Are you standing still or walking around right now?
We're standing still.
[footsteps]
Somebody is walking above me.
There! Right there. Right there.
[Josh] On this episode of Expedition X...
The tripwire just lit up.
-[Phil] God-- -[loud bang]
[both gasp]
Jeez. What the hell was that?
Josh.
Get out.
[Josh] ...it's the conclusion of our investigation
into perhaps the most haunted place in America,
the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum,
an abandoned mental hospital with a horrifying past...
They threw him on the ground, then put the bed on him
and drove the bedpost through his skull.
That is the most vicious thing I've ever heard.
[Josh] ...that's proving to be our most terrifying expedition ever.
[all gasp]
[Josh] Is that you?
[all exclaiming]
[Phil] Oh, my God!
What?
It's [bleep] rolling. Look at it.
-Oh! -[Heather] Oh, my God!
What the [bleep]?
Oh, my God.
[Josh] After hearing about the intense paranormal activity
reported at Trans-Allegheny,
I decided to join Phil and Heather myself
at this infamous location.
...have been seen twice in the past year.
[Josh] In places that you were not.
[woman] I was not there at the time.
-Doppelgangers. -Yes.
[Josh] During our first night at the asylum,
the activity was off the charts.
Shadow figures...
There is like a dark splotch in the hallway.
...REM pods going haywire...
[Phil] Holy [bleep].
[Josh] ...and then a terrifying scream
caused us to split up to find the source.
-[scream in distance] -Whoa!
[Josh] Phil searched a nearby barn,
while Heather and I investigated
the infamous criminally insane building.
[voice on device]
What's in the cellar?
[Josh] But as we investigated the structure's secret depths,
Heather was suddenly overcome.
[Heather coughing]
And at the exact same moment,
Phil heard something impossible.
[disembodied voice]
Our terrifying investigation of the asylum
is far from over.
[coughing]
[Josh] Are you all right?
[Heather] That back room,
I just felt this overwhelming...
dark presence.
And then I became completely drained of all energy.
I looked over at you
and you were, like... your eyes were all watery
and you just looked white as a sheet.
Yeah, I mean, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
[Josh] All right, let's just take in the fresh air,
and we'll reset.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Fresh air is good.
Hey, Josh, Heather,
where are you guys at?
I've got my light shining. Can you see me?
Can I see you?
Sorry. Go again. What?
I'm by the barn.
Can you see me? I'm by the barn.
We are not at a barn.
We are down at the criminally insane building.
100%, I heard Heather's voice
saying my name.
If you're telling me you guys aren't anywhere near me,
I think you need to get up here.
I don't know what's happening.
I mean, I don't know where you are.
How do I get to you?
There's an old road up here in front of the bar.
[Josh] Here we go.
-You ready? -Yeah.
So he went into the woods over here.
-So maybe this road? -Yes.
-[Josh] Hang on. -Okay.
[Josh] Whoo!
That's so freaky that he thought he heard you.
You know what that is, right?
-The doppelganger voices. -Totally. Right?
I mean, it's exactly the same thing.
[Heather] Well, there's one way to find out.
-Oh, there's a barn. -Look, there's a light.
[Josh] Okay, we got a light. Here we go.
[Heather] There he is.
-[Phil] Hey. -[Josh] Yo, what's up, man?
-[Phil] Whoo. -You okay?
Yeah. I mean, I was at the top of this barn.
I think this is where the patients would actually work
when this thing was, like,
-a self-sustaining property. -Right.
And I just-- I heard you calling in.
-Just-- -Like, thought you heard her?
-Or like you heard a voice? -No.
I-- I heard a voice.
[disembodied voice]
I'm not the only one that heard this.
You heard it too.
And it was her voice?
100%. It was your voice.
It was just you saying, "Hey, Phil."
But you know what this is, right?
This is the doppelganger.
This is what people here describe.
They either see someone
or they hear someone from their group
who isn't there.
That that is exactly what just happened to you.
I genuinely thought you guys were like hiding somewhere,
just messing with me.
No, we were-- we went down in that building.
We just went through a gauntlet.
Heather got, like, drained of energy.
-And then I got so sick. -Like, throwing-up sick.
-Oh, my God. -I had to leave the building just to feel better.
So at the exact moment that that's happening,
is when you thought you heard her voice up here.
[Heather] The timing is extraordinary.
