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Join us for a chilling introduction to Hauntings of the Kentucky State Penitentiary with author Steve E. Asher on this edition of After Hours AM/America’s Most Haunted Radio, with hosts Joel Sturgis and Eric Olsen. Steve will join the show in the hour2. In hour1, Joel and Eric will illuminate the week’s freaky paranormal news, and Kirsten Klang will read your real ghost stories!

Hauntings of the Kentucky State Penitentiary is the first book in a trilogy of hauntings from author Asher. The Kentucky State Penitentiary opened its clanging iron gates to the convicted and condemned over 100 years ago, yet many prisoners, long deceased, still walk its corridors. Noted paranormal researcher Steve E. Asher provides true, first-hand accounts of the paranormal, as well as his own personal experiences at the state’s most violent, controversial, and haunted prison. He relates shocking testimonies from the men and women who have worked behind the prison walls and their encounters with the spirits of dead inmates.

“Abandon all hope ye who enter here”

This was the actual inscription at the gates of Hell from Dante’s Inferno and this same quotation on a plaque greeted those condemned to serve their time as they entered the gates of the prison.

The prison was a tool to press the convicts into a life of punishment and self-reflection. Extreme isolation and grueling labor forged terrible physical and mental consequences. The prison was not just built to house prisoners. The place was also meant to be a warning and example of the penalties one would face for all those who might dare entertain the thought of a life of crime.

Hauntings of the Kentucky Peniteniary Steve E. AsherSays Steve, “My hope is by publishing Hauntings of the Kentucky State Penitentiary to remedy the silence with regard to all this. I feel this is a story that needs telling. This experience is one that screams, ‘Tell them! Tell them all.’”

Steve E. Asher is a longtime paranormal researcher, freelance writer and artist, as well as a lover of music. He has traveled worldwide, most recently to Thailand where he and his wife adopted one of their two sons. Steve is an avid lover of the nighttime. He has said this is when he feels most truly alive, in the darkness of the night, and therefore most productive in his paranormal research and writing. He is a native of Princeton Kentucky. Previously he worked over ten years in law

On this ghostly episode of After Hours AM/America’s Most Haunted Radio — with hosts Joel Sturgis and Eric Olsen — we welcome Elizabeth Saint and Bill Hartley, co-stars of Nick Groff’s new paranormal series on Destination America, Ghosts of Shepherdstown, to talk about the eerie town and why it deserves its own paranormal investigation series. Elizabeth and Bill will join us hour 2. In hour 1, Joel and Eric will dive into the week’s hot paranormal news, and Kirsten Klang will read your real ghost stories.

In Destination America’s all-new series Ghosts of Shepherdstown, cameras follow paranormal superstar Nick Groff; Bill Hartley, paranormal tech guru; and Elizabeth Saint, a paranormal sensitive, use their many and various skills to help residents restore peace to their homes and find out why Shepherdstown is such a hotbed for hauntings. In the first episode, premiering Sunday June 12 at 10/9c, Nick, Elizabeth, and Bill begin their investigation into the flood of paranormal activity in Shepherdstown, WV as they respond to their first case: a mysterious haunting at the local bakery. The terrified night-shift baker reports sightings of a figure in a gray Civil War uniform and strange objects falling past the window outside. With the help of a local historian and a gifted psychic, the team uncovers shocking details of the building’s role in the bloodiest battle in American history.

Ghosts of Shepherdstown

Called the “most haunted town in America,” Shepherdstown, W.Va., is known as much for its ghostly residents as it is for the local arts scene, university, and historic attractions. In a community of 1,750 people, almost everyone has experienced something they couldn’t explain. Shepherdstown’s five-man police department has been overwhelmed with 911 calls where the disturbances are paranormal, not criminal. This surge of supernatural activity has forced Sgt. Michael King, now Chief of Police, to enlist the aid of top-notch paranormal investigators to uncover the truth about objects that seem to vanish into thin air, disembodied voices, and faceless figures lurking in the shadows.

Shepherdstown, the oldest town in West Virginia, is home to hauntings, bizarre accidents and unsolved crimes. Each episode of Ghosts of Shepheredstown begins with a 911 call from a panicked and frightened resident experiencing unexplainable activity, such as the appearance of a body floating down the Potomac River, a sighting of a headless woman, or a piano playing on its own. After getting a call from Chief King alerting them to the incident, Nick, Bill and Elizabeth head to the scene and complete a full sweep for evidence of ghostly activity, ruling out non-paranormal explanations as they proceed. Once they gather leads, they enlist the help of local historians and psychics to help them in their quest for answers. Along the way, they track and compare clues to determine if there is a trend in these supernatural experiences that could explain the recent awakening of Shepherdstown’s spirits.

