and footsteps on to actual physical manifestations in peoples houses.
There are other houses in the same area that has also encountered paranormal activities. One of the families had so much ranging from water running down doors to a rocking chair that would rock on its own. They had a priest come in and exorcise the house. (No information was found if this worked or not.)
References
*Haunted Ohio 5 and The Canton Repository
So what is Cholera?
The Cholera Story:
The bad news is that another waterborne disease, cholera, has proven one of history's most virulent killers. The good news is that it was through cholera epidemics that epidemiologists finally discovered the link between sanitation and public health, which provided the impetus for modem water and sewage systems.
With 20th - century smugness, we know cholera is caused by ingesting water, food or any other material contaminated by the feces of a cholera victim. Casual contact with a contaminated chamber pot, soiled clothing or bedding, etc., might be all that's required.
The disease is stunning in its rapidity. The onset of extreme diarrhea, sharp muscular cramps, vomiting and fever, and then death - all can transpire within 12-48 hours. It was said that a person could be in perfect heath in the morning and be dead by nightfall of the same day.
By 1827 cholera had become the most feared disease of the century.
Date: Oct 13th 2004
Researchers: Carolyn & Brian
Location: Union Lawn In Navarre
My sister in law Carolyn and I Went out ghost hunting on Sat 13th, 2004. There's a little town called Navarre, it was founded in 1806. There is a part of the cemetery that is of the first people to live there (in Navarre). The sandstone gravestones in this part are very old and some are blacken and warn away from time and weather. Well her and I was rapping it up for the day warn I said "lets cut through the old part and see if we get lucky." I never through how TRUE my statement would be.
We looked around till we found a headstone that has withstood the test of time, 95% of the face was readable. now on that day the wind was blowing at 10 MPH (I check when I got home) While we was standing there we read off the name
DR. Nathan E Coffin
Died Oct 24 1828
As you stood there a faint small came over us, at first we were stumped, then the smell grew stronger, it was that of pipe tobacco and we both agreed on it. Well there were NO houses near by, any plants, no other "living" people around us. We walk on about 20 feet from the Dr. Grave. I told her "let’s go back" and we did, when we got back to the grave we did not smell anything till about 30 Secs went by and we started smelling it again!! NOW even with the wind blowing it did not leave us! So we said goodbye and went to my car (50 feet away). Well we walked right into the smell, it was following us. I said that he could not come with us, he must remain here, and as we stood there the smell left us.
THE NEXT DAY
Now thinking I was just a bit crazy I called up my other sister-in-law Christine and we went back to the same spot. Now on Sun 14th I checked the weather and the wind was at 0 (still) we want back to the grave and stood and started to talk to Dr. Coffin ( I was also recording for EVPs) about 2 mins into it she looks at me and says I smell pipe tobacco! As did I this time it was VERY strong!! So we both spilt up in a 15 foot radius, and stood still, about 30 secs later she says she can smell it, then after a min it faded and left her, then about a min later I SMELLED IT!!
I then moved back to his grave stone and stood, my sister-in-law Christine stood where she was, As I’m asking questions I started to faintly started to smell it again, then as it grew stronger I started to feel a soft pins and needles in my hand, then my arm, to my chest, head and legs till 100% of my body tingled, as slowly as it started it then left my body. It will be something I will never forget.
Over the weekend my wife and I went back to Dr. Coffins gravesite to see if he would come around us. We had not been there in over 3 months.
As it turns out his headstone, that has stood sence 1828 was vandalize! the gravestone was snaped off at the base.
