Ghost hunters in the Merrimack Valley and Southern New Hampshire regularly comb local graveyards and historic homes for paranormal activity. But during the next two weeks, the big boys will visit the area to give it a try.
International celebrity psychic Gavin Cromwell will join the Haverhill-based Essex County Ghost Project to search for signs of the afterlife in three Haverhill burial grounds tomorrow night.
The ghost hunting continues April 4, when Cromwell and paranormal investigator John Zaffis, whose research formed the basis for the movie "The Haunting in Connecticut," investigate the Tenney Gatehouse in Methuen.
The makers of "The Haunting in Connecticut," being released this week, said it is a real-life story of a family that experienced extreme paranormal activity in their home, which they discover was once a mortuary.
"We're very fortunate to have John Zaffis join us as we investigate this historic site," said Thomas Spitalere, founder of the Essex County Ghost Project.
The Tenney property, dating back to 1830 and near City Hall, is the site of reported paranormal activity.
Cromwell, a direct descendant of celebrated British military and political leader Oliver Cromwell, has made numerous television appearances in Britain and the United States. He has the unique ability to make the paranormal accessible and "normal" to the public, said his manager, Martin Clowes.
Clowes said the group will search the Tenney Gatehouse and grounds for signs of paranormal activity and spirits. He described it as "an investigation like you see on TV, a bit of a hands-on thing."
Cromwell's hunt for paranormal activity in Haverhill will start in Hilldale Cemetery, where apparitions have been seen, Spitalere said. The tour continues at Pentucket Burial Ground on Water Street and then the Walnut Cemetery on rural East Broadway.
"This is where the lady in white resides," Spitalere said, referring to the grave of Lydia Ayer, the subject of a poem by famous Haverhill writer John Greenleaf Whittier.
Well-known paranormal investigator Fiona Broome will join the tour of Haverhill graveyards that date back centuries, as well as the walk of the Tenney property in Methuen.
The Essex County Ghost Project has members from the Merrimack Valley and Southern New Hampshire. The group is inviting local people interested in the paranormal to participate in the tours. Friday's event begins at 7 p.m., and the April 4 event starts at 6 p.m. More information about the tours is available from Spitalere at 978-376-2807 or at www.myspace.com/essexparanormal5. Participants are invited to bring along photographic equipment and tape recording devices.
The Essex County Ghost Project recently investigated the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum in Fall River with the assistance of Cromwell. The home at 92 Second St. was at the center of what is considered the most sensational criminal trial in 19th century America. Borden, a 32-year-old unmarried spinster, was accused of killing her father, Andrew Borden, and stepmother, Abby Borden, with a hatchet on August 4, 1892.
Spitalere and his group used photographic equipment to try to capture images of apparitions others have reported seeing in the Borden family home, and audio recording devices to record "electronic voice phenomena" or EVPs.
"We also used electromagnetic field readers to detect electric magnetic energy in the rooms we investigated," Spitalere said.
He said his team did capture digital and 35 mm film images of "orbs," which paranormal investigators believe are signs of spirit energy, but skeptics consider to be photographic defects.
"I have a voice recording of a girl calling my name three times, and we heard birds but there were no birds in the house that night," Spitalere said.
The Lizzie Borden story has a Haverhill connection. William H. Moody, for whom Haverhill's Moody School is named, was a member of the prosecution team that saw the 14-day trial end in Borden's acquittal. Historians said the Fall River police bungled the investigation, but that the loss did not affect Moody's career. A native of Byfield, Moody had a law office in the Masonic Building on Merrimack Street in Haverhill and went on to an illustrious career.
He was an assistant district attorney, was elected to Congress and re-elected several times, served as secretary of the Navy under President Theodore Roosevelt, and reached the highest court in the land when he was made a Supreme Court justice.
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