Jim Harold's Campfire - The Cemetery Shadow Man - Jim Harold's Campfire 767

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

A cemetery worker sees something he cannot explain, and what follows may be one of the most haunting Campfire stories we’ve heard in a long time. In this episode, a shadowy figure appears in a graveyard, but the story takes a powerful turn when that figure seems to lead a procession of the dead. It is eerie, emotional, and unforgettable. From there, the strangeness keeps coming: a classroom mystery that feels like a crack in reality, unexplained knocks in the night, haunted buildings, Ouija board unease, and encounters that leave ordinary people questioning what they saw. These are the stories that make Campfire special, the ones that start quietly, pull you in, and stay with you after the episode is over. VIRTUAL CAMPFIRE GROUP Join our FREE online community at ⁠https://virtualcampfiregroup.com⁠ EVENTS Hope to see you soon at one of Jim’s live events: https://jimharold.com/events YOUTUBE CHANNEL Be sure to subscribe to Jim’s YouTube channel at: ⁠https://youtube.com/jimharold⁠  JOIN JIM’S SPOOKY STUDIO PLUS CLUB You can get access to Jim’s entire back catalog of Campfire and a TON of exclusive content with the Spooky Studio Plus Club. Go to https://⁠jimharold.com/plus⁠ and signup to support the show and get access to our MASSIVE library of content! MERCH Go to ⁠https://jimharold.com/merch⁠ to get your Jim Harold T’s, sweatshirts, mugs, hats and more!  BOOKS Get all SIX of Jim’s Campfire books here: https://jimharold.com/campfirebooks/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This is a scary one. Up next on the Campfire. Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harold's Campfire. Next up on the Campfire is Christine, and I got to tell you I saw this story. I'm like, I can't wait to record this story because you know if you have listened any time at all. I love those head scratcher stories, and Christine's got one of those today, and she's going to tell us all about. Found out about us, of course, Christine and M. Of N, that's why we drink.

We always appreciate Christine and M. Tell us what happened. This sounds great. Thanks so much for having me, Jim. So when I was a graduate student at a large university here in the South, this was around fall of 2020. I was entering my second year of my program. And as part of our program, we would teach two freshman year composition classes in the fall and in the spring. So I was maybe a month into the semester. And, you know, of course, it was COVID. So we met with students. I met with my students once a week in person and then once a week on Zoom just to try to, you know, keep things, you know, spaced out. And if people were sick, they can meet on Zoom. But this was a day we were meeting in the classroom.

And so my students knew where the classroom was. We had met, you know, it was well into the semester. And I noticed that particular day I was missing, you know, around like five-ish students. And I thought it was a little bit weird because normally students will email me if they're going to miss or if they're sick. But in this case, I was like, well, okay, we're going to continue on. And I'm sure, you know, maybe people will come in late or I'll hear from them. Well, I finished the class. And shortly after class, I got an email from one of my top students.

And she was just, you know, always on top of things, like hardly ever missed, really. And she asked me if I had canceled class that day because she and a few other students had been in the classroom and came at the right time. But the lights were off and nobody was in there. And so the fact that she was like, okay, I'm not really sure what went on here. Did you cancel class? And I was like, no. I held class. You know, most of the class was there.

This is really strange. and she was like, well, this is really bizarre because I was here too, along with a few other students. And so I said, okay, maybe you can meet up with me tomorrow or later on in the week, and you can show me what classroom you went to. Because in my head, I was like, well, maybe students skipped and they didn't want to outright say that they skipped. So they, you know, could have made up this elaborate, you know, story. but I was like, why don't we meet up and I'll go over, you know, what you miss with me and then you can show me what classroom, you know, you were in. And so she met up with me later that week.

We walked into the building. I was like, you know, show me, show me the classroom you went to. And sure enough, it was the class that, the very classroom that, you know, we always met in. And I was like, are you sure you were here at the right time? And she was like, yes. And so we both kind of looked at each other like, that's weird. And she was like, that is weird. And a few of the other students corroborated the same story that they were, they insisted that they were in class, but no one else was there. And they were there at the same time, same place. I mean, if it were one student, you would say, well, you know, maybe they're just whatever or making us something up or maybe they're, you know, they're hallucinating things.

but several different students, that is wild. I have one logical explanation, Christine. Let me know what you think of it. Somehow you guys, your small group that missed class and you and the larger group that attended class, somehow you branched off to separate realities temporarily. What do you think? That's what I'm thinking too.

