Kindred Spirits - Seventh Season

We have everything from rich,

powerful, corporate CEOs that ran a coal company...

The mine explodes. The whole town...

Felt it. ...shook when this exploded.

You have a murder that happened that's unsolved.

I mean, what better reason for someone to haunt a building?

There's a lot of mystery. No one's

ever investigated here before.

It feels (BLEEP) weird in here.

It sounds like gunfire.

That's definitely someone shooting.

My head hurts on this side.

Did someone fall down these stairs?

Did that say what I thought

it said? 'Murder.' I think it says murder.

Ooh!

The dead want a voice.

We just want to help this family.

The living need our help. Have you always been here?

He was watching already.

Wow.

That's a pretty awesome building, huh?

Yeah, I mean...

Old. It was built in 1929.

So this is The Black Knight County Club.

Yeah. And it actually hasn't served

as an official country club for a few years.

The city bought it. But it's got a really wild past.

They've had rumours of ghosts here

for years and years, and there was a murder

literally right down this road,

a double murder that's still unsolved to this day.

So, lots of opportunity for scary things,

and they just want to figure out what's going on here.

And it's never been investigated before.

Never been investigated before.

So here we go. This is our big chance.

Perfect.

Oh, this is nice.

Hi, are you Scott? Yes, I'm Scott.

Awesome. Nice to meet you. I'm Adam.

Ooh, greetings. Welcome to Beckley's historic Black Knight.

Awesome, thanks for having us. Hi, Scott. Thanks for having us.

This is our first country club investigation,

but it sounds like there's a lot of history here.

Yeah, the club was built in 1929...

OK.

...for the Raleigh Coal and Coke Company.

When this was originally built,

this was only for the executives and their guests.

Very soon after that, they started

letting prominent local folks join here.

But it was originally just a very, very private club

just for the coal company.

Alright, well do you want to kind of takes us around...

Sure thing. ...and tell us some stories?

The old bar over here, folks have seen

dark figures that would wander in the back side of the bar.

OK, well let's go and check out that area.

Oh, wow. OK.

So this was the original gathering spot.

This was the bar of the original facility.

This was? Yes, right over here.

And this is 'original' original? It hasn't changed?

Hasn't changed. Wow.

This is where the deals would be made.

What kind of deals were being made?

They would negotiate their coal leases here.

They would negotiate the sales of their coal here.

The big thing that they were about, is it's an extractive industry.

Right. So they are literally

just like I say, right over and under the club,

they are literally extracting resources out of the ground

while they're having a party right here on top of them.

That's so crazy to me.

So, a lot of the stories that we have here

are literally about seeing a dark figure

that goes from the bar over here

and walking along the back of this room.

OK, so they see a figure.

They see like a shadow figure... A shadow figure.

...go through this whole area

right here? Exactly.

Is there anything else anybody reports in here?

Just like...

People will walk in and feel just heaviness,

like something's just hit them

in the chest. OK.

Alright, so shadow and heaviness. So where should we go to next?

We're gonna go to the Grand Ballroom.

OK.

Oh, wow. Yes.

Oh, this is beautiful.

The chandeliers, everything is original here...

Great. ...to the Grand Ballroom from 1929.

I can see that. Yeah. Imagine,

we'd all stand up here and look over the works of the mines.

You look out the window and you can literally see the coal town

and the three tipples right below you.

What were the conditions of the workers in the mine?

Were they - Because we all know, you know - I mean it's hard work.

It's very hard labour.

You toiled six, seven days a week.

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

And you know, at that time,

there was some mechanisation in the mines.

But it was still back-breaking work.

Right.

Then in December 1940, the mine Raleigh number four explodes.

Oh, God. OK.

So seven guys were killed. Everything shook.

I mean, the whole town...

Felt it. ...shook when this exploded.

Mmm. And so does anything specific happen in this room?

So, Nelly Rand, from the Rand-Bailey murders,

has been known to step out on the balcony there

wearing her silk dress

and look down like she's looking

for someone. Interesting.

Where did the - you were talking about murders,

where did the murders happen? The murders happened about 100 yards

out the back road here. There was just a back access road

to the golf course. Oh, so out here.

Yeah, and it was a very popular,

shall we say, lovers' lane at that time, in 1947.

Let's go take a look. Here, we can go out.

You can literally see the road runs

parallel to the golf course here. Oh, this one.

Yeah, that one right there. OK, so to be specific, this was...

This Nelly woman was with someone

who was not her husband, right? Right, E.Ray Bailey.

And so they were found shot?

Is that what it was? They were found shot.

OK. She came up the road here,

and stopped her car, and a few moments later...

Met her friend. ...Mr Bailey

pulls up behind her. Right.

From all evidence, she gets out,

walks down, gets in the back seat of his car.

Mmm. And about 15 minutes later,

three gunshots were heard.

Wow. Interesting.

I'm sure that was

a very sensational story. Very.

It's still the talk of the town.

And it's unsolved? They never... Unsolved...

found the murderer? ...to this day.

How does this place feel at night when the sun goes down?

Because it's about to happen.

It has a little bit of a different vibe.

Things get a little darker, so to speak.

You can hear a lot more at night. Right.

You really have a feeling of foreboding, the darker it gets.

OK. Where should we go to next?

We're gonna go to the grand staircase.

After you. Thank you.

Now, what happens on the staircase specifically?

So, in March of 1939,

Dr John McCulloch, who is a director of several corporations,

several coal companies, he was a doctor, he owns a hospital -

he's one of the executive board members here.

He's living upstairs in the apartments.

One night, they're having a party up here in the Grand Ballroom.

He comes out, he falls down the stairs...

Ooh. ...crushes his skull...

Oh, God. ...and dies right there.

Oh, my goodness. OK. Oh, wow.

So, from that time forward,

there's been activity reported of a gentleman

that glides down the stairs.

Up here on the landing, he's literally ran into people.

Mm-hmm. Whoa.

Did he have a family?

Yes, he did. He did?

OK. So he had a wife and kids... Right.

...that he left behind. Which leaves the question,

why is he living in the apartment upstairs?

Yeah, that's weird. Why do you think he was living

in the apartment upstairs?

I believe he might have been estranged.

Interesting. You can see some

unresolved issues there potentially. Oh, yeah. Sudden death.

Yeah. Especially somebody that powerful.

Should we go up or is there more down here?

No, let's go on up. OK.

Up the stairs of doom.

When they built the club in '29,

the idea was that they built apartments upstairs

in order that guests and other businessmen

visiting the coal company would have a private place to stay.

Oh, OK. Right. So they would

stay in the apartments here.

They see a lot of shadows darting about.

A lot of the past employees would not come up here alone.

Let's go back this way. The apartment

that Dr McCulloch would have stayed in

would have been the one on the far end.

Alright. So how many apartments are up here?

There were two apartments up here, and then some offices.

OK. And so this was probably Dr McCulloch's, as you said?