The Sallie House Haunting: A True Story

by Debra Pickman

  This infuriated me, because he had not spent enough time with either one of us to have made such an assessment, and it seemed he was attempting to create a division between us. I felt it was irresponsible and unprofessional.

  Throughout the day, we continued to migrate through the house, often feeling the distinct cold spots that had attracted so much attention. During each occurrence, Tim and the rest of the crew tried to find a plausible explanation for it. At one point, we were exploring a temperature fluctuation and electricity in the living room. Everyone was holding out their hands trying to detect where it was and where it was going. Meanwhile, Tony was nearby holding Taylor in his arms.

  Suddenly he reached his arm out straight. I thought he was pointing to something or feeling something significant around him. Everyone else did, too. In fact, Tim held out his hand in the area around Tony’s hand. Feeling nothing distinct, he withdrew it. Realizing that no one had picked up on what he was trying to show them, Tony calmly said, “Look at my arm.”

  We saw two scratches, one running almost the entire length of his upper forearm. Tim suggested that Tony sit on the couch behind him. George dabbed at the blood, and Tim noted Tony’s apparent shortness of breath. Tim was obviously concerned for him and his safety.

  Some time later, we had came up from the basement and were standing in the kitchen. The cold spots had returned and everyone was aware of them. Tony stood by the pantry door quietly watching as everyone followed the cold spots around the room. Then someone pointed out that Tony had huge welts forming across his forehead. Tim seemed very shocked by these, because they seemed to become deeper and more pronounced before our eyes.

  Toward the end of the day, Tim asked me if it would be possible for Rauber to stay overnight for continued observations. When I relayed the request to Tony, he accused me of agreeing to it behind his back and told me, “Absolutely not! This was not part of the agreement we made when we said they could come back!”

  I agreed. We were completely worn out by the day’s events and the constant physical and emotional activity. We didn’t feel that Rauber had shown compassion, been supportive, or offered relevant evidence to help us understand the situation or our experiences, and we weren’t interested in spending the rest of the evening entertaining him and defending ourselves.

  Rauber left a short time later, but Tim had done one last interview with him that Tony and I did not know about until it aired on national television a few weeks later. It didn’t sit well with us, to say the least. Although Rauber spoke of the intense fear he sensed from Tony, that secret interview caught us off guard. Tony and I had never been told about the suggestions or comments that he made.

  Had Rauber mentioned the need for a document of our experiences as they happened, I could have let him read my journal entries. Had he brought up the concern that putting toys in the nursery was encouraging the little spirit, I could have told him that we were instructed to do so in order to take her focus off fires, electrical appliances, and my infant son. Since we had given her things of her own, she had pretty much left the baby alone. (A week after his departure, we received a letter from Rauber explaining how dissatisfied he was with how the television show had treated him. The show had not allowed him to do an investigation in his own manner. He had nothing good to say about the experience and we guessed this explained the tension during his visit.)

  We both felt drained by the end of Sightings’ second visit. We were pleasantly surprised by their early departure and looked forward to having Sunday to ourselves. I can remember Tony asking, “We are done now, right? No more cameras, no more questions, no more people tramping through the house, right?”

  I agreed. There was simply no reason for them to come back, and we didn’t need the stress of more strangers interrupting the normalcy in our home.

  eighteen

  Sightings’ Third Visit

  Several weeks later, just after the airing of Sightings’ second visit, the phone rang around 11:00 a.m. Apparently, after the experience of Tim White and the crew, there was concern that there was something very real and worrisome about our situation. Although their experiences had primed them with a desire for more information, presenting concern for our family and its safety was an ideal approach to gain re-entry to our home, and that is exactly what happened.

  I was hesitant, since nothing positive had come from their last visit. We were assured that the psychic they wanted to bring in was very good and would be very helpful. His name was Peter James and I was already vaguely aware of his paranormal involvement. I began to think that bringing him in might finally get us the answers we were looking for and I became excited.

  I reluctantly relayed the information to Tony and his response was worse than I’d anticipated. To avoid further conflict, I dropped the subject and decided it wasn’t something we had to do. This didn’t go smoothly either, as Tony convinced himself that I was angry with him for not wanting to participate. The arguing continued all the next day. I didn’t care if the Sightings crew ever came back.

  I was finally able to reassure Tony of my sincere lack of interest in bringing the Sightings team back. Living with the spirit in our house had been going well, and if we came up against something we couldn’t handle, we could look for further help at that time. This seemed to change the energy in the house to a lighter, more normal environment and our personal interaction was much better than the three previous days.

  Tony went to work at three that afternoon and soon after that, our doorbell rang. I opened the door to a dark-haired woman about my age. She introduced herself as Colleen and apologized for the intrusion. Colleen explained that she had lived in the house for about eight months and had moved out only a few months prior to our moving in. During that time there were a few things that now seemed a bit strange to her, and seeing us on the television show the night before had brought several of those things to the forefront of her memory.

