Naperville ghost hunter captures spirits on film
Neighbor to know
Kevin Frantz?s first ghost encounter took him by surprise.
Frantz, a Naperville videographer and writer of fictional ghost stories, had read that images of spirits could be captured on infrared video camera. A few years ago, he and his wife, Janice, went to Naperville Cemetery one night to check it out.
They had been there only minutes when a large vortex flew past them.
?It scared the bejesus out of us. After that, I was hooked,? Frantz said. ?You want to see another one.?
Since then, Frantz has spent his free time visiting places that are reportedly haunted. No longer afraid of whirling vortexes, flying orbs and mystery voices, he founded the Naperville Ghost Society two years ago to investigate and preserve paranormal phenomena.
?When it happens to you, it totally changes the way you look at the world,? he said. ?Suddenly you realize it?s a lot bigger than what you see.?
Last year, Frantz joined Diane Ladley, president of Naperville Ghost Tours Inc., in conducting haunted sightseeing expeditions each October.
Frantz teaches tour participants how to use ghost-hunting equipment. The owner of an online ghost-hunting store, Frantz said the most popular method of ghost detection is the EVP, or electronic voice phenomena. A recorder picks up voices that can?t be heard when they are recorded but can be discerned when the tape is played back.
Frantz?s own favorite equipment remains the infrared video camera that picks up images that can?t be seen by the eye but that create an image when the infrared light bounces off them.
He considers one of the most memorable images he captured was Lizzie Borden, who was accused and acquitted of murdering her parents with an ax in 1892.
Frantz and his wife were staying at the Bordens? former home, now a bed and breakfast in Fall River, Mass. They were in the dining room when the spirit appeared.
?For a full two minutes, it moved around us in the room, which is unheard of. Most ghost images are practically a flash,? he said.
Frantz now sells DVDs of the image they encountered for $10.
His wife also had an unexplained experience in the Lizzie Borden home. At night after they had gone to bed, she complained he was yanking on her left hand. He was not. But the next day, the bed and breakfast owner told him that other women have had the same experience.
Frantz readily admits ghost hunting can be tricky with plenty of room for error. A vortex captured on film sometimes turns out to be nothing more than a camera strap that was accidentally photographed. If a ghost hunter fails to put a fresh tape in a recorder, the voice captured may be a remnant of a previous recording.
Still he insists, ?There are situations where there are no explanations.?
One is a stop included on the Naperville ghost tour. Frantz said the owner of the former business called in a psychic after experiencing strange happenings in the building. The psychic said the goings-on were due to a spirit of someone who had committed suicide in the basement.
Frantz says the owner called him to ask if he could document the existence of the spirit. Late one night, they saw a silhouette moving up the stairs that turned into a streak. The owner sold the building and it now sits vacant.
?They call me the ?ghost magnet,??? Frantz said. ?Every hunt I go on, everywhere I go, virtually every time, we get good footage.?
Frantz hasn?t yet seen a full apparition, which he calls the ?holy grail? of ghost hunting, but he?s ready. Ghosts can be mischievous, but they needn?t be feared, he said. They are people who have died and, for some reason, have not crossed over to the afterlife.
?Most ghosts are very friendly. For the most part, they?re lost souls,? he said. ?There?s no way to make them leave. You can ask them to leave.?
Ghosts do often seem to be associated with circumstances that involve tragedy and sin, such as murder, suicide and prostitution, he said.
But Frantz is convinced that ghosts might be just about anywhere.
?I think almost any building is going to have spirits attached to it,? he said.
For information on the Naperville Ghost Society, call Frantz at (630) 305-9626 or (630) 205-2664.
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