Sallie House Investigation

Built in 1867 by Michael Finney, the house was also the residence of Dr. Charles C. Finney, born February 1, 1865. Charles used the main floor near the front of the house for his offices. His family lived upstairs. In a city directory printed in 1903, it does indeed list this property being occupied by Dr. Finney. There were at least three deaths in the house according to city records; Michael C. Finney in 1872, James Finney in 1900 and Kate Finney in 1918. The family lived there off and on until 1947.

This location became infamous due to a botched appendix surgery on a six-year-old girl, Sallie in 1905. He, according to newspaper articles, moved out in 1906 after the death of Sallie. The house was then lived in by a young single woman for around forty years.

Past owners Kelly Elias and Les Smith said that they also had some experiences while they lived in the house.

Around 1992, Tony and Debra Pickman moved into this property. Tony apparently became the target of physical attacks and scratches on his body; some that actually drew blood. Other reports include disembodied voices and burnt finger marks on candles. Even mysterious fires have been encountered during past investigations of the house. This phenomenon started almost from the first day the Pickman’s moved in. On Halloween in 1993, Tony encountered a little girl staring at him from the kitchen. Their dog also began to act differently, growling at apparently nothing. Toys would also be rearranged.

Cold spots, levitation and moving of objects, lights turning on and off and picture frames turned upside down. Some believe that there may be other ghosts associated with the house including a Civil War solider, an adult prankster and a boy named Frank. In a final attempt to rid themselves of the ghost, an exorcism was performed.

I was the first investigator contacted by Craig Armstong, producer from the Sightings television show on the Sci-Fi Channel on July 20, 1994. Only about a week or so earlier, I had just undergone shoulder surgery and was still recuperating, so I had to decline the offer. I, instead, suggested that they use my current research director, Howard Heim for the show, which they did. I later went on to shoot very successful shows for Sightings regarding the ghosts of Gettysburg and a haunting in Justice, Illinois. That original show was in Season 3, episode #42.

After the Pickman’s moved out, Gloria Fish’s family moved in and claimed that nothing paranormal occurred when they lived there leading paranormal investigators to surmise that the ghost had moved on or followed the Pickman’s. They said that upon moving into their new home that some activity had occurred including scratches on Tony.

The Sightings crew also consulted with Father Edd Anthony, O.F.M. and clinical psychologist Carole Lieberman to possibly rule out the religious and psychological areas that many had suggested as reasonable explanations. Nothing seemed to pan out and the mystery remains.

It has since been investigated by Sightings a few more times, this time inviting psychic, Peter James, Kerry Gaynor and Al Rauber Some of the recorded EVPs were even analyzed by expert, Sarah Estep. Many paranormal teams from across the country have traveled to Atchison, Kansas to explore this most haunted site.

Address: 508 N. 2^nd St., Atchison, Kansas 66002

Phone: 800-234-1854

Contact: Maria Miller of the Atchison Chamber of Commerce

Website: https://visitatchison.com › haunted-atchison › haunted-history › sallie-house

Hauntings: Reports of disembodied voices, the apparition of a small child, mysterious fires, unusual burn marks on candles that resemble fingerprints, physical attacks, cold spots, levitation and movement of objects, lights turning on and off, pictures rearranged as well as children’s toys being moved. Family pets often displayed uncharacteristic behavior such as growling at things not visibly seen by family members.

This seems to have only terrorized the Pickman’s to date as previous and former occupants had testified to. Perhaps there was something innately inherent to Tony and the family that caused the spirits or unnatural energies to react in a very violent way?

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Sallie House on July 27, 2019 and the team members included: Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Dean Thompson, Amanda Pilgreen and Timothy Schmuldt from Ghost Head Soup, Bob Davies from Champaign Urbana Paranormal Society

Equipment setup: A number of static IR camcorders were positioned facing up the stairs, in the kitchen, upstairs hallway and the first bedroom at the top of the stairs. Besides those cameras, a red laser grid was setup in the children’s room, REVP device, K-II Meter, Tri-Field Natural EM Meter, Melmeter, X-Cam SLS device, 1080p HD full spectrum camcorder, REM Epod, ultrasonic detector, Ovilus X with DTD, Phasma Box, Ghost Radar app, shadow tracker and SB-11 Ghost Box with antenna disconnected. A set of Motion Detectors was placed in the doorway of the Master Bedroom upstairs, along with a REM Epod and a Moditronic’s 1080p full spectrum camcorder was placed, facing the doorway and stairs leading downstairs.

No two-way radios were used during the investigation of this location.

Experiments performed: For the first part of the EVP session downstairs, a session was conducted without the use of real-time devices. Towards the end of the session the Ovilus X was used. We then tried to use two Ovilus’ at the same time to see what kind of words or responses would come through and if the true responses were more prone to one device over another.

