Haunted Hospitality

James Chaney and Michael Schwerner spent the first six months of 1964 working together to increase voter registration among Black residents in Mississippi. This was a major goal of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) — which they both worked for — and the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. That year, they organized a voter registration hub at the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi, but the KKK burnt the church down in response. On June 21, 1964, James, Michael, and Andy Goodman — a new CORE volunteer — visited the site of the burnt church, but did not return to Meridian that evening. 

In this episode, we discuss how the lives, disappearances, and deaths of these three CORE workers — James Chaney, Andy Goodman, and Michael Schwerner — garnered national support for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. We also discuss the decades-long legal fight for justice that ensued.

But first, Zoey starts the episode off with a Something Spooky segment: a BuzzFeed Halloween movie quiz.

Sources: https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/09/05/ep-127-the-freedom-summer-murders

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Finishing up the third season of our Haunted College Tour Palooza, Zoey brings us an extra-long episode to talk about the many haunted buildings of the University of Montevallo. Along with the typical southern history of the civil war and enslavement, this school has a history of violence and death paired with a rural, historic college that brings out the ghosts in full force.

This episode has a old man ghost looking for his buried treasure, a former Confederate soldier protecting the building in death after he failed to protect it in life, an affectionate but mischievous theater ghost, and a girl who was on fire. All of those, and more, are haunting the various dorms and halls of MU, scaring students ever since the early 1900's. 

Before we get to the ghosts, Robin brings her Something Southern to talk about 5 of her Hot Takes in reference to the astounding heat that is blasting the South in these last few weeks of August.

Sources: https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/08/29/ep-126-haunted-college-tour-palooza-part-14-university-of-montevallo

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On this stop of Haunted Hospitality's annual haunted college tour, we're going to the University of Georgia! Founded in Athens, Georgia in 1795, UGA is a public university with a very famous bulldog, over 30,000 students, and some spooky stories. Expect sightings of a historically inaccurate bride who brings with her either a blessing or a curse, and the ghost of a former Confederate general who can be found either pacing or haunting nightmares while giving off a misogynistic vibe.

In this episode, we dive into UGA's most well known ghost stories, as well as some more recent paranormal student experiences. And we can't forget the Demosthenian Literary Society — sorry, we mean the country of Demosthenia.

But first, Zoey's here with her Something Spooky: a mini haunted college tour of Wilson Hall at Ohio University.

CW: this episode contains mentions of suicide and intimate partner violence.

Sources: https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/08/22/ep-125-haunted-college-tour-palooza-part-13-the-university-of-georgia

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Continuing on the Haunted College Train, Zoey brings us Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. This school may be small with a student body of about 800, but it has plenty of ghosts to go around. 

We have the helpful Eliza(Beth) in the theater workshop who helps you find lost items, a friendly nurse ghost in Swannanoa Hall who will check your temperature in the middle of the night, the Runner in Tinker Hall, and Presser Hall. 

Presser hall has many ghosts, including the ghost of Theodore Presser himself, and a lot of them like to watch you play music, play music themselves, or prevent you from playing music.

But don't worry, that's not all. We have seven first person accounts of ghost stories at the end that will have you feeling chills!

But first, Robin brings us the first instalment of "This Woman Could Kill You: Folkloric Women Creatures with Violent Tendencies" for her Something Spooky, debuting the bit with the Ogress herself, Baba Yaga.

TW: Suicide. 

Sources: https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/08/15/ep-124-haunted-college-tour-palooza-part-12-hollins-university/

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For the second episode in this year's installment of our Haunted! College! Tour! Palooza!, we're taking you on a ghost tour of East Tennessee State University. Founded in 1911, ETSU has no shortage of campus lore. Expect stories of an invisible young boy playing with marbles, a stained glass ghost that now haunts the university's radio station, an eerie presence in the dorm showers, and more. 

Somehow this is our first time covering a Tennessee college or university in our Haunted! College! Tour! Palooza! But trust us: it's worth the wait.

But first, Zoey's here with her Something Southern, in which we take quizzes from Lamar University and BuzzFeed to see what we should major in!

Sources:https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/08/08/ep-123-haunted-college-tour-palooza-part-11-east-tennessee-state-university

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That's right!! It's here!!!!

For newcomers, every August, Zoey and Robin do what they call the "Haunted! College! Tour! Palooza!" where they cover a college or two in every episode. Their goal? To scare incoming freshmen!