[Josh] Yeah, I mean, it really-- it really is.
So, okay,
a huge first night and a lot to unpack.
We'll give you a ride down before you...
-start hearing more voices. -[Phil] Oof.
-You good? -I'm good.
Let's get some rest, guys.
-[Phil] All right. -[Heather] I'm exhausted.
[Josh] As morning breaks,
we decide to divide and conquer
to gather more intel about what could be fueling
the strange activity we experienced.
Phil and Heather meet up with the asylum's historian, Brad Cook,
while I track down a former employee
to get a better idea of what life was really like
at Trans-Allegheny.
Hey hey, you must be Rodney.
-Yes. Josh. -Josh.
-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.
Rodney Gibson was employed as a health services worker
at the asylum back in the '80s and '90s.
Security was his primary role.
So, you know, look,
this, to me, looks like a very imposing place.
And having spent the night here last night,
I don't know that I could do your job.
Did you ever see or hear anything strange
when you were here?
Yes, I heard noises.
And there's things, you know,
depending where you had to go,
what situation you was in,
you didn't like those days.
Where would you say is the scariest part of this whole complex?
The basement.
-The basement. You didn't even hesitate. -Yes.
No, not at all.
The basement of the main building here.
-Yes. -And why is that?
[Rodney] There's tunnels, and it's colder,
and you just get a bad feeling when you get down there.
Why would you go down there at all?
-We had to go down to take laundry and trash down. -Right.
And you'd take it down
and there's a place over to one side to put the trash,
one side to put the laundry,
and you just kind of hurried up and threw it where it went
and got back and run all the way upstairs.
You'd just want hurry up and get out of there.
You just didn't feel right.
If there was ever going to be a place that was haunted,
this would be it.
-This is it? -Yes.
You know, with so many paranormal reports here,
the key is to try to tie that to actual history.
So I'd love to learn a little bit more
about some of the specific incidents that happened here.
Do you think you still remember
your way around in there?
Yes, I'll try.
Come on, let's go get lost.
So listen, Brad. We've been spending some time here,
and we knew the history was dark,
but based on our experiences,
something tells us that it's even darker
than we could have imagined.
Absolutely, it was very common for patients to die
from negligence, medical misconduct,
or accidental deaths.
Not even to mention things like assault and battery
or even suicide.
This asylum was made to heal people.
How did it get so bad?
[Brad] This hospital was built to hold 250 patients
and not a single soul more.
And by the 1940s,
they were holding around 2,500,
ten times max capacity.
That is a recipe for disaster
and disaster is what happened here.
100%.
Things like patient murders,
patient suicides, abuse by the staff,
general negligence,
and, of course, you've got some pretty nasty things,
like lobotomies, electroshock therapies.
That's absolutely awful.
Wow. Look at this place.
A little different than when you left it?
Uh, a little more worn out, worn.
But, wow.
Rodney walks me through the general population halls
before taking me to the violent patients ward,
where one of the most brutal attacks
in the asylum's history took place.
The infamous bedpost murder,
perpetrated by a notoriously vicious pair of inmates
called Big Jim and David Mason.
[Rodney] This is where it all happened.
[Josh] So let's talk about this event.
This is a really infamous event here, right?
-Yes. -What happened in this room?
[Rodney] There was a patient here that was nonverbal.
-Okay. -Very gentle easygoing guy.
-Okay. -And these two guys, for whatever reason,
had it out for him.
They slipped into this room somehow
and tried to hang him first from a pipe.
Tried to hang this guy from the pipe.
Yes.
And that didn't work or finish it,
so they threw him on the ground
and put the bed on him
and drove the bedpost through his skull.
Jumped up and down on the bed to do that.
-Right here? -Right there, yes.
That is the most vicious thing I've ever heard.
Yeah.
Were you here or were you called in here?
I came in shortly after and helped with crowd control.
What was the scene here when you got here?
It was a lot of chaos.
These guys sound truly evil.
That would be a very good assessment.
But there's all kinds of other vicious things happened in this place
and that they were both part of.
-Other murders? -Yes.
It's just about as vicious as it gets.
I've had people come to me and tell me
they've had experiences with paranormal activities,
because, you know, someone that sounded like this
or someone that walked like this,
looked like this.
And, generally,
I knew exactly who they was talking about instantly.
Really? And which one was that?