During the 2^nd EVP session in the Master Bedroom the Phasma Box was employed along with the red laser grid, 1080p full spectrum camera and ultrasonic detector. I played a clip from the Sightings television program where Peter James visited the house. He is heard saying, “Easy! I’m not afraid of you!” This was in case the ghost that was there when James investigated this place might still be here and recognize his voice and result in a response.

During the 3^rd EVP session in the Doll Room, the REVP device from Digital Dowsing was used. This device when connected to a microphone converts the questions that are asked to EMF. Since we believe that ghosts exist as an energy form that can be detected with EMF detectors and spirits often imprint their responses directly on tape, we could, in theory, be communicating with the spirits in their own voices. The red laser grid, ultrasonic detector and other real-time devices were also used. In theory, the ultrasonic detector would alert when an EVP is captured on a digital recorder, provided the frequency of that particular EVP was in the ultrasonic end of the spectrum and not the infrasonic end.

Personal experiences:

Bob Davies: My batteries drained in my digital recorder while investigating the Doll Room even though they were nearly brand new and only used once.

During the EVP session in the Kitchen, seemed like someone was playing with my hair.

Timothy Schmuldt: This location ended up being more challenging than I anticipated. I had taken the previous day off of work to gather my equipment, do any preliminary research on the location and get a good sense of how I wanted to attack it and set up my cameras. Amanda works second shift and was unable to get this same day off of work. I decided I would try and sleep during the day, as we would be leaving around 11pm and driving through the night. The plan was to arrive by around 7am in Atchison. Unfortunately I was unable to sleep before we left. When we arrived, we tried to immediately get some sleep. Once we settled in, it didn't take too long to fall asleep; however, we were awakened by Dean around 11am or 12pm. Dean, Dale and Bob were going to visit another location before the Sallie House, and he wanted to make sure we were included if we wanted to attend. We respectfully declined because we wanted to get some more sleep before the Sallie House hunt. Unfortunately, I was unable to return to sleep, so with a total of no more than 3 hours of sleep after a nearly 8 hour drive, I was awake the rest of the day.

We met up with Dean, Dale and Bob Davies at the Sallie House location around 3pm. The owner of the house was unable to be there at this time, but gave Dale a code to enter the home. The house was your average looking house. When I walked in, it felt empty inside, but there was furniture throughout the home. I did not have any strange feelings. I had a total of 4 cameras to set up. One was going point in the nursery, one in the basement, one pointing up the stairs, and one in the living room pointing into the dining room. We started at the dining room table doing a standard EVP session along with attempting to use the Ghost Box. After this we went upstairs to the master bedroom. Unfortunately our time was limited during the day due to the fact that the location was double booked. Travel Channel was going to be there filming for a short while the same day. It was only going to be for about an hour or so, but it would hinder our time there and I had to break down my cameras temporarily. Fortunately, they were kind enough to pay for our dinner while we were away. We would need to eat and take a break anyway, so it worked out positively in my opinion.

We arrived back at the location after 7:30pm. I set up my cameras again, all in the same locations as before, as well as a 5th camera in the kitchen. We spoke with the Travel Channel crew before we returned inside and the host was telling us he got a lot of feelings in the kitchen. We were ready to go not too long after I finished setting up, so we started in the nursery. We set up trigger objects with all the stuffed animals that were there and motion activated devices outside the room. Later Dean, Amanda and I spent some time in the basement and then back upstairs to the master bedroom and spare room.

As it got darker outside, I began to feel very fatigued. I was growing especially frustrated with Dean because we were not on the same page as far as the night should be going. My lack of sleep was catching up with me and we came all this way and I was starting to fade. It was frustrating because we had the entire overnight to hunt the place and I couldn't make it past 1am. One of the claims is the location is supposedly haunted by an evil presence. There is a possibility that it that is true, it could have affected me.

As the night came to a close, I offered to everyone that I could take a short nap on the couch while they still investigated, but the rest of the crew was ready to be done as well. We packed up all of our stuff. Dale and Bob left, Amanda was waiting in the car, and Dean and I did one more walk through of the house before we left to make sure we didn't forget anything. As we were doing this, the house seemed to feel a little different than it did before. As we were walking around, Dean found a crumpled up piece of paper underneath a piece of furniture in the house. He opened it up and it had a strange foreign message referencing Satan and the Sallie. I already had a lot negative energy on me, so I was not looking to add any more to it. Dean wanted to take it with him, but I said that I wouldn't take it if I was him. So with that statement Dean left it there.

During the entire night I had no personal experiences, did feel any unseen presence, nor did I hear or see anything strange. The only experience I could possibly relate was my lack of patience and energy diminishing as the night went on. There is the possibility that the combination of lack of sleep was making it easier for the supposed demonic presence to affect me. However, there is no way to prove that. I will say that the following day we traveled back home and got a good night’s sleep before I had to return to work. Somehow the day I returned to work our entire company was hacked and was unable to do business the entire day. I found it odd, because that had never happened in the history of our company. I hope I didn't bring and release an attachment into the building that day. Most likely it was just a coincidence, but with this experience it made for a very interesting last couple of days from the start of the trip to my return to work.