Ghosts of Shepheredstown Nick Bill Elizabeth

(Bill Hartley, Elizabeth Saint, Nick Groff)

ELIZABETH SAINT, Paranormal sensitiveGhosts of Shepherdstown Elizabeth Saint

Elizabeth Saint is a renowned paranormal sensitive. The manifestations she first experienced as a child led her to pursue a life dedicated to explaining the unexplainable. Being struck by lightning on two separate occasions sparked Saint’s interest in the natural phenomena of electricity. While completing her B.S in Electrical Engineering, she worked as an Engineer Technician for the Department of Defense. During this time she also deepened her understanding as a sensitive by working with Maryland Paranormal Research as a Technician and Senior Investigator. Presently, Saint is exploring her new home state of Colorado and conducting solo investigations at commercial and residential locations along the Front Range. She uses her own engineered designs, under the name Ghostly Gadgets, dur(continued)

After Hours AM/America’s Most Haunted Radio with hosts Joel Sturgis and Eric Olsen is honored and privileged to welcome forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Dr. Clarissa Cole to the program. Tonight Dr. Cole — who began her career working with the criminally insane, moved on to San Quentin counseling offenders on California’s death row, and currently supervises risk assessments across the state — will turn her skills on the notorious H.H. Holmes.

Holmes, “America’s first serial killer,” who plagued Chicago at the turn of the last century, will be portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the Martin Scorsese film Devil in the White City. Dr. Cole will be special guest for 90 minutes unearthing the twisted mind of Holmes. She will then return to the show on the first Thursday of every month turning her gaze upon other infamous serial killers. First half hour Joel and Eric will review the paranormal news and see what weird stuff has been going down.

Clarissa Cole has over a decade of experience working with a wide range of dangerous criminals including sex offenders, serial killers, and gang members. Her goal is to understand the criminal mind in an effort to not only fathom why they do what they do, but to create change by offering help to those who society deems to be beyond assistance offering therapy to perpetrators and insight to victims, families, and the public at large.

Clarissa can be reached via her website, Twitter, or Holmes Clarissa Cole

A damnably convincing conman, H.H. Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett circa 1860, variously portrayed himself as a druggist, doctor, barber, restaurateur, mortician, hotelier, and patent processor – jobs for which he was unqualified, though he had been a medical student. Of course he was also a serial killer, which he was apparently pretty good at.. Holmes did away with anywhere between nine and 200 victims, which is admittedly a pretty wide range, but he was an inveterate prevaricator and teller of tall tales and changed his story numerous times, including on the gallows.

H.H .Holmes Murder Castle Clarissa Cole

The other reason his body count is so imprecise is tied to his other claim to fame, the “Murder Castle” lodging house he designed and built for the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. While the name on the marquee said, “The World’s Fair Hotel,” it became known as “the Castle.” Inside were airless vaults, sound-proofed rooms, greased chutes down to acid vats, a crematorium, and a dissecting table with surgical tools. So there’s that.

Here’s a few more quick tidbits about Holmes: he feared doctors as a child; he was married to three women at once; he sold skeletons of his victims to medical science; he really did say, ““I was born with the devil in me.”

On this After Hours AM/America’s Most Haunted Radio — with hosts Joel Sturgis and Eric Olsen — we dig into some of the most haunted locations in the world — hospitals — with paranormal investigator, paramedic, and author of The World’s Most Haunted Hospitals, Richard Estep. In hour1 we will keep you up to date with the paranormal news, and welcome a new segment with our super bud Kirsten Klang reading your true ghost stories!

Hour 2 Richard Estep discusses The World’s Most Haunted Hospitals: True-Life Paranormal Encounters in Asylums, Hospitals, and Institutions, paramedic and paranormal investigator, Richard Estep researches and delivers chilling stories of hospital hauntings from around the world. Conducting first-hand investigations, interviews with investigators and those intimate with each locale, and recounting iconic TV show investigations, Estep unveils the history, ghosts, and legends behind 17 hospitals and asylums old and new – some still operating.

Why are hospitals so haunted? It only make sense with so many souls beginning and ending life there, often under traumatic circumstances, that some would linger. Also, with doctors, nurses, and staff dedicating so much of their heart, soul, and time to these institutions of healing and care, it seems logical some would remain on duty even after their own passing.

