Kindred Spirits - Seventh Season

The first inmate came here in June of 1862.

So, wait! Did they keep people down here?

Oh, my God! - Holy .

There's violence attached to this

and I heard in my head,

"Just leave me the hell alone because I don't want to relive this."

It is alleged that the inmates were almost starved

and a female inmate lashed with a heavy whip.

It does make me wonder

what kind of an impression this man made on this building.

Help me? - It just said help me.

The dead want a voice.

We just wanna help this family.

The living need our help.

Have you always been here?

He is watching already.

These buildings are old.

It's a museum. Yes? - Yeah.

This place used to be a poorhouse.

Amy and I got a desperate call for help

from the staff of the Greene County Historical Society and Museum.

For over 100 years,

it was supposed to be a safe haven for anyone who couldn't take care of themselves,

but turned out to be anything but.

Residents, referred to as "inmates,"

were often the dregs of society and were locked up,

starved and even beaten.

Most of the hopeless souls were here involuntarily

and this was their last stop.

We're meeting with whom? Matt and Kenny? Okay. - Yeah, Matt and Kenny.

Over the past few years,

they've given ghost tours to raise money for the museum.

But, one employee has felt targeted by a dark presence.

They've had instances where

people have felt as though they've been touched or grabbed.

I mean, they're seeing things. They're hearing voices.

They've had experiences enough that Kenny is really nervous being in there.

Hey, guys! - Hi, how are you? I'm Adam.

Uh, Matt. - Matt, nice to meet you.

Kenny. - Hi, Kenny. I'm Amy. Good to meet you.

Nice to meet you. - Hey, Matt.

Matt and Kenny. - Before we go inside,

what're you most concerned about?

With the activity we have, we don't know who's responsible for what

or why, and I think we're interested in a lot of that.

What would you say, Kenny? - When people are here working and whatnot,

who's watching us? Who is trying to communicate with us?

Um, and just overall safety with the people that come into the building.

Right. - A few years ago,

I was giving a tour to someone who came in right before close.

Normal tour. A few days later, I actually received a phone call

at the museum from the woman who was on the tour.

And she was like, you know what,

you don't have to believe me, but I just need you to know I'm clairvoyant

and the entire time you were giving a tour, there was, there was a dark

shadow following you.

Mmm. - Just you, specifically.

In that moment, I mean, I was packing my bags up

and I closed down the museum early that--

Really? - It's weird she wouldn't tell you in the moment because,

I mean, what's more terrifying actually is

to get a call later, to be like, guess what,

by the way, it's weird. - Yeah. It would be good

for you to have a quick chat with our friend Chip Coffey

just to see if he reads anything on you like that clairvoyant did.

But, I feel like, we should probably go inside.

Would you lead the way, Kenny? - Okay.

After you guys. - Thank you.

So, this is the original building, the brick structure, right?

So yeah, the very front part of the building was built in 1857

and was a private residence for about four years

before the county acquired the property. - Okay.

And then, they immediately turned it into a poorhouse.

The first inmate came here in June of 1862. - Right.

And the last resident left the building probably around 1964.

Interesting. - So, in that 102 years, a little over 6,000 people.

That's a lot of people. - Wow.

They basically took in anyone who needed a place to go

you know, for any number of reasons.

It could've been,

you know, orphans or mental illness or senior care or--

Yes. So, this was the primary residence

for the Rinehart family when they lived here for about

four years before they sold to the county.

When I started working here, this was the first spot that I actually had

my first paranormal experience here.

We were closing down after an event one night.

I was standing right here and I happened to look

straight down this hallway here

and I saw something running towards us.

It was just the upper part of the torso.

There really was no definition or anything.

It was just more a black silhouette.

Sprinting? Like, we're talking really fast. - Sprinting. Yes.

Oh, okay! - Yeah, like, it was moving like it was charging.

All right. Where should we go next?

We can take you down to the dungeon. - Yeah.

Oh, God! A dungeon? - I'm sorry, there's a dungeon?

Yeah, and it's actually not an exaggerated term.

Oh, my God!