[Rodney] Mason.
Do you think it's possible that Big Jim or Mason
could still be here in a sense?
Oh, definitely.
It's what they called home for years.
[Josh] They were a bully here then.
-And a bully now in the afterlife. -Right.
When I started here, I would have told you
that there's no such thing as ghosts.
-Okay. -But looking back years later,
I absolutely am a believer.
So something happened to you here?
-Absolutely. -Like what?
In October of my first year here,
I had just finished off a tour,
I was walking back down Ward D,
which is on the first floor
of the north side of this very building...
something hit me square in the chest
with enough force to knock the wind out of me.
I hit like a freight train.
I lost my breath
and I'm not too proud to admit I cried a little bit.
It was a terrifying experience.
[Phil] What else has happened to you here?
The other one that really sticks out to me
happened on Ward 6.
This building, third floor,
I had heard from a college professor
that when he worked in the building
as a security officer,
he had this very specific phrase
that he would use to let these patients know
that they needed to get out of their room,
stand in the doorway,
so he could check out their rooms.
So what was the phrase?
"Bodies in the doorways."
We went up there
and I just wanted to see what would happen.
So I shouted, "Bodies in the doorways."
And a good number of shadow figures,
from six to maybe ten,
started to appear in those doorways.
It was terrifyingly quiet.
They stayed there until we got terrified enough
to turn our flashlights on.
You've experienced things you can't explain.
And you know the depths
of how dark this history gets here.
Do you think those two are connected?
I absolutely think they are.
There is no place in the world that would harbor as much
dark malevolent energy as a place like this.
This place was meant to heal,
and it harmed way, way more than it helped.
This is a bad place.
[Josh] With the horrific insights we've learned
still ringing in our ears,
we meet back up to formulate a game plan
on how to take on night number two,
the focus of which will be the main building.
All right, based on these two interviews,
looking at the blueprint here of the main building,
where do you want to go?
So Brad's first story happened on the first floor, Ward D.
-[Josh] Okay. -That is where he went from being a historian
to becoming a believer.
He says he was essentially punched by an unseen force.
Wow.
An area that I really want to investigate
is actually not even on this map,
which is below the first floor of the basement.
-Hmm. -That's where this guy Rodney said
nobody who worked here wanted to go.
They said they heard things down there.
They felt like there was a presence down there.
That was a real hotspot, even back in the day.
So I want to check that out for sure.
Yeah, okay.
We'll stay in touch on the radio?
-Yeah. -Always.
All right.
[Josh] To avoid any potential noise pollution,
I begin my basement investigation
on the opposite end of the building
from where Phil and Heather are.
[Phil shushes]
I heard something.
I heard like a faint noise.
From down here.
I heard something.
What was that?
It was like a scratching noise.
[shushes]
Back here.
Hey, what is that?
It looks like a bunch of bones down here.
Holy... [bleep]
[Josh whispers] Back here.
There's vertebrae in here.
And then a couple small bones in here.
A bunch of animal bones.
So maybe there was just stuff
scurrying around in the darkness. Who knows?
But definite physical evidence
that something living down here for sure.
Okay. This is 4D.
So that incident that Brad experienced
could have happened anywhere in this hallway.
[Phil] Yeah.
All right. So...
What's there to look for?
[Heather] Well, what was Brad?
A historian.
Yes, he was historian, but he also was a skeptic.
And who do I have with me?
-Mr. Skeptic. -[Heather] Exactly.
Spirit's like a challenge.
So I've got a couple of EMF trip wires.
And I want to put one in the middle of the hallway
and then one right around you.
Okay. Where do you want me, Heather?
I know you'd be game for this, Phil.
Just a... just a random chair facing the lawn.
Nothing. Nothing scary about that.
Ugh!
Okay, so, an EMF trip wire
will go off,
changes in an electronic magnetic field.
So anything that gets close to this
We'll change the colors.
-See. -[Phil] Okay.
[Heather] So you'll know if it's heading towards you, Phil.
Yeah, I appreciate the warning.
[Heather] All right.
One more.
[mumbles]
This one is way shorter.
Okay, so the trap is set.
[Heather] Baited and set.
-Let's see what happens. -[Heather] Okay?
Is there anyone here with us right now?
You can use this EMF trip wire
to light up and it will let us know.
That you're here.
You know what? I think you need to be by yourself.