I really thought about this for a long time because it's one of the strangest thing that's ever happened to me. And hearing the kind of the time glitch stories on your show kind of helped solidify the idea that I think that's what it was. And it's kind of unbelievable. But yeah, I think that's the only explanation is crazy. You know, we've had, and this is one of the better ones, but we've had kind of these kind of stories where things didn't make sense. And time slips, as you said, you know, somebody walked in a theater and thought the show was just beginning, but it was actually ending.

you know, two and a half hours passed like that. Yeah. I mean, there's really no other explanation. I mean, again, I don't think you would have five or six students making something up together and something that outrageous. You know, if you're going to make up something, oh, we got stuck in an elevator or, you know, I mean, if you were trying to, and you said it was one of the better students. So it's not somebody who would typically do that to even begin with. So. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yeah. This is up there in terms of those stories. I don't know if you heard the one about the woman who saw herself across the hall in the elevator. Did you hear that? Yes. I heard that one in the hospital. Yeah. That kind of reminds me a little bit of it. It's almost like a glimpse into parallel universes. And I always quote this one saying, I think it's true. Not only is the universe stranger than we understand. The universe is. stranger than we can understand. And once in a while, there's a little glitch in the matrix where something doesn't quite make sense. And we get a little glimpse through the keyhole. And I think you and your students got just such a glimpse. Now, did you guys share this with the whole class? What happened? Did you say, hey, guys, I've got a great story for you. Yeah, I did. And everybody was kind of like, that's really strange, but nobody could have an explanation for it. And when I tell this story to like my family and friends, like I think I kind of forgot about it for a long time, you know, it happened and then I kind of moved on.

And I think I told my boyfriend at the time and he was like, that's weird. But I told my parents recently, too, they're like, what? That's crazy. I'm like, yeah, it's one of the, and I haven't had very many experiences. I know some of your listeners have a lot of, you know, a lot of experiences. And I haven't had anything like truly paranormal, but this, you know, this. was one of them. Well, it's kind of neat. It's kind of neat. I mean, I appreciate everybody. It's very sensitive. But it's also neat when people don't have experiences and they just say, I only had this one. That makes it kind of stand out, I think, sometimes in some ways.

Only one downside to this whole thing. If you tell this to your classes, you know, then they'll start using it as an excuse. They might say, I'd interrupt class today. I was in an alternate universe, which might have been like the college hangout and they were having beer, but anyway, appreciate it very much. And thank you for sharing a great, I would say a Camp Fire Classic. Thank you so much, Christine. Stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. Welcome to the Campfire. I am Jim Harold. And so glad to be with you once again on Jim Harold's Campfire, The Show, where since 2009, 2009, we've been talking to real people about their real stories of the paranormal, the supernatural, the strange. And we do it every week for 90 minutes. So

welcome aboard whether you've been listening for years or you're brand new. And a couple of notes. If you would like to contribute your story to the campfire, please go to Jimherald.com slash campfire and sign up. It's easy. It's painless. And I assure you, I do not bite. We just have a quick conversation and then you share your story with the world through the campfire. And many people say, ooh, I was nervous and this wasn't nearly as intense as I expected. It's just two friends talking. So I'd love to share your story with our audience, jimherald.com slash campfire, Jimherald.com slash campfire.

And it helps us out too because honestly, if we don't have stories, we don't have a show. So we hope that you will contribute. Jimherald.com slash campfire. Also, we hope that you will tune into our other free podcasts, including the paranormal podcast. That is the show I've been doing since 2005, where I interview authors and experts on the paranormal, the supernatural, the same things we talk about here. You know, upcoming shows and a show from last week. Last week, great show with Richard Syrett about rock and roll Twilight Zone, basically things like the 27, close. and all these rock stars dying young fascinating episode check it out wherever you get this show for

free also uh this week or let me get my calculations right we talked about one of the most unknown but biggest hauntings in america the wizard clip haunting and uh that's this week and then next week we're going to have a special show about AI and i got to tell you some of that is scarier than actual paranormal uh activity so lots of good stuff we've got Roswell coming up in July. A great show about Roswell. Amy Bruny at the end of the month talking about her new paranormal cookbook. Just a lot of great stuff.

It is the paranormal podcast. Let me make sure, make it clear, because we've got a couple shows with similar names. I'm talking about the paranormal podcast with me, Jim Harold, and a different guest every week talking about the things that we talk about on this show. And let's talk about those things some more and hear more. great campfire stories. And here they are. John is on the line from California, and I love that background. I love that background. That's going to come into play here. And John has a workplace story for us, but a little bit different. A lot of the times we hear workplace stories are like

from office parks and office buildings and those kind of things. There's a little bit different. John, welcome to the show. I love this. Tell us, tell us kind of in general terms, where you work, what you do and about this special friend. Thank you, Jim. Well, I have worked for over 40 years as a grave digger at a cemetery here in Southern California. One of the oldest cemeteries here was it was formed in the late 1800s, 1817, to be exact. And I love my work here. It's a great place to work.

lots of living friends and lots of not living friends. The story that I have for you is an interesting one. We opened a green burial section here about four years ago, and in the prepping of that section, we had to dig about two feet down the entire section and clean it all out. A green burial is there's no metal, nothing like that. Everything has to be natural that's put into the ground.