Among the tales: frightening apparitions at an old Utah hospital, now a nursing home and seasonal haunted attraction, whose appearances predict patients’ deaths. A former Kentucky sanatorium haunted by thousands of patients who died there, and some of the nurses who cared for them. Terrifying screams and violent scenes that scare visitors away from an abandoned airbase hospital in the Philippines, which was a way-station for thousands of wounded and dying American troops returning from the Vietnam War, and previously the scene of combat between American and Japanese forces during World War II. A nurse in grey who haunts the corridors of a London hospital and terrifies doctors and nurses who encounter her restless spirit.

Richard is donating 10% of the profits of The World’s Most Haunted Hospitals to St. Baldrick’s Foundation to conquer childhood cancer.

Richard Estep Thhe World's Most Haunted Hospitals

By day, Richard Estep is a paramedic and volunteer firefighter, by night a paranormal investigator. A transplanted Brit living in Colorado, he has spent the past two decades investigating claims of ghosts and hauntings. He is Director and co-founder of the Boulder County Paranormal Research Society (BCPRS), a major organization involved in investigating claims of haunted properties, people, and objects on both sides of the Atlantic. Estep’s previous books on the paranormal include In Search of the Paranormal: The Hammer House Murder, Ghosts of the Clink, and Other Disturbing Investigations; Haunted Longmont; and The Beast of Mysore. He is a popular media guest and speaker at British and American paranormal conventions. He lives with his wife Laura in northern Colorado, along with a dog and more rescue cats than their homeowners association would like.

On this fascinating and profound edition of After Hours AM/America’s Most Haunted Radio — with co-hosts Joel Sturgis and Eric Olsen — we speak with activist, speaker, media figure Andrea Perron, oldest daughter of the real-life family featured in The Conjuring film; and author of the House of Darkness House of Light trilogy, which chronicles the family’s astonishing interaction with the paranormal over the course of a decade.

Roger and Carolyn Perron purchased a Colonial-era farmhouse in Harrisville, R.I., the old Arnold Estate, in 1970. They spent the next ten years discovering that good and evil engage in a perpetual state of war in a place where time is suspended. It is a window to the past and future alike. Death is not the end, and may, in fact, be only the beginning. The Perron family waited more than thirty years to tell the truth about what happened in their home. They required time to process what occurred and the world had to be ready to receive the message. As Carolyn explains: “This is not the kind of thing one should rightfully take to the grave.” It demands courage and an open mind but, by all accounts, the world IS ready for “House of Darkness House of Light”.

In House of Darkness House of Light trilogy, Andrea Perron chronicles the childhood she shared with the dead and living alike in the wildly haunted Rhode Island farmhouse. A collective memoir, the books detail the encounters experienced by every member of her family. Seven mere mortals spent a decade among the vast expanse of possibilities that exist beyond the five senses, while trying to employ the sixth for clarity. It proved to be an intriguing, horrifying and enlightening endeavor as each family member witnessed manifestations of the afterlife. Their family finally left the farm behind in 1980, but it will never leave them.

“House of Darkness House of Light” is no ordinary ghost story. It poses far more questions than it answers and compels the reader to ponder some uncomfortable concepts, including certain knowledge that there is something beyond mortal existence. Andrea describes their old home place in the country as a portal cleverly disguised as a farmhouse. Theirs is essentially a cosmic love story with a wicked supernatural twist. It isn’t what people expect, certainly not just a series of scary stories. Anyone unprepared for its darkest corners should choose less dense reading material, according to the author. This true story functions as “interactive literature” for many who report being deeply impacted by it. Though it was not written to be a terrifying tale, it has had that effect on some readers, an unintended consequence. Instead, it is meant to be assimilated, absorbed slowly and deliberately; read as a lengthy lamentation or spiritual meditation, taking the reader on a decade-long excursion through the darkness into the Light of higher consciousness, imbuing participants with a heightened level of awareness in the process. No one leaves its pages unmoved by the experience, as was the family who initially had these exceedingly close encounters with spirit.

Andrea Perron Perron family

Andrea received a B.A. in English and Philosophy from Chatham College. The farm had been sold in her absence. Two weeks later they moved to Georgia where she resided for seven years before returning to Rhode Island, her home in heart. Since that time she has owned two businesses and spent nearly a decade as a counselor before abandoning her career with the sole intention of telling this story, writing the books she believes she was destined to write. She moved south again to be among family while drafting the manuscript, living quietly for seven years with her mother and sister Christine in rural Georgia. Having recently relocated to Florida, Andrea is a human rights advocate, an animal rights activist and an outspoken member of the global community.