Okay. I guess technically, Brad was by himself here.
[Heather] All right.
And you know what?
Just to cover your bases on this side,
I'll set up a REM pod over here.
It's just another version of the tripwire.
[beeps]
It uses EMF technology.
[Phil] Okay. Just give me a warning
of what's coming behind my back.
Okay. If something's here, now's your chance.
I'm a skeptic.
I believe in the dark history here,
but I don't believe in the dark forces.
[Heather] Oh! It went off.
This one?
Yes, right behind your right foot.
That's great.
Okay, facing this way.
Is there anyone--
[beeping]
That's right in front of you.
[Phil] Well, according to your logi--
[torch clattering]
-[Phil groans] -[Heather] Phil!
-What happened? -[Phil] Yeah. I mean,
there was... it was just I don't know.
I feel like I just got a shiver.
I... I mean, I feel like I just...
I don't know if just thinking about this
a little bit too much got to me.
Think of what we learned today.
The horrors that literally happened--
-What? -Tripwire just lit up.
[Phil] This? This one here?
[Heather] That one .
-[loud thud] -[Phil] Oh! Jeez!
What the hell was that?
[Heather] Oh, my God!
That was a loud.
-[loud thud] -[both gasp]
-What are all these loud noises? -[Phil] Oh, yeah.
Josh, you there?
-[over radio] What's up? -[Phil] Are you hearing this?
[Josh] Hearing what?
[Phil] We are hearing loud crashes.
And since we know you're below,
we assumed it was coming from you.
I am at the far other end of the building.
A probably a quarter mile from there.
It sounds like it's coming from beneath you though?
It's hard to tell.
We don't know where it's coming from.
Okay, well, let me track down
toward that end of the building
and see if I can encounter it.
Copy that. Let us know when you're beneath us.
[Josh] We'll do it.
[Phil] He's saying over here.
[Josh on radio] Josh here. Phil and Heather come in.
Yeah go ahead, Josh.
I should be underneath the part of the building that you're in right now.
At least, I think that's where I am.
It's a little hard to tell, but I'm on that end of the building.
[tapping]
Are you standing still or walking around right now?
We're standing still.
[low tapping]
Yeah. I'm hearing somebody walking directly above me.
You, both of you are there. You're standing still?
Yeah. Heather's right beside me.
All the crew is standing completely still.
[Josh] Dude, I just heard somebody walking around.
[tapping]
I hear footsteps again. I hear footsteps.
Uh, yeah, all of us are accounted for and no one is moving.
[thuds]
[tapping]
Oh oh!
Somebody is walking directly above me. You don't hear that?
You're sure you're beneath us?
I think I must be beneath where you are.
Let me know if you hear this. Do you hear this?
[banging]
[Phil] Okay. It's right around here.
Right around here.
Okay. I think right now we are directly above you.
I'm gonna have everybody stand completely still.
All right. Still, still. Nobody move.
-[footsteps] -Somebody's walking some--
Somebody is walking above me.
The fact that you're directly above me
and not hearing that is insane.
I swear, I just heard something down here now.
[loud bang]
Right there, right there. Up there, up there.
[Josh on radio] You have to have heard that.
-[Heather whispers] Yes. -Yes, that we heard.
And for sure that time, it came from above us.
Josh, I think you need to get up here.
[Josh] I'll be right there.
[panting]
[Phil] We will make some noise to let you know where we are.
[intense music playing]
-[Phil] Josh. -Yep. I hear him.
-[Heather] Josh. -[Josh] I hear you.
What was that noise?
-[Phil] Right? -No idea.
[Josh] Clear as day, though, right?
-[Heather] Yes -[Josh] A 100%.
And I heard I swear to you like people walking around above my head.
I mean, it was clear as day.
-Let's get upstairs. Chase that down. -[Phil] Yeah.
-Nearest staircase? -[Phil] Uh...
-[Josh] This way? -[Heather] That way.
-[Phil] Come on. -[Josh] Okay.
[Heather] Hey.
Third floor.
[Phil] There we go.
So that noise is coming from somewhere up here, right?
-[Phil] Yeah. -No question.
Absolutely not.
God, this is like a parlor.
-[Heather] Whoa! -[Phil] Big room here.
Auditorium.
[Josh] Oh, this is the auditorium.
[Phil] This is the auditorium.
