Wanted: More Long Island ghost stories
BY STACEY ALTHERR | stacey.altherr@newsday.com
7:20 PM EST, December 31, 2008
Calling all ghosts.
Producers for "Paranormal State," the popular A & E cable television series, are looking to recreate the success they had with their spirited investigation at Katie's Bar in Smithtown two years ago, and want to find more ghosts haunting Long Island.
"The show was very successful," said executive producer Betsy Schechter. "That's why we're coming back."
"Paranormal State," now filming its second season, investigates hauntings and other paranormal activity, such as alien sightings. The series follows a team of paranormal scientists from Pennsylvania State University to different sites around the country. Last year, they filmed in private homes, a prison and other public places.
One of the more successful episodes was filmed at Katie's Bar, where staff say they've seen strange happenings - an apparition walking through a wall, a ghost in 1920s-style topcoat and hat, and flying wine glasses. They say they believe the ghost is Charlie Klein, a Smithtown resident who worked down the street from the bar during the 1920s, before killing himself after a series of personal disappointments.
"I wouldn't call it a hotbed," Schechter said of Long Island, "but there seems to be a lot of people from Long Island that have had experiences."
Indeed, Long Island is rich in historical ghost stories, according to Kerriann Flanagan Brosky, co-author of two volumes called "Ghosts of Long Island." She points to two reasons for the presence of spirits here: the long history of American Indians native to the area and events during the Revolutionary War.
"Because of all that history, there's a lot of energy, and imprints are left behind," she said.
But Brosky, a Huntington resident who once interned at Newsday, said individuals also have ghost stories that need to be shared.
"Everywhere is haunted," she said. "There are spirits around us all the time."
Brosky said she was so inspired by the many stories she heard while researching her books that she recently filmed a pilot TV show on the subject.
Ryan Buell, the lead investigator of the A&E show and founder of the Paranormal Research Society, said the TV crew is looking for people who are troubled by or fearful of paranormal activity in their lives. "We're trying to learn more about the paranormal, but we are also trying to help people," he said.
Not all of the investigations point to otherworldly happenings, he said. Some phenomena have scientific explanations, such as a house with a carbon monoxide leak that caused hallucinations.
Anyone interested in having an investigation done by the
A & E show can e-mail pahaunted@yahoo.com.
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Originally Posted by nocturnal396
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