At the Sallie House, from about 3:30pm to 6pm and about 7:30pm to 1:30am, I collected over 36 hours of video and 20 hours of audio. Despite the small location, this was a very challenging hunt for me.

Dale Kaczmarek: There was a strange “drumming sound” that was captured at the 3^rd attempt to conduct an EVP session in the Kitchen. This may have been caused by the refrigerator running or another natural occasion but it only occurred during that session and none others.

There was a faint smell of cigarettes that quickly dissipated in the Kitchen area. Upon entering the first bedroom at the top of the stairs, I immediately experienced a pressure headache as did a few others in our group. This could have been caused by a spirit or unshielded BX cables or some other natural explanation. We did not find a natural cause for our discomfort. There was a 4.7 hit on a Melmeter which is very high. It was in this room that the Peter James clip was played.

In the Doll Room the batteries in Bob’s digital recorder were drained. For a very brief moment, I thought that I saw something standing in the middle of the door frame. A Facebook live session was broadcast here.

During our EVP session in the Living Room, I picked up a couple of stick figures with the X-Cam SLS device. One appeared to turn and go up the stairs! The REM Epod also alerted several times.

Evidence collected:

Atchison Sallie.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Living Room, the device blurts out what sounds like, “Atchison.”

Cannot Sallie.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus X session in dictionary mode in the Doll Room, a question was asked, “Can you play with the dolls?” The device responds with, “Cannot.”

Four Sallie.MP4 – while using the X-Cam SLS device inside one of the Upstairs Bedrooms, a stick figure appeared to the left of the door and stayed there for a bit, just as a Ghost Box session was ending.

Loud snap Sallie.MP4 – the static full spectrum 1080p camcorder positioned upstairs in the Master Bedroom registered a loud snapping sound with no one upstairs at the time.

One Sallie.MP4 – while using the X-Cam SLS device in the Living Room, a stick figure appear to the right of the door frame and when Bob approached, it seemed to disappear and go up the stairs.

Rempod alert Sallie.MP4 – the static full spectrum 1080p camcorder positioned in the upstairs Master Bedroom suddenly alerted. Even though Kaczmarek was in the vicinity, he wasn’t close enough to cause the alert and even demonstrated how close one had to be for the device to alert.

Sallie Sallie.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session in the Kitchen, a question was asked, “Who is the little girl that’s supposed to be in the home? What does everyone call her?” A very faint voice was recorded that sounds like, “Sallie.”

Several of us Sallie.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Master Bedroom, a question was asked, “Can you tell who’s in this room whose causing the discomfort?’ The device responded with, “Several of us.”

Sshh Sallie.MP4 – the static full spectrum 1080p camcorder positioned in the upstairs Master Bedroom picked up a sshhing sound as though those investigators upstairs were making too much noise.

Three Sallie.MP4 – while using the X-Cam SLS device, a stick figure appeared to the left of the door and when Dean opened the door, it disappeared.

Two Sallie.MP4 – while using the X-Cam SLS device in the Upstairs Hallway, a stick figure appeared just to the left of the door, disappeared and then appeared in the bedroom.

Whistle Sallie.MP4 – the static full spectrum 1080p camcorder positioned in the upstairs Master Bedroom picked up a “Whistle” even though no one was upstairs at the time.

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode: Kitchen – business, Jim, now, east, glance, solo, rewind, tin, man, (highway), (think), her, (placebo), (change), (please), (climb), turning, Oracle, (Murphy), (bottle), (saw), (mommy) and (apple). ()= other Ovilus.

Master Bedroom – Phasma Box – “several of us”, “sounds good”, “that’s bullshit”, “Dean”, “watch it” and “…foolish, Bob.”

Doll Room – Ovilus X – cannot and loop; phonetic mode – Seth. Ghost Radar – accept, still, drop, began and lady;

Living Room – Phasma Box – “go out”, “dollars for..”, “is it for real?”, “expensive” and “twelve years.”

Kitchen – Estes method – Nancy.

Conclusions: The first three attempts of conducting an EVP session in the Kitchen was disrupted with small chit chat on the first, jokes on the second and a knock on the door and interrupted by a person from the Travel Channel. Plus there was a lot of conversation and bullshitting by a few people and those should have paid more attention to the task at head, collecting evidence from an EVP session. There was even some joking and laughing during session #4 for a brief time.

A lot of random words were spewed out of the Ovilus X in the fifth EVP session in the Kitchen area. This should have been a good area as this was the location where Tony saw the apparition of the little girl.

The sixth session in the Master Bedroom seemed to be the first session where everyone was focused on spirit communication as was the seventh session in the Doll Room. Nothing good was captured at the eighth session and no real EVPs were collected during the last two sessions. It was a very quiet night.