[Josh] Oh man! Look at the size of this place. Wooh!
[Heather] It's huge.
[Josh] This is enormous!
[Phil] Can you imagine what they did in here?
-[Josh] Wow. Wow. -[Phil] Guys, look at this. Look at this.
-Look how deep that goes. -[Josh] Oh, an air vent.
[Phil] That goes at least two stories down.
[Josh] So whatever we heard
could totally have been coming from in here. Right?
-[Phil] Absolutely. Yes. -[Heather] Yeah.
[Josh] And listen to the sound in there.
Listen to how it echoes.
[shouts] Hello!
[echoing]
All right. I think we've got to spend sometime in here.
-Yeah. -See if we can hear more noises.
Any ideas?
Oh, I've got a few.
-Yeah? -Yeah. Hold on.
-[Josh] Wait. Where are you going now? -[Phil] Heather?
[Heather] Hold your horses.
[Phil chuckles]
[Josh] Okay. Heather got a surprise.
[Heather] This historic auditorium was where the inmates and staff
once gathered for recreation.
It's believed to be another paranormal hot spot.
So I came prepared.
I'm going to display images from the asylum's past
alongside a very unique type of REM pod
to see if we can trigger paranormal activity.
All right. What do you think?
Heather, what have you done?
[Heather] I got us a one of a kind gramophone.
What makes this one of a kind?
Well, it has a short range motion detector in it,
and it also detects changes in EMF.
-What? -So that means
if anything gets anywhere near this thing,
it's gonna play that record.
[Josh] So it's like a REM pod?
Yeah, just a very old timey REM pod.
[Phil] Can I dry it out?
-Go for it. -Okay.
-Oop! -[music starts playing]
[Josh] Unbelievable.
That's so cool.
-[imperceptible] -[music stops]
And you've got an Expedition X on the front of it.
[music starts playing]
-Oh, sorry. -[music stops]
-Not a ghost, not a ghost, just me. -[Phil laughs]
Not that time.
That's incredible.
[Heather] And I have a really powerful trigger object.
Scooch to the side there.
[Josh] Slide projector.
[Heather] You remember this from your classroom?
Where did you even get one of these?
It's called the Internet, Josh.
-[Heather] You want to see it in action? -[Josh] Okay.
Yeah, well, wait. What are these slides?
I got these slides from the state archives and--
-They're of Trans-Allegheny? -Yes.
-[Josh] Amazing. -[Phil] Come on.
So the idea is show some slides,
take a trip down memory lane...
See if the music plays.
[Josh] See if the music plays.
[clicks]
[Josh] Here we go.
Boom. There it is.
[Phil] There's the grounds.
[Josh] Trans Allegheny Lunatic asylum.
[Phil] So we're basically right here, right now. Yeah?
[Josh] Yeah.
If anybody's here with us.
We are throwing a party here tonight.
[Phil] And everyone's invited.
[Josh] Oh! That's this room.
At that stage.
Heather. that's where you're standing right now.
And all of these people here, they would have been seated
right where we're standing.
Is there anyone here from this picture?
This place has been quiet for so--
-[music starts playing] -[all] Ooh!
[bleep]
[Josh exclaiming in horror]
[music stops]
[Phil] Did you get near it?
No, I didn't. I was over here.
[music starts playing]
[Josh whispers] It's going.
It's still going.
[Heather] Oh, my God!
[Phil] It's still going, still going.
Still going
Is that you?
Did you turn on the record player?
[music stops]
-Let's go to the next slide, See if it goes on again. -Okay. Okay.
-[Heather gasps] -[Phil] Oh, no.
This is good.
[Josh] Perfect.
This is literally a dance from this room.
[music starts playing]
[Josh] It's going.
[music stops]
[Josh] Do you have a memory of this room?
[music starts playing]
[music stops]
I am leaving, I'll be in the car.
What is setting that off?
I do not know.
-Mr. Science, we need toy right now. -I do not know.
What is setting that off?
I can't give you an answer.
Heather?
What's happening?
[Heather] It's just not stopping.
It just keeps going.
-It's just cycling. -Yes.
[music starts playing]
Is it the wire. Something wrong with the wire?
-[Heather] I uh-- -Just let go. Just let go.
[music stops]
[music starts playing]
-Oh! -Oh! My God!
[Josh] Yes, [bleep] out of here.
