Alexander Moore Hannah built his Italianate home in antebellum Indianapolis.
One of the few sympathetic Hoosiers, he used his house as a station on the Underground Railroad. After his death, his children sold the home and the property. The new owners, the Oehlers, moved into the house in 1899. Soon after, they began experiencing strange phenomena. Moving objects, phantom sounds, the smell of charred bodies.
After some investigation, they discovered the grisly truth. One night, Hannah sheltered a group of escaped slaves in his cellar. Someone knocked over the lantern, igniting the straw mattresses. Everyone in the cellar burned to death. Hannah later buried the bodies behind the cellar wall.
Today, people still experience ghostly figures moving through the house, cold spots, unexplained sounds, and the smell of burning.
Ghost Hunt
We spent Saturday night investigating the Hannah House with a group of other Ghost Hunters. The moment we arrived, we were filled with a strange sense of foreboding.
We explored the grounds before the events began. The woods around the house were filled with an eerie silence.
We found a hastily disassembled guillotine. Were the current owners French? Were they hiding the murder of the local aristocracy?
Inside the service branch of the house, we met with the other Ghost Hunters.
One couple were clearly professionals. The husband had a tactical vest and both were bristling with expensive ghost hunting technology. EVP recorders, EMF detectors, flashlights, digital cameras. I felt totally outclassed. I later learned that they had investigated hauntings all over the country. There was also a mother-son team who had been to a handful of other haunted houses. When those four learned of our inexperience, they did not seem amused. They moved away from us on the Group W bench. In addition, there was a group of four college kids, also on their maiden ghost hunting voyage.
While waiting for the tour to begin, I inspected the disturbing artwork. What could it mean? What secrets did these writhing, nipply figures hold?
The Guide gave us a tour of the house, explaining the history, pointing out the hotspots. Then they turned us loose to investigate. Aine and I staked out the attic while it was still light. What we found there unnerved us.
According to the Guide, the rugs mysteriously move around the attic floor. I took this picture during the tour.
When we returned, the chair had been moved and the rug missing. I found it behind a column on the other end of attic.
After sunset, we found, to our dismay, that the flash on our camera no longer worked. Did the spirits sabotage our equipment? What follows is the raw, uncut video footage we took as we explored the house.
The Attic
We didn't experience any paranormal activity in the attic, even though people before us had experienced being pushed and hit by an unseen entity. You'll notice the rug has moved from the earlier picture.
On the way up to the attic, I thought I saw one of the other investigators step out of a room, look at me, then return to the room. When I got to the room, no one was there.
Grandma Oehler's Bed
The Guide told us Grandma didn't like people messing with her bed. We taunted the old lady for over an hour, but couldn't rouse her. At one point, Aine was laying on the bed and I was sitting on the other side of the room. I thought I heard Aine whisper something. She sat up. Did you say my name, she asked. I said no. She said it sounded like someone whispered her name in her ear. We both heard it, but have no idea who said it. Also, while in the room, Aine heard a child say the word "mama" twice from the hallway. I didn't hear it and there were no children in the house.
Also, Aine downloaded a Ghost Communicator App on her iPhone. It displays words that, allegedly, are being communicated by nearby spirits. It kept showing us the words airplane and airport which didn't make much sense. But it also kept displaying my name. Then it displayed the word run. Which was a little disturbing. It didn't display my name in any other room or since we left the house. Only in Grandma Oehler's room.
Did Grandma Oehler know who we were? What was she trying to tell us?
The Cellar
We went down to the cellar where people burned to death and were hastily buried.
We took an EMF detector the Guide let us borrow. It didn't react anywhere in the house. While in the basement, the air grew suddenly chilly and the EMF started lighting up. The Ghost Communicator started repeating the words army, murder, and burning.
Extras
A couple other oddities in the house.
Parting Shot
The mysterious rocking chair.
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