Location:
The Old Iris Theater (Books and Crannies); Terrell, Texas
Date:
August 10, 2013
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| The Old Iris Theater in downtown Terrell, TX |
After celebrating John’s graduation from the
University of North Texas on Friday, we packed up and headed to the small town
of Terrell, TX on Saturday night for an investigation. Our destination was the Old
Iris Theater, which was built in 1925 and operated in downtown Terrell until
2001. After some renovation, our gracious host Gayle Harris, now operates the
theater as a new and used book store, Books and Crannies, as well as a small
ladies’ clothing boutique, and a 34-seat theater (in what was once the space
behind the original movie screen), which shows classic movies twice a month. We
were welcomed not only by Gayle, but also her colleagues Sean Damson and
Cozette Moore and the adorable resident cat, Maddie.
We knew this had to be a short investigation due
to other travel plans, so we went right to work setting up our equipment and
had everything ready to go by 8:30. While setting up the infrared cameras, John
noticed that the back corner of the store by the emergency exit had a very
oppressive feeling. Out of curiosity I took our rarely-used dowsing rods to the
back corner to see if anything would happen. Let’s just say I was not
disappointed. As soon as I stood still in the back aisle, the rods felt like
someone was trying to pull them from my hands. This continued for over a
minute, with the rods swinging quickly from side to side and being tugged upon.
When my dad joined me at the back, the rods gave the same performance in his
hands.
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| Don using dowsing rods in the reading area. |
After a few minutes of using the dowsing rods to
check out the back aisle, we split up when my dad went to investigate the
theater, and my mom and I tried some different equipment in the back corner.
While we got no EVPs from this session, we do strongly believe we were
communicating with a young boy using our K-II meter. To help solidify what the
dowsing rods seemed to detect, I swept the entire back corner with the K-II.
The light indicators never left the lowest level, green, unless they were near
the dowsing rods my mom held, which were still swinging and crossing as we
asked questions and tried to stir up some other activity from someone.
Satisfied that there wasn’t an electrical cause for the rods crossing and the
K-II showing occasional spikes near them, I set the K-II down on a book shelf
so we could try to use it to communicate. Almost instantly after we put the
dowsing rods away, the K-II started flashing erratically. When it would stop
for a second, I would ask a question. After several tries, we finally got
pretty prompt responses to “Are you male?” and “Are you a young boy?” It was
hard to tell what were responses given the erratic flashing, though, so my mom
decided to try talking to the “young boy” like he was one of her junior high
students. In her stern teacher voice she told the spirit to leave the meter alone,
leaving only the green light on until we asked a question, and then light it up
to indicate “yes.” After that he responded very plainly by lighting it up to a
short series of questions such as “are you less than 10 years old,” “are there
other spirits here with you,” “are they adults,” and “do you like to knock
books off the shelves?”
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| Note that the lights on the K-II meter are brightly lit. |
While we talked to the young boy, my dad also
found some activity in the theater. Random noises seemed common in there, but one
particularly loud metal clang got his attention and also coincided with a book
being thrown from a shelf in the store, which I will discuss shortly. While he sat in the theater, he got a small
amount of activity with something turning his flashlight off and on (shown in
the video below), and he also got two EVPs. The first was a male saying
“possible” in a very croaky, mechanical voice when Don says, “I sure hope
someone’s talking to me.” The other occured after Don says “Oh I’m sorry, is
there someone here?” when he heard a noise. At least 2 voices (one male and one
female) respond “Not that I know.” The voices were so low and muffled by the
voice recorder’s background noise that I amplified their responses in the audio clip below.
While activity in the back corner began to subside
and my dad still sat in the theater, John sat watching the infrared camera
stream on our monitor. Shortly before my dad heard the loud clanging sound
behind him in the theater, John, my mom, and I all heard a distinct “thump” in
the bookstore and knew a book had fallen from the shelves. Sure enough, in the
romance aisle we found a Madeline Baker paperback (part of the Reckless series, I believe) leaned
against the shelf opposite of its original location. Upon rewinding the video
footage, we saw the book didn’t just fall— it was shoved from the top shelf
with quite a bit of force, which actually made it bounce before landing. When
the video is slowed down, you can briefly see a blurred mass moving behind the
book as it flies from the top shelf. This video is featured below along with footage of the flashlight activity. Another book, a Harlan
Coben hardback, was also tossed from its shelf later in the night, but this
occurred much further back in the store just out of our camera’s line of sight.
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| Orb moving by book shelf. |
After the first book incident, my mom and I moved
to the reading area in the front of the store. I continued to get strange
activity with the dowsing rods, but up here instead of the K-II meter going
off, something decided to play with a flashlight we left on the floor of a
nearby aisle. This went on for several minutes, and a brief video clip of it is featured below. It is
interesting to note that the only two photos I took that featured orbs where
caught during this session when Beverly was setting down and picking up the
flashlight.
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| Orb hovering over Beverly. |
The next evidence we got came from the back of the
store when my mom wandered to the kids section in hopes of talking to the young
boy again. While they are very short, we did get two EVPs from this session.
The first was after I sneezed at the front of the store and she asked if he had
heard that, to which he either whispered “yeah” or said “uh.” Shortly after
that she asked if he had a favorite spot in the store and he said “uh huh.” Both of these can be heard in the audio segment below.
After about three hours of investigating, Gayle,
Sean, and Cozette returned to see how things were going. At this point, they
informed us that there was also a small basement we might want to check out.
Part of the theater’s little known past was that a previous owner fell down the basement staircase, receiving a fatal head injury. He died later at a local head hospital. My dad went down there alone to see if he
could talk to anyone. At the beginning of his EVP session, while he is standing
alone in the basement asking questions, the audio recorder picked up a very
heavy, labored breathing sound. More interestingly, though, was what it picked
up as he was climbing the stairs on his way out of the basement. My dad ducked
to avoid hitting his head on what looked like a showerhead sticking out of the
wall, and after he commented on the pipe’s presence, a gravelly male voice can
be heard saying, “I never drank.” Our impression is that the spirit of the previous
owner still lingers in the basement and was trying to clear up some unpleasant
rumors as to why he fell down the stairs. This can be heard along with the other EVPs in the file below.
Although this was a short investigation, it turned
out to be one of the most rewarding in terms of evidence and personal
experiences. The Old Iris Theater is certainly worth return trip in the future.
Hayley.