It's [bleep] rolling! Look at that.
[Phil] No!
-[thuds] -[Heather] Oh! My God
[music stops]
What the...
The carousel literally shot out of the tray.
Oh! My God!
It's [bleep] rolling! Look at that.
-[Phil] No! -[Heather] Oh! My God!
Oh! My God!
[Josh] Record players off.
[Phil] Does it mean, the party is over.
That's the craziest thing I have ever seen.
-[Phil] What are the chances that that would happen? -[music starts playing]
[Josh] How does it even happen?
This locks into this tray. Look.
I mean, you cannot--
This thing is locked into here.
I think we can turn it off now.
-Yeah? -Yeah.
[clicks]
[sighs in relief]
It was like coming at us.
[chuckles] I just--
[squealing]
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Shh. Hang on.
You hearing that?
Please. Now what?
[Heather] It sounds like it came from down the hallway,
[Josh] Oh, come on.
There's a little high pitched just... [mimics screeching]
[Josh] That noise
must have been from somewhere in here.
-[gasps] -[Heather] What is this?
[Josh] This is the violent patients ward.
I walked through here during the day with Rodney.
This is where, like, the most
dangerous patients were kept,
And that means this is also where Brad saw
all those shadows in the doorways.
So Brad came up here at night,
and then the shadow figure showed up in the doorways.
-[Josh] Whoa. -[Phil] So,
here's what I'm thinking. Do you guys see
how misty it is in here?
-How hazy it is? -[Josh and Heather] Yeah.
[Phil] So what if it's something atmospheric
about this specific hallway?
And so if we set up a laser plane
down each side of the hallway,
say that phrase out loud,
we can see if anything shows up.
Right. Anything crosses that plane,
we'll see it. Let's see what's in here.
All right, Phil. You ready with that laser?
-[Phil] Lighting it up. -[Josh] Let's see it.
-[exclaims] -[Heather] Ooh.
-[Phil] Come on. -[Josh] Amazing.
[Heather] Oh, it blocks it completely out.
[Josh] So anything comes to this doorway...
[Heather] We will visually see it. That's so cool.
[Phil] Are you guys ready for green?
[Josh] Let's see it.
-Here we go. -[Josh exclaims] Amazing.
[Phil] Oh, yeah.
-[Josh] Yeah? -[Phil] That looks great from down here.
[Josh] All right. Great. Whole hallway's covered.
-[Heather] Yeah. -[Josh] Let's get the cameras.
All right, so the thermal camera is up.
Any cold spots, hot spots,
anything that's radiating heat,
we're gonna see that on the thermal.
And we've got a regular camera set up here as well.
And now the only thing left to do...
Oh, the phrase. Okay.
[Phil] Oh. One of our lasers just went out.
[Josh] We lost the laser now.
[Phil] I'm gonna show my light down there.
-What the... -Who wants to go down there and see what happened to it?
I think Phil, 'cause he set it up.
Yeah, Phil, why don't you go check it out? We'll just be here.
-[Phil] Oh, my God! -[Heather] What is that?
A bat just went in front of my face.
[Josh] That was a bat.
-That was a bat. -It was a bat.
We definitely got that on the cameras.
Okay, so we do have things living up here.
And I don't think you can mistake that for a big shadow figure.
-No. -[Phil sighs] No.
What is going on with this thing?
Okay, it is plugged in.
It is on.
-Oh! -Ooh. It's back!
-There we go. -[Phil] It worked.
Before another bat flies in my face,
-let's say this phrase. -[Heather] Okay.
-See what happens. -All right.
[Phil exhales]
[Phil and Heather] Bodies in the door.
Try again.
Bodies in the door.
[Heather whispers] It's so quiet.
One, two, three.
Bodies in the door!
We're not seeing anything right now,
but these reports of shadow people are so prevalent here.
So I think we leave these two cameras running
for the rest of the night, right?
In the meantime, I'd like to go even deeper
down this hall. This wing continues.
And there's some really, really scary stuff
that Rodney showed me.
-[Phil] Okay. -You want to see where this goes?
Yeah.
[Josh] I lead Phil and Heather deeper
into the violent patients ward
to the infamous site of the brutal bedpost murder.
Okay, so this is where it happened.
[Heather] The murder...
-[Josh] Yeah. -[Heather] ...happened in this room.
