Ghosts? Ghouls? Snapper Magee’s ghostbusted

Ghosts? Ghouls? Snapper Magee’s ghostbusted
June 23, 2009
By RONALD DEROSA
The Register Citizen

TORRINGTON — Is there a ghost in Snapper Magee’s? After an investigation this past weekend it is possible.

Around 2 a.m. Sunday morning, after the popular Water Street bar closed, the Northwest Connecticut Paranormal Society came in to investigate reports that the building may have a spirit inside. A team of five investigators, including a sensitive and a psychic came by from the Professional Investigations and Presentations group, equipped with an assortment of tools to conduct a proper paranormal search, said John Zontok, the director of the organization.

Word first got out that the building may be haunted after ghost hunter-types had come by Snapper Magee’s a few weeks ago, said Travis Myers, bar owner. After rumors of shadows being witnessed in photographs and different feelings from some guests, Myers said he agreed to have a paranormal team come in and investigate.

From 2 to 5 a.m. the team remained, setting up eight infra-red night vision cameras, EVP sensors to pick up voices, and tools to measure the electro-magnetic field, Zontok said.

The result: there was a high amount of magnetic energy in the front of the bar as well as in one room on the second floor where there was no electricity at all, he said.

“Which could possibly mean there was a presence there, trying to show itself to us,” he said.

In particular, the energy in the front of the bar was peculiar, Zontok said, as it was not as heavy towards the back of the first floor nor was it detected outside near the street.

Now, after conducting the initial research, the group is scheduled to come back next Tuesday.

In the meantime, historical research will be done, to clarify rumors of the building being a brothel in the past, Zontok said, as well as a rumor that a prostitute committed suicide there.

Whether there is in fact a ghost in the building remains to be seen, he said.

As for now, Myers said he the news of a possible ghost will not hurt his business. In effect, it may help, he said.

One of his bartenders, Jessie Thomsen, said she always thought that the basement of the building was creepy even before knowing there was possible paranormal activity.

“But now it’s even more creepier,” she said.

When asked about her visits to the basement — to pick up necessary beverages for the bar — Thomsen said her visits are shortened.

Despite the five years of research into this paranormal hunt, Zontok said he is a skeptic. He said he finds it hard to believe in any type of afterlife at all.

Of the 200 residential cases that the group has been asked to investigate these past years, only 8 percent have turned out with unexplainable occurrences, he said.

“Something that happens that you actually can’t explain scientifically,” he said.

The group is made up of legitimate people, he added, including two college professors, a retired marine, nurses and college students.

“There are all walks of life in our group,” Zontok said.

In investigating these unexplainable occurrences, sometimes it is necessary to conduct methods of freeing these paranormal presences, if they are demonic, he said.

Sometimes, the group will utilize an Native American-style spirit cleansing and other times there will be a Christian or Catholic crossing ceremony, often involving prayers, crying and songs, Zontok said.

With more attention being drawn to their work, the Northwest Connecticut Paranormal Society has already been profiled on NBC30, for reports of a haunting in Barkhamsted.

Now, the group is ready to be featured on the Discovery Channel this October, around Halloween, he said.
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