  For one thing, her daughter had played with an imaginary friend called Sallie. She had never given much thought to her daughter’s imaginary friend, because many children at that age have one. When they moved from the house her daughter’s friend simply wasn’t mentioned anymore, leaving her to think her daughter had grown out of the phase of needing a playmate.

  It had certainly been an interesting conversation and before she left, I asked if she would mind sharing her story with the Sightings people. I couldn’t wait for Tony to get home to share our conversation and my excitement over what I considered validation.

  Up to this point, we’d only had Barbara’s word about this little spirit, and since psychic impressions are often not well received, I felt this would offer more support to our story. Knowing they would like Colleen convinced Tony to allow Sightings to come back one more time.

  Nothing happened for almost six weeks after the television crew left and I grew concerned. What would happen if the crew came and nothing happened? Would they think it was all a hoax? At the end of the last aired segment of our story, they informed viewers that they would keep them posted on the case. How would they present us if there was no activity?

  The more I thought about the lack of activity, the more I began to theorize causes. Perhaps the entity was still in the house but her energy had been exhausted after such extensive interaction and commotion. Was she re-energizing?

  It has been theorized that spirits draw from the many energies around them, including the energy that people generate or emit. The more people there are in an area, the more energy is available for spirit consumption. This could explain the distinct inactivity we were experiencing between the visits of the television crew, who were certainly anxious and highly charged with emotional energy when they came. Could those personal energies be responsible, in part, for the increase in activity during their visits? During Sightings’ first visit, the emotional energy was compounded by the anxiety that Tony and I felt about b
eing interviewed on camera for a national show. Had these emotions contributed to the spirit energy and its use against Tony?

  In addition to the emotional energy present during each visit, there were large cameras, batteries and chargers that were in the house at any given time. This certainly could have lent itself to a higher concentration of available energy for the spirit world. The intensity and increased occurrences of the activity during each filming session would seem to support this theory.

  I remember Sightings’ third visit very well. Not only did we get to work with a fascinating individual who made a tremendous impact on our paranormal life experience, we also got two more independent confirmations of a force that had been in the house much longer than us.

  Peter James arrived fairly early, and I watched him get out of the car that had brought him. He had been given nothing but very basic information on the case. The camera was rolling as he drove up and after being greeted by the field director, Peter stood in front of the house and studied the windows of the second floor. In his eyes I saw an intent interest.

  As he pointed up to the window of the master bedroom, he whispered something to George. We later learned that he had seen the face of a little girl in the window and he was confused because he had been told that a young couple with a baby boy resided in the house. As he entered the house, there seemed to be a calming, angelic air about him, soothing and almost immediately comforting.

  He was gracious and courteous, and asked if he could walk around a little to get familiar with his surroundings. He did not seem to need to take in his surroundings visually; instead, he walked with his head down, twisting it back and forth ever so slightly as if he was trying to hear something. Although his eyes seemed to shift from side to side, it was apparent that he was not looking further than a few inches or so in front of him. This behavior impressed me. He seemed to survey his surroundings, gathering important details to do a cold read of our setting.

  Also as he walked around, he made short sounds, as if he was trying to sound out a word. “S, S, S, Sa, Sa.” Working his way back to the front door and the stairwell to the upstairs, he suddenly stopped and pointed to the top. “There’s a little girl standing right there.” As we and the camera moved in to get a closer look, he put his hand up to stop us as if moving closer would startle or scare away the little girl. The camera got closer and he went on. “Right at the top of the stairs.”

  In a firm but friendly voice, he said “Hello, hello.” Then he pointed again and whispered, “Look.” The camera got close enough to see the stairwell and landing.

  “Hello, can you speak to me? Sallie, is that your name?” Peter mounted the stairs. “Okay, okay,” he said as he slowly ascended into her space.

  I was standing just behind the cameraman. I heard Peter very clearly and when he asked if her name was Sallie, I was overjoyed. Within only a few minutes, he had been able detect the little spirit in our house and put a name to her. I felt it was one more validation for our claims and us. Additionally, I was pleased that Sallie was comfortable enough to have already allowed him to get close.

  A short time later, we had a knock at the front door. Apparently, Sightings had arranged for the previous tenant to tell of her experiences. Colleen had agreed to a short on-camera interview but, like Tony, had wanted to remain anonymous. They set her up as a silhouette on the couch and we listened as she spoke.

  She told them that she and her three children had lived in the house prior to us. She described how her five-year-old daughter had played with an imaginary friend named Sallie, and that they often played in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom. She recalled many occasions on which she would scold her daughter for leaving toys out or making a terrible mess, but her daughter denied doing so, saying, “I didn’t do it, Sallie did.” Other times her daughter would do things out of character and then report, “Sallie told me to do it.” With an air of regret, Colleen told of the times she punished her daughter for lying about those situations. Only now did she realize that her daughter had probably been telling the truth.