So we had to prep the entire area. And in doing so, it's about an acre's worth of land. And my crew and I started to notice that any time that we were watering or just one of us was over there, that there was a black shadow man, we call him just the shadow man, that he's about seven feet tall. but he always wants up standing behind us. Like if I'm over there watering, the guys will, they will inevitably look over and see where I'm at,

about 15 feet, 20 feet behind me will be this shadow man just watching us work. Huh. And now, if that wasn't strange enough, the fact that we only see him or had only seen him in that section was odd. but here's where the kicker came in. About three months ago,

and that section's now been open for a while, we've done internments there. And about three months ago, we did one of our, we do a mass burial every now and then for the county of San Diego. Whenever the county has indigent people or somebody that doesn't have a loved one and they pass away, the county just, they don't have any place,

to put these people so they will contact us and we will do a burial of about anywhere from 50 to 100 cremated remains and and we do it lovingly we generally put some kind of really big marker like a cross or some kind of a nice statue over that so we did that a while back and the following day after we had had that internment one of my my co-workers who had very seldom saw anything he was opening that morning and it was about six o'clock in the morning five thirty-six o'clock in the morning and he got to our main gate and as he got inside the gate he saw the shadow man standing uh about 200 yards away at the area where you enter the green burial section Huh. So he sees the Shadow Man and he, one, it was kind of unique for this member of the crew because he doesn't see a lot. But the thing that freaked him out was that the Shadow Man kind of looked at him and then turned and started walking towards up the hill.

And as he did, he noticed that there was a row of people or row of entities, whatever you want to call them, that were walking from where this mass burial area was following the shadow man up the hill. And he started counting them, and there were 50, which just happened to be the number of internments that we had done. And so that freaked him out pretty good. He normally is not really an excitable person, and I'll call him Jose.

So Jose came running over and he starts telling all of us, you're not going to believe what I just saw. And so we thought, you know, Jose, you need to calm down a little bit. We believed him, but it seemed kind of far-fetched to see 50. I've never heard anything like it. Well, then fast forward the next day was the day I'm opening, and I get there, open the gate, get about to the same. area and I look over and sure enough I see the shadow man standing there and he

sees me turns starts walking towards the older section of the cemetery and lo and behold this time there were 50 plus I stopped counting that just shy of 50 and they just they followed him as they got to the old section they disappeared but it was a like a procession of people just walking in line heading towards that section like they were being greeted home. It was a super touching and amazing experience. One like I'd never had here and I've been here a long, long time. So it was something. It makes you feel peaceful, though. That's amazing. And we're having, if folks, I don't know if we'll get this out in the final recording, you might be hearing a little weird feedback after I talk. I don't think it's ghost or anything. I think it's

just an audio thing, but John, what a remarkable story and that the actual numbers lined up. You know, that's what's amazing to me. The actual numbers lined up. 50 people, 50 people being buried, 50 people entities showing up that morning. And a guy who had not seen a lot, which is also interesting too, but you saw that. And then to follow up that you see it. Wow. What a remarkable story.

What a remarkable story. And I mean, is this over the years? I mean, you said you had this shadow person have a lot of like a kind of interesting things happened over the years? Over the years, we've had a lot of things. I've had instances where we've had a burial. And I know we never really see the people that we bury a lot of the time. But I'll see a spirit or something. Like I've seen, there was one instance where we buried a woman and her family was there and a really nice thing.

And as the family left, there was one person that had remained and this person was set down in the grass and they were sitting in their Indian style and with their legs crossed in front of a moment and just peacefully. well then that that person disappeared and the person disappeared right in front of my eyes. I was like, whoa. And I didn't know if that was the person we had just buried. Well, about a month later, when we put the headstone in, there was a picture and that was the person that I saw sitting there. And we have instances like that quite a bit where, you know, sometimes you'll see somebody. I mean, there are there are spirits that I see here all the time. that are like regular occurrences that I see them all the time.

It's an interesting thing. I've never had any feeling of scared or any kind of fear. It's always been a peaceful thing, sometimes a little uneasy, as it's odd being at a cemetery at night or in the dark, but I've never felt anything evil. Absolutely amazing. And may I say this, I think, and I've said this before in the show, people in your, I'll call it an industry or line of work who deal with people at the time of loss, morticians, grave diggers, those kind of things. You guys don't get enough credit because I think we try to put the idea of death out of our minds and we only deal with it, I think, most of us when we have to. And I mean, it's, On one hand, it's understandable. I guess on the other hand, it's kind of regrettable.

But in the process, I think what you and your peers do get lost. And it's so important because you're working with people at the toughest time of their lives. So thank you for what you and all your colleagues do in your industry. It's a very important thing and many times overlooked. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it. Yeah, we love the people that we work with. We consider ourselves as a family with the community.

Our community is pretty tight-knit, and the town is everybody knows everybody. So we have relatives. I've got relatives buried here. And so it's a family thing. I feel an important need to help. Like you said, I'm empathetic, and all of these people are going through the worst day of their life. And I like that. We were talking a little bit before the show started, and you were mentioning you've got your ball cap on there.