[Josh] So, Big Jim, David Mason,
they attacked a patient in here.
So they actually put him under the leg of a bed
which they crushed through his skull and killed him.
Like, through his eye socket.
-Oh, God. -[Phil] No.
[Josh] And these two guys, Big Jim, David Mason,
they're now purportedly spirits here.
Look, we had a lot of luck the other day
with the spirit box.
I think maybe we try that out in here again.
See if we can get a call and response going.
I think that's a great idea.
But I want to take it a step further
and use the Estes Method.
That means full sensory deprivation.
I'm gonna take my spirit box,
plug in some noise, canceling headphones
and blindfold myself.
And so if I ask questions in the room,
-you won't even hear the questions? -I won't hear them at all.
And you'll call out what you hear
-in the spirit box. -Yeah, it's like
I'm the conduit for the spirit box
for your answers.
Okay. What are you gonna do?
-You got two of those things? -I do.
[Phil] Double Estes Method.
I mean, to my knowledge, that's never been done before.
-Well, maybe twice the results, yeah? -Okay.
[Heather] Okay.
[Josh] Here's how this unique call and response session will work.
Following the Estes method,
Heather and Phil will wear blindfolds
and noise canceling headphones connected to spirit boxes.
The only thing they'll hear
is the constant scanning of radio frequencies.
According to believers, whatever Phil and Heather hear
will be directed by the spirit world.
They will not be able to see or hear me
as I call out my questions,
which will ensure that their responses
are not biased by any external influences.
This is officially weird.
Can you guys hear me?
Okay. Here we go.
Is there anybody here with us?
What is your name?
Were you a patient here at the hospital?
[Heather] Yes.
Yes. Several yeses.
Unlock.
I died.
[Josh] "I died"?
"I died."
[exhales]
Can you tell us your name?
Stop this.
We should stop this?
Why?
-Go. -"Go"?
He's here.
"He's here"?
-Here. -"Here"?
We've chased you all over this building.
Where should we go?
Go up.
[Josh] Up where?
We're at the top of the building.
-Where am I-- -Stairs.
Go to the stairs?
-[Heather] Stop. Several times. -Time.
[Josh] "Time"?
-We're at the top of the building. -Clock.
What?
"Clock"?
Back off.
What is your name?
[Phil] Dave.
"Dave"?
Mason.
"Mason"?
-"Mason"? -[Heather] Mason.
David Mason?
Is David Mason here?
Here.
"Here"?
David Mason is here?
We've heard what you've done in this room.
Mason.
He's hearing the name David Mason
through a radio transmission.
That is...
That's impossible.
Josh.
It said my name?
Get out.
It's not just what lurks
inside Trans-Allegheny that's alarming,
it's what lurks on the outside, too, literally.
Carved into the building's vast stone structure
are what's known as grotesques.
These six menacing, inhuman faces
look down from various points
of the sprawling main building.
But why are they there?
Well, skilled European stonemasons were
shipped in to put the finishing touches
on the asylum,
and it's believed that these workers
brought this practice over from the old country.
Grotesques and gargoyles
rose to prominence in medieval Europe,
and are common features of Gothic architecture.
While gargoyles often function as a water spout,
grotesques have just one job,
to protect the building by scaring off evil spirits.
In the case of Trans-Allegheny,
perhaps the stonemasons should have put up a few more.
[Josh] Hey, let's stop. Hey.
Okay.
You heard my name?
You heard Josh?
I heard Josh.
-[Josh] And you said, "Get out." -Yeah.
[Josh] Like, together, you literally said,
-"Josh. Get out." -At the same time?
One after another.
That was really intense.
I would ask questions
and it was almost like a flow of conversation.
That's crazy.
You said, "David," you said, "Mason."
You said the name of the guy
who killed someone in this room.
It was like they wanted us to go somewhere.
We heard "Up." We heard "Stairs."
I asked, "Where?" You said, "Clock."
-Yeah, I heard clock. -[Josh] That is the defining
characteristic of
this building, is this clock tower.
Should we get up there? Should we see what's there?
-[Heather] Yeah. -[Josh] Come on, let's go. Come on.
Ooh. This goes up.
Where does this go?
Up, up, up.
Watch your heads.
Where are we?
Oh, there's writing up here. Look at this.
-[Phil] Wow. -[Josh] We got names.
This says, "Frankie Dennis,
1950."
