Hogan Mansion, Eureka MO - 3/14/09

Location: The home formerly owned by Edward "Jellyroll" Hogan - a notorious St. Louis gangster and politician. Hogan's gang engaged in a number of high profile crimes while warring with a rival gang known as Egan's Rats during the late 1910's and early 1920's. Hogan built his home on the banks of the Big River, a tributary of the Meramec River. Here, he engaged in a number of illicit activities including: bootlegging of alcohol during Prohibition, running a brothel, and imprisoning foes in an improvised jail cell on the property.

The current owners of the property have reported all manner of paranormal activity that seems to be connected to the violent and tragic history of the property. People have seen apparitions, heard disembodied voices, heard footsteps when no one else was present, and seen objects move on their own.

Conditions: The investigation was started at 8:00 PM and concluded at 1:00 AM. Outside temperatures started the evening at 59 degrees and dipped to 39 degrees by the close of the investigation. Solar x-ray levels were normal and the geomagnetic field was quiet. The moon was in a waning gibbous phase, 78% of full.

Equipment Used:Two Canon 10D DSLRs, Extech 480823 EMF Detector, Olympus VN-4100PC digital audio recorder, Two Craftsman Digital 82345 Multimeters, Two Mastercool 52224 IR Thermometers, Two Sony ICD-P620 digital audio recorders, KII EMF Meter, Sony DCR-HC21 Camcorder, Sony DCR-TRV70 Camcorder, and 13 LED IR and UV flashlights.

The Set-Up: Due to the home's open floor plan, we kept the team together as one group so as not to contaminate evidence collection. The team focused mainly on house itself, briefly making a stop in the jail cell outside. The house consisted of three levels - an upstairs area that served as the servant's quarters, the main floor, and the lower level. The group carried two audio recorders with them as well as leaving one stationary and unattended on the main level. Additionally, the investigative team carried two camcorders handheld and carried both digital cameras with them as well. EMF and temperature were constantly monitored.

Personal Experiences: The most notable personal experiences happened in the upstairs area. This floor was the first area that we investigated and within 15 minutes of our arrival in the area, all four members of the team heard what sounded like a voice call out from right outside the house. The voice had a child-like quality and seemed to be saying "hey" or "help". We heard this voice three times over the course of about two minutes, and following the third time, we headed downstairs to investigate. The owner of the house was present on the main level, and he reported hearing no sounds come from outside during the time in question. Visual inspection out the windows showed no one present in the area around the house either.

After spending a little time outside the residence, we were able to pick up on some noise from some people outside a house that was approximately 450 feet away. We decided to have one investigator remain outside and three more to return to the upstairs attic area to see if we could hear the same sound in the house and corroborate it with the investigator standing outside. We started with a little testing to try and recreate the sound at the appropriate volume to determine distance. We determined that the sound appeared to sound as if it had its origins 90 - 100 feet away. During this testing period, the three members of the team in the attic heard the voice again. The investigator outside the house reported that he had not heard anything from outside.

We further investigated the upstairs looking for any openings where sound might be coming into the room. The upstairs had been heated with radiant heat, meaning that there were no ducts from the rest of the house that opened into this floor. So, the only avenues for sound to enter were from the windows to the outside and the staircase up to the floor which was closed from a door at the bottom.

Meter Readings: During our third round of investigating the upstairs area, we were able to pick up some activity on our KII meter. Sweeping the floor, we found it to be almost completely devoid of significant electromagnetic activity and on the previous two rounds of investigation on the floor, we had no meter fluctuations. Over the course of approximately a ten minute span, the meter bounced from having one light lit, to two lights, to sometimes three lights - all while the meter was in a stationary position. The meter was seemingly lighting on its own, the patterns did not seem to be any response to our questioning.

Results and Analysis: Analysis is complete. We were fortunately able to capture the unusual voice anomaly on not one, but two different pieces of equipment.

Audio Anomaly One:

This clip is the voice that was heard in the upstairs area during our first time there. This is actually the third time that we heard the voice, the previous two were just faint enough that they weren't picked up on the recorder. It was just after we heard this that we headed downstairs to try and find the source of what was going on. As previously mentioned, it definitely has a child-like quality and seems to be saying "hey".

Audio Anomaly Two:

This is from our second trip into the upstairs area and is the second time we heard this anomalous voice. This one is a little bit more faint than the previous recording due to the positioning of the recorder in the room. This sound was heard by everyone in the room, but was not heard by the investigator who was outside. The voice pops up one more time, about a minute later, but unfortunately, due to people talking in the room, was unable to be captured on audio. Again, this second voice incident was not heard by the investigator outside.

Audio Anomaly Captured On Video:

Hogan Mansion Voices

This video clip compiles the previous noted voices into a clip. Due to the position of the camcorder, it actually picks up the voices a little better than the audio recorder - with that said, headphones do help to hear the sounds clearly.