You're a Cleveland sports fan. And I do want to offer my deepest. condolence. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yes. I weep every year. Don't I know it? Don't I know it? John, thank you for joining us and sharing this awesome campfire story. Stay spooky. Thank you, Jim. You stay spooky, my friend. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. Next up on the Camp Fire is Tammy from Minnesota. She's been listening to us since pandemic times. And we're so glad that she decided to tell her story today. We really appreciate it because of it. as I told Tammy and I tell all of our storytellers, we don't have a show without storytellers.

And by the way, I should say, if you want to tell your story, submissions are open now. So go over to jimherald.com slash campfire so we can hear your story like we're about to hear Tammy. Tammy, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. And this seems like a very remarkable story.

Please tell us what happened. Yeah, and it's a story that has a lot of moving parts. So I'm trying to condense it to the most important parts, the most gripping parts. We moved into the house where we're living now in about, it was late. It was fall 2010, around Halloween time. And we had seven children at the time, and I was pregnant with an eighth. So we have a big family. Wow.

And we had four boys first and then a girl and then another boy. So our oldest daughter, this story kind of primarily revolves around. her and she's sandwiched in with a bunch of rough and tumble Minnesota boys who love to hunt fish, wrestle, play football. And she kind of grew up wanting to do all those things that her brothers were doing. And she got right in when she was in kindergarten into wrestling and as soon as possible into football and things like that. And she was just so active and healthy and everything. And then her health really took a downturn around 2019. She switched from football to cross-country when she was a seventh grader. We said, listen, we don't really want you to continue playing football unless you're

going to be a kicker. And she said, no worries, I'm going to run cross-country. And so she did. And she had a really good season. Her seventh grade year, she kind of broke into the 22-minute mark for 5K. And then very rapidly, towards the end of the season, she started having a lot of pain, inexplicable pain. Really in her hips was the most prominent area, but kind of full body inflammation at times. And so she had really, by wintertime, she was really struggling. She couldn't go upstairs by herself. She was pulling herself up by a handrail.

And we were really alarmed because she had gone from being so physically fit and active to just in pain all the time and not getting around very well. So anyway, she, this, this is relevant because she ended up being put on a 504 plan for school. So she would go to school at the beginning of the day with her siblings. And then at lunchtime, I would go and pick her up, bring her home. She'd have lunch. And then she would often go just straight to bed because she would. was exhausted and she was in a lot of pain. So she would be in bed a lot. And we have a yellow lab who was never her dog to begin with. But this dog obviously sensed that something was wrong with her and he

wanted to be with her all the time. And he just was glued to her. And so he would often be right in bed with her. And if she didn't want to be crowded, he would just be on the floor as close to her bed as possible. And so he was kind of like her guard dog when she was sick. And so anyway, one night my husband and I, so about 2019, late 2019 was when she really just couldn't get around very well. She was on crutches. She couldn't walk unsupported. And so she was being looked at by, we had referrals for Mayo here in Minnesota, U of M, Sanford, children's, Gillette children's, because they wanted teams looking at her to see what was wrong with her and why this had happened so fast. So anyway, one night, my husband and I decided to just

go to dinner and just go get something to eat together and then we were on our way home. And I got a phone call and it was Maggie and she rarely called me. And I picked up, it connected to my car so we could hear her on speaker, both my husband and me. And I could just hear in her voice here. Her voice was shaking. And she said, mom, are you almost home? And I said, we're about a mile away. What's going on? And she said, I heard a loud rapping sound on the window behind me. So she was sitting up in bed. She had a window behind up above and behind her head. And she said, I heard a loud rapping sound on the window, a loud banging. And she said, now radar is pointed at the door and he's growling and I could hear it on the phone.

He had this low guttural growl. And so, of course, my husband kind of put the pedal to the metal, and we got home as soon as we could. I think we were both jumping out of our doors before we came to a full stop almost. And I went straight to Maggie to her bedroom. My husband just went to make, you know, kind of canvas the perimeter of the house.

And I went straight to Maggie. She's shaking. As soon as I get to the door, open the door. The dog is pointed right at the door, all of his hair is standing up on the back of his on his back and neck. But as soon as he saw me, he calmed down. The hair started to go down. He started wagging his tail. And I went and sat next to Maggie on her bed and I said, no, tell me again what happened. And she explained the same exact thing. And then she just began to tell me of all these experiences that she had been having here at home that she never told us about. And that's

classic Maggie. She just never, her motto was always complaining never did any good for anyone any time. So she never told us things that she was experiencing until often her injuries and inexplicable health problems had gone too far because she would never tell us what was going on with us. She thought she could just tough it out and power through it. So she starts telling us about all these things that were happening in the house. And I, I'm just, I'm stunned. I don't know what to say to her. And my husband, after he canvassed the perimeter of the house and, of course, found nothing. He came and joined us. And he came in in the middle of the conversation where she's telling us one thing after another creepy things that are happening in this house. And so I don't remember how we wrapped up that conversation with her. But then, of course, that conversation continued between my husband and me about what to make of this. We had no idea what to make of this. And we didn't. didn't say anything to anybody for a while. I later, I don't know why I decided to tell one of our grown kids about what Maggie had experienced.