This year, Zoey kicks it off with Clemson University in Clemson, SC, the rival to USC - where Robin and Zoey both went to college. 

Zoey tells of a curse, two graveyard ghosts, and a nearby haunted mill. 

TW: Suicide.

But first, Robin's Something Spooky Southern is a list of the top 50 colleges, and she reads off the colleges in our domain. Just a few sound familiar, and I'm sure more will by the end of this season.

Sources: https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/08/01/ep-122-haunted-college-tour-palooza-part-10-clemson-university/

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Some stories of hauntings are isolated — old houses, barns, that kind of thing — and some are public: hotels, theme parks, tourists attractions, etc. If someone were to tell you about their own isolated haunting, which perhaps only their family experienced, you would have to base your assessment on how much you trusted that one person. Do you trust them to tell you the truth? And if they are telling you the truth, is that truth objective? Or was something else going on that they mistook for a haunting? For example: mold.

But for public hauntings, it gets a little more complicated. Robin's come up with three tiers for ranking public hauntings, from least to most believable. Tier 1: there is only a generic story of a haunting, often a woman whose lover abandoned her and/or died on the eve of their wedding. Tier 2: the owner and/or managers of the establishment share their personal ghost experiences. Tier 3: guests share their own stories. 

The Marshall House in Savannah, Georgia is without a doubt a Tier 3 location. Tripadvisor is filled with reviews of haunting experiences, from children running in the hallway to inexplicably moving ceiling fans to the irrepressible feeling of being watched. Many of these terrifying details are followed immediately by a comment saying the breakfast and service are amazing, making the Marshall House a location Robin and Zoey definitely want to check out in person.

But first, Zoey's here with her Something Spooky: The Island of the Dolls!

Sources: https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/07/25/ep-121-we-want-to-go-to-the-marshall-house/

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It's Robin's Birthday week! So Zoey went to Reddit and found four Frights in the City stories to share with everyone this week. 

The first story is about a woman who went to New Orleans on their Baby-moon and they had two spooky experience. The second story is a group of friends who saw a street that didn't normally exist and a woman with backwards feet. The third is a series of experiences with La Llarona in El Paso. The last is about the Goatman Bridge in Denton.

But first, Robin shares information about poison rings for her Something Spooky.

Happy Birthday Robin!

Sources: https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/07/18/ep-120-frights-in-the-city

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For years, the Tennessee Children's Home Society had a sparkling reputation — a private adoption organization that went largely unregulated with the backing of wealthy and grateful adoptive parents, as well as Georgia Tann's relationships with high-ranking members of Memphis' political and societal landscape. But over time, people grew suspicious and began to pull back the curtains masking the Society's inner workings.

The Society, once thought to be an upright adoption non-profit, was revealed to be a child trafficking organization. Tann took children — often through outright kidnapping or coercion of the parents — and charged adoptive parents high prices, effectively selling the children that were under her care. Thousands of families were broken apart; thousands of children were placed into new situations without adequate investigations into their new families; and hundreds of children died while in Tann's neglectful custody.

After the truth of the Society was uncovered, laws were passed to further regulate adoptions in Tennessee. And today, many of those children — now grown, with their own generations of descendants — are reconnecting with their birth families.

As always, we have a segment preceding the episode. Zoey covers a cryptid: the Smiling Man.

Sources: https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/07/11/ep-119-the-lost-and-found-children-of-the-tennessee-childrens-home-society

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In this week's episode, Zoey brings us a story you probably haven't heard before. Zoey knows about it through a personal connection, and she'd like to share the story of Walt Davis, a man who was giving to a fault. 

Walt was driving home one day when he saw a young homeless man named Daniel walking on the side of the road. Walt pulled over and learned Daniel's story, then invited him to stay with him while he tried to get back on his feet.

However, Daniel was only there for two weeks before Walt stopped showing up to work. His coworkers found his body, and called the police. It didn't take long for them to suspect Daniel, so they started a manhunt for him.

When they found Daniel, he shocked them all by confessing immediately. However, he claimed it was self defense, while the police believed it was Second Degree murder. 

Before we get to the main story, though, Robin's Something Spooky Southern is talking about the Body Farms down here in the south!

TW: suicide, arguable homophobia, sexual assault

Sources: https://hauntedhospitality.wordpress.com/2023/07/04/ep-118-dont-bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you/ 

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