  After her interview, the crew followed Peter in an attempt to get his impressions of paranormal experiences as they happened. Tony and I felt comfortable walking with Peter in the house, because it seemed there was a very real connection and he was able to communicate with the spirits. He had an “in” to the other side, so perhaps, we thought, there would be no more attacks on Tony. This, however, was not the case.

  While in the hallway outside the master bedroom, Peter reported a strong level of resistance; he said that whatever was in the room didn’t want him to enter. To show the spirit he was not intimidated and was ready to stand his ground, he said, “Hello, hello.” With the rest of us standing just a few feet behind him, he stepped a foot or so into the room and in a demanding voice said, “Speak to me!” Tony and I had been standing in the doorway of the room and although I was not aware of it, Tony felt a distinct rush of fresh cold air fly past and through him right after Peter’s command; seemingly in reaction to it.

  Tony was clearly nervous at this point, and he paced the hallway outside the room. With our previous experiences in mind, I knew there was something very wrong. A moment later Tony complained of a stinging on his lower back and stepped away to the area at the top of the stairs.

  At the time Peter had no idea that Tony was sometimes physically attacked when the spirit wanted to make its presence known. So when the visibly distressed Tony backed away from the area, Peter tried to assure him that he shouldn’t be frightened. Peter told Tony, “You’re in control here.” Tony and I, however, knew differently.

  I asked Tony to lift his shirt and found the letters “M” and “C”—each about four to five inches high—carved into his lower back. The cameraman documented these scratches and as he did so, we all heard electrical snaps sounding all around us. Peter felt one of them on the area of his wrist.

  Aware that there was significance in the activity and likely fear on the part of the spirit, Peter firmly said, “Hello. Easy!” He paused for a moment. “I’m not afraid of you!”

  He stood just outside the doorway for a minute and then reentered the room. He then resumed his attempt to communicate further and asked the spirit not to harm Tony.

  He mentally asked who was in the room, but reported that all this particular spirit would give him was the letter “B.” Possibly the spirit was uncomfortable with the questions, because Tony was attacked again. This time, the back of his shirt was set on fire.

  At first it seemed to smolder, and this is what caught the eye of one of the crew members standing behind Tony. The shirt then burst into flame and several of us began to smack at it to put it out. Tony seemed to have been completely unaware of what was happening. When the flame was finally put out, inspection showed that Tony’s skin was not affected, only the shirt.

  Tony changed shirts to make the burnt one available for closer inspection. Each person was given the opportunity to look at the shirt. The manner in which it burned seemed normal and everyone agreed that there was no smell of a flammable substance on the shirt to have ignited it so inexplicably. The experience baffled the team. One of the crew members had been standing behind us to get the best camera shot of all of us, and had not seen Tony’s hand or anything else that could have been responsible for the incident.

  Peter reported that at least three individuals had actually died in the house and there was a medical feeling attached to at least one of them. According to the crew’s research and ours, this was likely Charles C. Finney, who moved out of the house in 1906. He was the son of Michael C. Finney (MC?), who died in the house in 1871. James Finney died there in 1900, and Kate Finney in 1918.

  Peter also seemed to speak directly to Sallie. She told him she had a pain in her lung and a pain in her foot or ankle. In relation to this young spirit, we looked at a preliminary list I had put together with possibilities for wh
o she was.

  My research from earlier in the year allowed Peter to home in on one little girl in particular. The television crew jumped on this and suggested that it correlated to their own research. At this point, the crew shifted the filming to the cemetery and the next show’s segment showed Peter standing at Plot One, Fourth Row West, suggesting that this was Sallie’s final resting place and that she had died of pneumonia.

  We had no reason to believe otherwise until later research revealed the following according to The Atchison Daily Globe dated February 23, 1905:

  Sallie I. Hall, colored, wife of Will Hall, who works at the Wolters brick yard, died this morning and the funeral will occur Sunday at 2:00 p.m., from the Sixth Street Baptist church. Mrs. Hall was only thirty-four years of age, but had given birth to fourteen children within the past sixteen years. All had died at birth but three girls and a boy, who survive their mother. The oldest is sixteen and the youngest is two. A baby was born a week ago. Think of the suffering, think of the tragedy crowded into one brief life! Every year there has been a birth and a death at the house, and this year there have been four deaths: an uncle at Christmas, a sister of Will Hall a few weeks ago, the baby a week ago, and now the mother. The family lives in the alley east of second street and adjoining Mound.

  More recently, however, there was additional confusion when I was contacted via email by a researcher from the Sightings show. She reported that although she didn’t have the records available, she did remember the following:

  I found an entry in one of the logs in 1905 of a Sallie (she was 5 or 6) that died along with her mother in an accident. I believe they were riding in something that tipped over. It did not say if they died in your home but the accident was in an area just behind your home on a road that is still dirt. At the time I was also able to confirm the grave location that Peter James took us to, even though it was illegible. I was able to confirm that it was a child’s grave—she was named Sallie and she was 5.