And this is our third oldest. And he's this big burly, he wrestled 195 pounds in college. He's an Army National Guard soldier. He was a sheriff's deputy for a couple of years. and now he works for the DNR. He's like, you know, just a tough guy, you know. And also I knew that he would listen, but he wouldn't latch on to anything, you know, theory-wide.

So I just ran this by him, and I started just brainstorming saying, you know, could she be having some kind of a psychological break because of everything she's been through health-wise? Everything she loves to do has been stripped from her. She's on medications. I started texting doctors and saying, you know, is this, is it possible that her medications could be causing hallucinations, things like that? But I know what I saw too when I walked into her room and her

dog was pointed right at the door like something threatening was on the other side. So it was incredibly confusing for me. I didn't know what to make of it. But I told my son what happened. And he became very sober at that moment when I said, I wonder if she's having a psychotic break of some sort. And he looked at me and he said, mom, I believe it. her. And I stopped and I said, why is that? And he said, me and all of my brothers have had experiences like that in this house. Wow. Wow. That's the ultimate validation confirmation. Yeah. Yeah. And I, you know, of course, I was like, are you kidding me? Why, why haven't you said anything about this? And, you know, and I think everybody was kind of in the same boat like they didn't want to say anything

because they didn't know what the consequences would be of saying that, maybe not being believed, or maybe they were second-guessing their own, you know, reality. So anyway, so then my son proceeds to tell me that the most impressive thing that ever happened to him here was he was, we have a finished basement downstairs with a living area, bathroom, a couple of bedrooms down there. And he's sitting in the living area watching TV.

And he says, Natalie, one of our other daughters, He said she had been in the bathroom and she came out and she had to walk past me to get to her bedroom, which, you know, he said, not unusual at all, but he said, I said something to her joking around. She never looked at me, he said. She never looked at me. She just kept, she had a fixed gaze straightforward and acted like I wasn't even there. And he said, to be honest, that kind of annoyed me that she didn't acknowledge me when she walked past me. So I stood up from the couch and I followed her into her bedroom.

And as I got to the door, I said, hey, I'm talking to you. And when he opened the door and looked in, there was nobody in there. And, you know, it's just like kind of gives you chills to think about that. And so as I'm sitting there talking to him, I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, there was a night where I was in the kitchen. Late, everybody was settled in for the night. The littles were in bed. The teens were all getting, you know, settling into their little caves for the night. and I'm baking something for the next day.

And I'm in the kitchen, and there's a storm door, kitchen door with a storm door and regular door. And I hear somebody, it sounded like with an open hand, wrap on the glass on the storm door five times. It was just back, that, that, rapid succession, very loud, very startling. And I didn't really know what to do. I kind of froze for a minute because we're out in the country. We're on somewhere between 15 and 20 acres. We have neighbors, but we can't see any of them. Nobody's really close enough to do something and get away with it. We have four dogs. They bark. They're alerting us when somebody's not supposed to be here.

So I didn't know really what to do, but I called down to my husband who was downstairs and I said, somebody just banged really loudly on the kitchen door and he came up and walked around the house. So it didn't occur to me until after I talked to Wyatt about his experience, that what Maggie described happened to her with her bedroom window was the same thing that happened to me in the kitchen. Huh. And so it was just really strange. And then so we started talking about it more as a family and come to find out, you know,

lots of things happening. The boys were always outside, you know, they're fishermen, their hunters, they're hikers. We have trails out on this property that they love to walk and explore. And my son, when he got back from his deployment in Afghanistan, he said that he would take his horse out on the trails. And there were certain points on those trails that that horse absolutely would freeze and refuse to go. He said no matter how hard he tried to coax her or get her to obey him, she absolutely would thrash her head and just refuse to move her feet forward. So anyway, that's just. just a little snippet of things that happen here, but a lot of things out in the woods are kids

reporting that they've seen figures, shadowy figures moving. And Wyatt, when I talked to him, he said, that's why I don't go in the woods anymore. When it gets close to dark, I'm out of the And this is a brave man. I mean, he served in the military, served overseas. Sounds like maybe during times of combat. I mean, you were not talking about someone who's like me cowering behind a mic. Right. This is a brave guy. So, so I'm not. literally cowering, but I did you get the idea? But my question is, any thoughts to the genesis of all this? So, okay, so we live just a few miles away from a campground.