Over here.
"Painted Frank Walls, 1953."
"Bernie Camden, 1878."
What? So these are
either different people who worked here, or patients
that came up here and signed their names
and the dates.
Laura Jeffries,
October 13th, 1905.
Maybe we were led here to learn all these names.
Absolutely.
These could be patients. These could be workers,
people who climbed up here and left their mark...
-[Heather] Exactly. -[Josh] ...at Trans-Allegheny.
And more stairs.
[Heather] So that means go up.
Keep climbing, yeah.
Hey, there's a door.
Where does this go?
What is this?
-Oh. -[Heather] Whoa.
[Josh] It's the roof.
[exclaims]
-[Heather] As high as we possibly can go. -[Josh] Here it is.
The top of Trans-Allegheny.
[Heather] We're not going any higher than this.
[Phil and Josh] No.
[Josh] So why here?
Why were we led all the way up to the top of this place?
The very top.
Maybe it's those names.
[Josh] Yeah?
Like, the last fingerprints
of people here from all different decades.
And we even heard the word "Clock."
-You called out the word "Clock." -Oh, yeah.
[Heather] Maybe it's something to do with the time,
the time spent here in this building,
and their energy is still here.
They're still a part of this building.
You have to say, the one thing
that just strikes me about our few nights here
is how active it all felt.
What the [bleep] was that?
[Josh] It just always felt like we were in pursuit...
[Heather] Oh, my God!
[Josh] ...of a noise, a sight, a sound.
[spirit speaking]
[Josh] We've run all over this place.
It feels like we've been in this
cat and mouse game since we got here.
And for a place that is completely abandoned,
it hasn't felt empty at all.
No, no.
-Right? -There's been so much energy here.
So much activity. It has felt
in some ways alive.
And the hands of that clock,
unbelievably, are still turning.
[Phil] Yeah.
[Josh] Maybe that's the reason to come up here,
is to remember that it is alive.
[Heather] We acknowledge it.
[Phil] And we won't forget it.
[Josh] We were told Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
was perhaps the most haunted building in America.
There is, like, a dark splotch in the hallway.
From the moment our investigation began,
it did not disappoint.
It detected a person right here.
-[Heather gasps] -[Josh] Oh. Oh.
One of the most extraordinary moments
came when Heather was overwhelmed with sickness
in the criminally insane building.
[Heather coughing]
[Josh] And at the exact same time,
Phil swore he heard the impossible.
His name called out by Heather.
[voice] Hey, Phil!
[Josh] We analyzed the audio.
And, chillingly,
Phil does appear to be correct.
Isolating and enhancing the audio
from Phil's personal mic,
we identified this.
[voice speaking]
[Josh] With Phil being a quarter mile away
from the criminally insane building,
we know this cannot be Heather's voice.
But it also seems much more than an audio glitch.
But some of the things we heard
do seem to have a rational explanation.
The terrifying scream
while investigating the medical building...
-[eerie scream] -Whoa!
[Josh] ...was recorded by the microphone
Heather left behind.
After analyzing the high fidelity recording,
Phil is confident he identified the culprit.
A barn owl.
[owl screams]
[Josh] Perhaps the very same one
that left the pellets we found in the attic.
But not all the evidence gathered
on our second night of the investigation
could be so easily explained.
Is that you?
After we set up our lasers in D ward,
we left the cameras running and captured this anomaly.
Appearing like a shadow figure.
This figure did not appear
when we said, "Bodies in the door" as hoped.
But its timing is actually even more unsettling.
The anomaly appeared at the very same moment
that Phil and Heather said "David Mason"
during our Estes isolation experiment.
[Phil] Dave.
"Dave"?
-Mason. -"Mason"?
Heather believes it's possible the brutal murderer
was walking the asylum's halls one last time.
Get out.
-[distant thud] -[Heather gasps]
[Josh] So, is Trans-Allegheny,
one of the most haunted buildings in America?
There is no place in the world that would harbor
as much dark energy as a place like this.
[Josh] After the horrifying history we uncovered...
[spirit speaking]
[Josh] ...and the terror we personally experienced...
-[distant thud] -[Heather gasps]
[Josh] ...it's hard to say anything other than yes.
[gasps] Oh.
-[Heather] Oh. -[Phil] No.
[Heather] Oh, my God.
What the [bleep]!