So, wait. Did they keep people down here? - Yep. Yes.

I'm gonna take you right to the room where they would lock people up.

Mmm.

Oh, no! - Have fun with that.

There's another little spot to come at first. - What!

So, that bar was originally used to chain people up.

Oh, my God! - Holy .

Like, fact, we're not, this is not a story been told

by somebody, been told by somebody?

This is stuff they would lock people up for being

rowdy upstairs or not doing something right with another inmate or something like that.

It's awful. Okay. - Yeah.

And that was the only form of punishment

or were there other forms of punishment?

Um, I mean, William Cage, the uh, the steward at the time, was pretty,

pretty rough. I mean, he would also beat people.

Quite a bad man by all accounts.

We'll bring that name up for sure.

Although, what happens down here specifically?

So, um, I mean, we've gotten on ghost hunts down here.

We've gotten a little girl spirit,

that's how she answers to, at least, and that's mainly in the first room

when you come into this hallway here.

What came first? Paranormal investigating

and then, you had activity or the activity was first?

Activity. I mean, it's almost from day one when you enter the building.

Okay. All right. Well, we'll follow you.

We're gonna go up to the west wing right now. - All right.

This is the entrance to the second story of the west wing.

One morning, I came in with another volunteer.

Building's locked. Nobody's here. There was this knocking noise.

It was so loud, we heard it walking up to the door.

So, I unlocked the door

and it just kept getting louder and it was coming directly from up these stairs.

So, at this point, I was recording. I had my phone out.

Anyone up there today?

What the heck! -

And it was almost rhythmic.

It wasn't really just like, randomized or anything. - Mmm.

So, I mean, it just kept getting louder and louder and louder.

All right. I'm gonna go out. -

Let's just leave.

We had the groundskeeper at the time,

arrived on the property, so I sent him upstairs.

So, he went up there and couldn't find a single...

any type of animal. No bird, nothing.

Should we go up there? - Yeah.

You go first. -

I'll admit, I still don't like going up the staircase at night.

So, this is probably the most different part of the building.

This is insane. - You feel it when you come up here.

The energy is usually night and day difference from the rest of the building.

I can feel it. - Mmm-hmm.

Yeah, this entire wing is remarkably active.

There's been several times where I've walked through that doorway

carrying like, our boxes or something and the energy is so different.

I've literally just put the boxes down.

I've put my hands up and went, "Okay, I'm leaving."

Yeah. - And I've just turned around and walked away.

It's just, it's very unwelcoming. - Mmm.

Almost threatening at points up here. - Mmm-hmm.

Well, you should take note that

all of the doors were actually designed to be locked from the outside.

Uh, the further down you go, you can start seeing

where some of those have been kicked out.

Like, this one's been kicked out.

So, people were trying to get out.

Mmm-hmm. - Yeah, this one was kicked out more than once.

Oh, so you can see, like, they had to fix it. - Oh, right here on the side.

Oh, God.

How many people to a room?

There could've been as many as nine or ten people.

Mmm. - Ten in these rooms?

Yeah, and these are 9 by 13.

Okay so, obviously there's like a...

an oppressive type feeling up here that you guys are getting.

You've had that banging sound. What else has happened in this area to people?

So, I've been up here on ghost hunts

where we've actually, we've caught voices.

The clearest voice I ever got up here was, um,

it was an old man,

and just, in a grumbly old-man voice just says, "Get me out of here."

I had to leave 'cause the emotion was so heavy at that point,

it was just, it was so unsettling and...

you just, you feel so bad for the people that were here.

See, they're very aware that we're here.

Well, whoever's listening to us now, please talk to the two of us

so that we can find out who you are.

The energy inside of this building is scary and oppressive.

Amy and I want to get a grasp on the actual conditions of the building.

Yes, we know of the stories, but we wanna see it in articles and reports

and use it in our investigation.

You have William Cage.

His name literally says it all.

He was keeping people in cages.

They were being shackled to the wall.

That kind of energy does not just dissipate and go away.

It is embedded in the building itself.

Our job though, is to figure out what the trigger is,

what's gonna trigger this activity,