It's in the same county where we live. It's called Tipsonah Mounds Campground. And I don't remember why, but one night I got online and I was just kind of researching the history and why it's called Campsinaw, Tips, excuse me, Tipsana Mounds Campground. And so come to find out, there's indigenous burial mounds all around Grant County and particularly Pelican Lake Township, which is where we live. And there's a couple of archaeologists who confirmed, confirmed it. And I can't remember what year it was, but I did get online and I looked. So, you know, we're in Grant County.

We're in Pelican Lake Township. And then so we moved in here. My in-laws bought this property back in early 2000s. And I do remember now them saying something about the previous owners had mentioned that they believe that there are some burial mounds on the property. So it would be Egyptway and Chippewa. Well, I think it's totally possible that those spirits persevere and are around. Very interesting. And that validation is something else. You have the younger child telling you, then you have the older child saying the older man at this point, saying, yeah, this happened to me too. Same thing. Same thing. That's about as close to proof as you can absolutely get. Tammy, thank you for joining us. Thank you for sharing your story on the show and stay spooky. Thank you. Stay spooky.

When you do these shows for almost 21 years as I'm recording this, you come and you face your favorite people. And one of our favorite people's right here, Jeff Azel, magician extraordinaire. Also now I know a filmmaker, award-winning filmmaker. And he has a lot of stories. He has some great stories. And he's going to start off with one that ties into a famous rock star. And here's the thing. We just did a show with Richard Seared on The Rock and World.

Twilight Zone over on the paranormal podcast, the paranormal podcast. Check it out because they talk about all these different artists who died young that were in the 27 club died at 27 years of age. And one of them was the person we're going to talk about today. Jeff, always a pleasure. You're so talented. You're such a nice guy. When I think of entertainment, I think of Jeff Azel. And I'm sure you're going to entertain us with this story. Tell us what happened. This is magic. This is crazy. So, Jim, I was doing something in Vegas recently. And it's somebody you actually interviewed before,

a lady named Patty Negri, right? And she happens to be a great friend of mine. I handle some of her social media stuff and do her videos and shooting. So I traveled with her to Vegas to do this sance that she was doing. My job for that was simply to video it and just capture whatever we capture and enjoy the sands. So while we're there,

we're doing the thing and Patty's going through all the stuff she goes through to make everything work with all the people there and have fun with them. But there is one point where she says, like midway through I'm guessing, where she says, I want you all just take a deep breath and just close your eyes for a second. And she's talking to everybody at the table. And I want you to just let whatever is going to come in, come in. And she goes, if you maybe you might hear a name, maybe you might see a picture, maybe you might see whatever, right? And just let it all come in and let's let your veil down and just let it all come through. I'm just sitting back there doing my thing. My only focus at the point of making sure I had good video and good audio.

So I was just making sure the mics were working right and making sure everything was getting picked up, make sure the video was all shot properly. And so I'm just watching it. And while she's saying that, in my head, I hear, in my head, I hear, hey man. this is Jimmy. And he sounded pissed, by the way. He goes, this is Jimmy and I'm pissed. They're not talking about me. Now, at the moment, I'm just thinking,

I'm just thinking to myself, man. Nah, I said, I don't know what the heck that is. I'm just moving on. Just keep on going, doing my thing, right? And the, the seance is going on as it's going, and I'm just standing in the background. Again, while she's doing her thing over there, the voice comes back in my head, it goes,

Hey man, you're not listening to me. I'm Jimmy, and they need to know I'm here. And I was like, what in the world is this? I was just sitting back there, right? I'm not part of the deal there. I'm not sitting there to go to the seance. I'm just sitting there to do the gig. And when the thing is basically almost over,

and I made sure that the recording, when she finished, she closed her, bailed, did everything like that. I didn't probably maybe 20 minutes at that point had passed by and I told us hey Patty you're done here the crowd stood here I said but I just need to get something off my head

I want you to know no no I'm sorry this was before that one of the ladies on the left of me the lady in the left of me she said I have this name that keeps coming through to me and his name is Jimmy and you hear me audibly

on the video you hear me audibly say stop I'm not even part of it. I shouldn't have said a word, but I couldn't help myself. I was so shocked when she, the lady on the left of me just said, I got this name coming through and his name is Jimmy.

And the lady on the left of me, she paints dead artists basically, or makes paintings of them. And she was supposed to be doing a painting of Jimmy Hendricks. And she hadn't done it yet. And so when she said that and I yelled, stop, that was my, I was like, there's no way this is happening.

And then after it was all said and done, I said, Patty, remember the moment where I, everybody heard me and I said, everybody heard me. I yelled to stop it. I was loud, very audible about it. I go, it was that moment when she said that the name Jimmy's coming through. Before any of that ever happened, I go, in my head, the name Jimmy didn't just come through,

but the guy was saying, look, I'm pissed, you guys aren't talking about me. And then Patty just blew up, she exclaimed. She said, what in the world? She was so cool. And it was a very exciting moment. But the whole key with it is just, I didn't go with my own intuition. She said, if you get something, you should always say something because you just don't know.

