One Chicago cop does - and started an investigation firm in a quest to catch more than just criminals
It was a bright and sunny day.
Yet, by all indications, the spirits were out in full force
The absence of a full moon or a star-lit sky were not the only reasons to suspect that this was not your typical ghost tour.
I mean, there I was, dowsing rods in hand, interviewing a young woman who'd been murdered in a bar.
When you venture into the unknown with Chicago Ghost Investigations, you venture beyond passive tourism: You become the hunter.
Chicago Ghost Investigations was started earlier this year by Oak Lawn High School graduate Brian Maloy and Chicagoan Michaelynn Cece. Tours combine all the spine-tingling history of an ordinary ghost tour, with the added feature of possibly making contact with the other side.
"Every spirit is capable of communicating, it's just a matter of knowing how to do it," said Maloy, who has a degree in criminal justice and works full time as a Chicago police officer.
While spirits with advanced skills may present themselves on photographs or video as an orb of light or as a misty ectoplasm, even those less evolved can be contacted, Maloy said.
Guests are met in front of the old Water Tower, which is said to be haunted, and escorted via yellow van across the Chicago area to different known haunted locations.
After arriving at its pre-determined destination, Maloy and Cece begin a 20-minute introductory lesson in ghost hunting techniques. Among the equipment they supply are night-vision cameras, thermal scanners, electro-magnetic field detectors and electronic voice phenomenon converters.
Once the group is familiar with the gear, each member is given a clipboard on which they can document any spiritual encounters. They are supplied with interview questions, as well. Then, the group is broken into teams and ushered into the world of the unknown.
Our journey took place on a recent Friday afternoon at Chet's Melody Lounge in Justice. The 100-year-old building is said to be haunted by numerous ghosts, some that giggle, some that clang pipes. Located across the street from Resurrection Cemetery, the lounge is the repository of all kinds of tales about the infamous Resurrection Mary, who is said to have died in a car accident while walking home from a dance at what is now the Willowbrook Ballroom during the 1930s.
But while Mary may be the most famous ghost haunting Archer Avenue, she is hardly the only one. There have been other weird sightings and odd phenomena along that stretch of road.
Rich Prusinski, owner of Chet's Melody Lounge, has heard little girls laughing on a number of occasions. Once, while sitting in the buck room with his mother and the bar's cook, he heard the sound so clearly he figured his sister must have pulled up with her two small daughters.
"But I looked outside and there was nothing," he said.
On another occasion, Prusinski heard, in sequence, what sounded like a bottle falling over, then a cooler closing, then a bar stool swiveling and finally, the sound of a phone being hung up.
"It happened in about 25 seconds, but there was nobody there," he said.
Prusinski's had psychics visit the lounge. They've told him there are definitely ghosts present but none of them are famous and none of them are harmful.
Collecting background information about a location is the first step in a ghost investigation, Maloy said.
When Prusinski told the group that the building still has many of the original floor joists and that some of them look like they'd been burned in a fire, Maloy suggested the entourage take a look.
While in the basement, Maloy took temperature and electro-magnetic readings and Cece grabbed the dowsing rods.
The rods enable an investigator to "interview" a spirit.
"If you're a male, cross the rods."
"If you died naturally uncross the rods."
Through the series of yes and no questions, the group discerned that the ghost responsible for the occasional pipe clanging in the basement is a 20- to 30-year-old white male who died in a fire during the 1800s. His remains were buried on the property.
After documenting the details of that ghostly encounter, the group headed back upstairs and individuals began investigating on their own.
"It's very simple," Cece said. "Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Just because a shell dies does not mean its electro-magnetic field -- its aura -- dies, too. It's got to go somewhere, it's got to do something."
If any skeptics remained, they were soon to become believers after one bar patron wandered over to see what the group was up to.
The man, clutching a Corona and smoking a cigarette, told the group how his 16-year-old son had perished in a car accident two years before. The boy is buried across the street in Resurrection Cemetery.
"I visit his grave twice a day, everyday," he said, solemnly.
After watching the amateur ghost hunters work the dowsing rods and the other equipment, the man asked if he could give it a try.
Even though he wasn't a part of the tour, Maloy handed him the rods.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Maloy asked.
Maloy and Cece have helped family members and friends make contact with the beyond, sometimes for fun, sometimes for peace of mind.
The man put down his beer, stubbed out his cigarette and sat down. After steadying his shaky hands, he grabbed the rods.
For some, ghost hunting can be more emotional than fun.
He asked his son, if his spirit was present, to cross the rods. They immediately crossed, causing the man to quake and fight back a sob. Then he said, "I just have one question. I need to know: Were you speeding that night of the accident?"
The rods quivered and then crossed, confirming the man's suspicions. He gasped, dropped his head, handed back the rods and walked away.
Maloy reminded the group that anything can happen on his ghost tours.
Maloy became interested in the supernatural during a stint in the Army. In 1991, he was 19, away from home for the first time and dealing with the death of his grandfather.
While participating in a field exercise in the woods of Kentucky, he had an out of body experience.
"It was the middle of the night and I woke up to use the washroom, which in this case was a tree. I stood up out of my sleeping bag and climbed to the top of the fox hole. It was cold out. I looked out and saw my body," he said.
He later learned that the official term for what he saw is a "silver chord." A mirror image of his own body attached to himself by a chord of light.
"When the spirit separates from the body there's this silver chord. It's a misty chord that comes from the stomach area. It's a lifeline for the spirit back to where it should be," he said. Sickness, meditation and emotional stress can bring it out.
The experience propelled Maloy into the world of the supernatural.
"Sometimes I get nervous about it," he said. "I know I am sensitive to this stuff, but I'm not a psychic."
Many times, he said, his paranormal work intermingles with his police work. He said he'd like someday to use his skills to help police find missing children.
Meanwhile, Maloy, who attended Moraine Valley Community College, Governors State University and University of Illinois Chicago, serves and protects full-time and scours the metropolitan area for haunted sites when he's off-duty.
Cece grew up in what she calls a haunted house in the Taylor Street area. She is very interested in the paranormal.
"We've had people from all over the world go on this tour, as well as all over the Chicago area," Maloy said.
Most are just looking for a fun afternoon or night out. Some are serious about making contact. And many simply take whatever comes their way.
When I grabbed the dowsing rods, I must admit, it was with a dose of skepticism.
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