Andrea is currently focusing her attention and energy on several projects, including a j(continued)

Paranormal Pro Greg Newkirk on this episode After Hours AM/America’s Most Haunted Radio - Traveling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult, Planet Weird, The Seance, FINDING BIGFOOT

On another bone tingling, spine chilling episode of After Hours AM/America’s Most Haunted Radio, with hosts Joel Sturgis and Eric Olsen, we welcome , Greg Newkirk renowned for his Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and the Occult; Planet Weird website; live appearances hither and yon including the Nick Groff Tour, Amy Bruni’s Strange Escapes, and John E.L. Tenney’s The Seance; and recent guest star appearance on Finding Bigfoot’s special “Paranormal Bigfoot” episode.

On a double-fisted episode of After Hours Am/America’s Most Haunted Radio we welcome filmmaker Ronni Thomas, who will be telling the macabre tale of a “mad scientist” who lived with a corpse for seven years, No Place for the Living; Hour 1 report from the new Home of Bigfoot, Remer, MN.

Most of us don’t think of northern Minnesota as top of the list for Squatchiness, but that hasn’t stopped the town of Remer from adopting the motto, “Home of Bigfoot,” nor prevented them from having a rollicking celebration of the big hairy fella this Saturday, April 9. To tell us about the town, its claim to Bigfoot fame, and the celebration this weekend, we welcome Marc Ruyak to the show.

Home of Bigfoot, the stories about Bigfoot began to surface in the late 1800’s. People made mention of “somethingHome of Bigfoot in the woods” and finally it became more than coincidence. A flash of dark in the pines. A large set of footprints along the swamp. Rumor has it that William P. Remer, the founder or Remer, MN, found tracks in the early 1900’s, and that gave some credibility to the story.

Most of the tracks were in the woods east of Remer. The tracks were huge and they sank deep in the earth. Visual sightings happened in basically every direction around Remer and they were usually brief, almost like Bigfoot vanished into thin air. Every once in a while someone would find a small tuft or dark hair on the side of a balsam fir tree. There were stories of depressions on the ground that were lined with grass and pine boughs that were assumed to be beds.

Occasionally, people would leave small piles of berries or vegetables that they had picked out of their garden near the beds. Always within a day or tow the piles were gone without a trace, but presumably appreciated. By 1910, sightings were more common and people seemed to peacefully coexist with Bigfoot. In fact, that was the year that he gained his name. People around Remer talked fondly of “Bigfoot” and, “Have you seen Bigfoot today” could be heard all around town.

There was more than one. Different sizes. There were even Bigfoot children. “Saw Bigfoot at lunch today” husbands would tell their wives. “He disappeared behind the branches of a black spruce tree.” It seemed like the Bigfoot had certain patterns, certain feeding, bedding, and bathing areas. They often bathed near the lowland in the southeast corner of the main portion of Big Sand Lake. Townspeople avoided that area so as not to disturb the Bigfoot family.

The stories continued through the 1920s and 1930s. However, as the forests were cut it seemed that the families of Bigfoot moved to other areas of the state and attempted to stay in the more densely forested areas. There were still sightings, but not in the usual areas, and not as often.

Hour 2. No Place For the Living will chronicle the true account of the life and strange obsessions of ‘Count’ Carl Von Cosel, who authorities discovered had lived with the corpse of Elena Hoyos for seven years. Von Cosel claimed to be in communication with her spirit and, like a latter-day Dr. Frankenstein, was convinced he could use groundbreaking scientific methods to bring her back to life. When the world learned the truth, their macabre “relationship” became a media sensation, now mostly forgotten.

No Place for the Living ElenaThe feature documentary film proposed, envisioned and directed by Ronni Thomas (award-winning short, Walter Potter: The Man Who Married Kittens, web series The Midnight Archive, and producer of the Ramone’s doc, Hey Is Dee Dee Home?), will be developed in collaboration with the peculiar and esteemed Morbid Anatomy Museum, where Thomas is filmmaker-in-residence. Thomas is seeking $50,000 in funding for the film through a Kickstarter campaign runing March 28 through April 26, 2016.

“The idea is not only to tell this bizarre story, but to understand it as well,” said filmmaker Ronni Thomas. “I want to make a film that challenges viewers to accept an(continued)

On this creepy episode of After Hours AM/America’s Most Haunted with hosts Joel Sturgis and Eric Olsen, we survey the latest paranormal news from the @AMHaunted Twitter account and AMH site, then discuss Investigation Discovery’s macabre and titillating true crime series True Nightmares with host and narrator Todd Robbins, a legendary showman and offbeat entertainer in his own right.