Right. And so that's kind of what happened with that with me. It was just such, I videoed the whole thing and I put it on her YouTube page. And it was just such a wild experience. I even think I may have sent you the video. I can't remember if I did or not. But Jim, that was crazy for me just to be sitting there just a participant. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Huh. Huh. That's interesting. So when he was saying Jimmy, were you putting two and two together that was the Jimmy, Jimmy Hendrix? Or did you think it was just some guy named Jimmy? I just thought it was all he kept here was just the name Jimmy, right? At first, I didn't put it together as Jimmy Hendricks. But somewhere in there, Patty had said something about we're trying to bring a talented artist through of some sort or a rock and roll person because we were right there in Vegas. We were at some sort of a country club nightclub thing that. where the rock and roll artist would all go in there and play all the time. And so her goal was to bring through that in that seance a rock and roll artist that had passed away at some point. Sure.

But I didn't connect it to myself. I just kept hearing a dude say, hey, I'm Jimmy. I'm pissed. You're not talking about me. And that was just, and for me not to have said something earlier, which I've learned my lesson now, I will say something going forward. But, man, just to experience that, not expect to experience it because it's very unexpected. I just kept doubting myself.

I'm like, there's no way. Nah, no. It's all like, nah. This is just something in my head. I don't know. But it just kept coming back. It's not every day that a rock legend comes through from the other side. You know, the thing is, is what I was talking to Richard Seard about this on that paranormal podcast.

I think about Jimmy Hendricks. I think about Brian Jones, Janice Joplin, Amy Winehouse, all these different Jim Crocey, all these different rock stars, Buddy Holly. All of them died. John Lennon, died at a young age, and Elvis even, all the things, if you look at artists like Tony Bennett, who passed not that long ago, and Sinatra passed in the 90s, but they performed well into their 70s and for Tony Bennett well into his 80s. You just think of, I mean, of course, first and foremost, it was worse for, obviously they lost their lives. Their families lost their

loved ones. But in kind of a third level, we as fans lost. out because we lost all this great talent and all these great contributions. I mean, my goodness, could you imagine what, look at the career that Eric Clapton, they were basically contemporaries. Look at if you cut off Eric Clapton's career in 1967. I think that's when Hendricks died. I mean, or maybe it was a little later than, I'm sorry. I'm getting back in the years, maybe early 70s, maybe early 70s. But regardless, it's just a shame. It's just a real shame. It's just a real shame. that we didn't get to see what all these great artists could have contributed to an art and music. Kirkobang, people like that too.

So, yeah. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But they're music's with us and we're grateful for that. Now, you had another story for us, and then you being a master magician, you're going to do a quick magic trick for us. But tell us that other story first. So I used to do this show in Las Vegas for a couple years. He had a contract there and it was a lot of fun.

A place called the Las Vegas Magic Theater. And I always swore that that place was haunted, 100%. We did an interview together one time when I was there for one of your other podcasts that I think with you and are at one point. But I remember one incident, there's probably two incidents, but one incident off the top of my head is I would during the day, go to the theater, just set things up real quick. and then walk down to Fremont Street and have some lunch.

And then I'd come back. A lot of times I'd go grab the lunch, carry it back, and eat at the theater. And I walked into the theater this one day. Empty. Empty place. Walked into the theater, in the back door, and I heard, clear as day, the guy is back. The guy is back. Yeah.

And it was in a girl's voice. And I was like, I had to step back. I said, I'm like, there's somebody in here because I was by myself. Right. And I'm looking at all. I go, hello, hello. I'm just walking through the hallways of the theater and just, I keep going. I'm like, there is nobody there, Jim.

Not one person is in the whole place. And it was just like hearing just the guy is back. I was like, holy, yeah, of course. back, what do you want? Did they want my food gym? Yeah, because I'm like, the guy would be you. I was the guy. Any idea of who it was, maybe? I mean, I bet a lot of people have come and gone in that space. So there was a business there prior to the magic theater there. I don't remember the exact

name of the business, but it was a business that helped people that were, I want to say, in trouble or troubled people. So that was my only thing that I could figure something could have happened to somebody who was there previous and they passed away, maybe they hung around, they liked the place, they helped them, who knows. But just walking in a place and just hearing loud and clear, the guy's back made me just almost fall out of my skin at that moment.

There was one other time when we were at the theater and in the back, there was like the back area over there where the restrooms and things were. And then there was a, a closet, a broom closet as well. You go in the restrooms and there was an employee restroom and then everybody else's restrooms. And so I would always have my employee restroom off to the side and it needed a code to get

in. So you had to punch in the code to unlock it or lock it. And I remember going there and before I'd leave, I'd lock the door, make sure it's all shut so that people aren't going in there and doing anything. and when I walked back there, just minutes later, just minutes, door is wide open, wide open. And I'm like, who opened this damn door? And the lights run again. And they weren't on before.