True Nightmares airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery and digs into the real life crimes that have inspired nightmarish urban legends and horror characters, such as the tale of quiet, henpecked Wisconsin mama’s boy Ed Gein, included in “The Grieving Process” episode, who killed two women and exhumed nine more in the late-’40s and ’50s, dismembering the corpses and fashioning furniture, clothing, and accessories from their skin and bones, even an entire female body suit, made from — you know — female bodies.

All this was done as a kind of deranged tribute to his beloved, domineering, religious fanatic mother, who died in 1945. The bizarre Gein case inspired fictional characters Norman Bates (Psycho, Bates Motel), Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Buffalo Bill (Silence of the Lambs), Bloody Face (American Horror Story: Asylum), and many more – none stranger than the real Gein case.

What’s fascinating about True Nightmares is the unusual presentation, which involves well-acted and produced recreations of the true tales interspersed with participant interviews, with Robbins acting as on-screen narrator, appearing in and out of scenes, weaving the tales together with Hitchockian melodrama and dark humor.

The next episode on November 11, entitled “Overstay Your Welcome” looks into three more iconic stories of murder and mayhem: a doctor’s devotion to his patient causes him to spiral into a distorted reality; a string of disappearances connects back to an unusual residence; and a movie star proves that love off screen is unconditional, even when it comes to murder.

Todd Robbins is an award-winning New York City-based performer and artist who has spent decades specializing in archaic forms of popular entertainment, offbeat amusements and intriguing deceptions. Todd is renowned for his work in the shadowy world of Coney Island, is expert in stage magic, a veteran of tawdry traveling circuses, and a keen chronicler of the murtodd-robbins-sideshow-worldky realms of con artists and spiritualist mediums and their scams. He is also one of the foremost authorities on ragtime piano and traditional jazz.

Robbins was recently seen in the acclaimed off-Broadway theater show Play Dead, a joyous evening of true ghost stories about real people and unholy resurrection that he created with Teller, of Penn & Teller.

Todd is also one of the partners in Magical Nights Inc., the producers of New York’s longest running magic show Monday Night Magic. He is the author of the cult classic book The Modern Con Man: How to Get Something for Nothing and the creator of the companion Modern Con Man DVD Collection. Todd is featured in the celebrated documentary American Carny: True Tales from the Circus Sideshow.

Tim Weldon Philosophy and the paranormal may not seem like close relatives, but many aspects of philosophy -- including metaphysics, epistemology (the study and theory of knowledge) and logical thinking in general -- are very relevant to any serious study of the paranormal.

addition, Prof Weldon is the author of the newly published Haunted Beauty: Aesthetics and Mindfulness in the Traditional Ghost Story. This entertaining and informative work explores the relationship between one of the longest and most popular themes in world literature, ghosts, and the relationship between ghosts and atmosphere, specifically beauty and the sublime, in those stories.

2d84d143b23a076995cc71254c5fd55c.jpg"With erudite and expansive treatment, Weldon engages key examples of ghost stories from the Western literary canon. His analysis explores how the universal qualities of aesthetics and humanity's self-awareness allow the supernatural to retain its significant place in literature and everyday life. This book makes for a great companion for courses in the horror genre, or a delightful and engaging read for the avid horror fan," raves Dr. Timothy Milinovich, Assistant Professor of Theology, Dominican University, IL.

A native Californian, Weldon has taught at USF since 2001. He is the author of To Be Filled with Wonder: The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition, Subtle Wisdom: John Duns Scotus's Philosophy of the Human Person, Faring Homeward: The Philosophy of Antoine de Saint-Exupery... and now, Haunted Beauty: Aesthetics and Mindfulness in the Traditional Ghost Story. His fiction includes a small collection of short stories entitled Inspired: The Adventures of Will Day.

Tonight at 9pE, hosts Joel Sturgis and Eric Olsen welcome Amy Allan, astonishing psychic medium and co-star of Travel Channel's THE DEAD FILES, to After Hours AM!

In season seven of THE DEAD FILES, which launched last Saturday at 10pE/P, former NYC homicide detective Steve DiSchiavi and psychic medium Amy Allan head back out onto the road to help frightened and beleaguered homeowners as they uncover the histories and mysteries buried within an all-new set of allegedly haunted locations.