The door was not open. I clearly had closed it. I'm not crazy. I know what I see and I know what I do. I locked the door. I coated it up and boom. You have to have a code to open that door, period. It was open, wide lights are back on.

I shut it again. And it happened more than one. time in that place. Between that and the broom closet being locked all on its own and the broom closet only locks from the inside, which was a weird setup, but that's the only way it locked. Did this place have a reputation for this? Did it, did you feel like it had a big reputation for being haunted with other people you talk to? Or do you think they were just picking on you? No, I think, I don't think it was just me because my buddy, who was also a part of that theater, when I, when my contract was over, He called me maybe four or five weeks later.

He goes, you're not going to believe what just happened. I go, what's up? He goes, you know that broom closet? I go, yeah. He goes, it's completely locked. He goes, we didn't lock it. It's just locked and we can't get in the room closet. He called me to see if I happen to have a spare key.

I brought him a key, but they had to go have somebody re-key it just to get back into the broom closet. But it locks only from the inside. There's only one way to lock that broom closet, which is it, like I said before, super strange setup holler whoever put that together but it only locked from the inside and they don't lock it nobody locks that door because they don't want to lock their stuff he's told me before that he's left the place came back and the lights were all on again things like that have happened in that place i don't know if it's theater type of stuff but it's just what happened pretty interesting pretty interesting well i'll tell you something else it's pretty interesting now we're lucky here because jeff has agreed to do a magic trick for us now i'm going to try to for our audio listener I'm going to try to, what we're going to try to do here is I'm going to give you a play by play of what Jeff is doing. Our video people will see it. By the way, if you're listening, you ought to watch the video so you can see the trick.

YouTube.com slash Jim Harold. But regardless, Jeff, please show us your trick. You have a handful of cards there. Jim, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to just name a card real quick. I'm just shuffling them up real fast. I just want you to name a card for me real quick. Three of club.

Three of Clubs. Three of Clubs. You know who, by the way, speaking of the Three of Clubs, you know who's a favorite card is the Three of Clubs? And they're Vegas, Vegas entertainers,

Penn and Teller. Really? If you see them do a lot of tricks, their favorite card is the Three of Clubs. They'll have so much fun with just the Three of Clubs in general. They had a set up at one point where if you go somewhere

and you ordered a pizza at a particular place and you knew, they knew you were there, they'd make your pepperonies in the shape of the Three of Club so you can do a trick with somebody. That's great.

Well, you said three of clubs. You said three clubs. You said a quick little shuffle like this. You can see that they're getting all mixed up, right? Nice order one more like this. Jim, I'm going to ask you to say the word stop at some point. Ripple down like that and I'll show you a quick card. Are you ready?

One, two, three. And stop. Great. This is not the card here right here where you cut. No, let's say eight of spate. All right. All right. Look right here right where it went to.

Three of clubs. There it was. There we go. There we go. Yeah. What Jeff did was, he showed me a card at the bottom of the deck when he cut the deck. It was not the card, but then he pointed to the card on top of the rest. And sure enough, the three of clubs. How does he do it? How does he do it? It's magic. It's magic. There you go. Speaking of which, where can we find out more about the magic of Jeff Azel, whether it's the magic or if you even want to tell people about your filmmaking projects, whatever you want to direct them to go right ahead. I think the magic stuff is so much fun. You know, my social media, Jeff E-Zell magician. Jeff, if you don't just the word Jeff E-Zell magic, and you Google that, you'll find all my socials. I guarantee it.

I got over 100,000 on YouTube, over 55,000 on Instagram, over 75,000, I think, on TikTok. So it's building and it's growing, which I'm excited about. Love to have you part of it to watch more videos. And by the way, that's E-Z-E-L-L, Jeff E-Z-E-Z-L. So, Jeff, thank you so much. It's always, always a pleasure. I appreciate it.

And we'll talk to you next time. And keep doing all those great tricks and stay spooky. Stay spooky, you guys. Love to you and are. Just a quick word before we get back to the campfire. You know, people say, Jim, I'm new to the show, but where are all the old shows? How do we get those? Well, I have an easy answer.

If you'd like to access the full campfire catalog going all the way back to 2009, And the place to go is Jimherald.com slash plus. As a spooky studio plus member, you'll get hundreds of classic episodes. And now we're also adding remastered versions of Jim Harold's Campfire in the Paranormal podcast. We're going back, we're removing all old external ads, cleaning up the audio and making these episodes sound better than ever. But those remastered classics only available in the Plus Club. And we also have something brand new for Plus members called Spooky. Studio Net. Dar and I get together with members for a casual online meetup where people can

introduce themselves, share what's going on in their part of the world, answer a question of the day, play a little trivia, and just have some fun. We've done, I think, three so far, and people are really enjoying it. Access to the spooky studio net is for Plus Club members only. Plus Club members also get behind the scenes with Jim and Dar, our exclusive show where we talk about life, the business, you know, having a family-based media operation and whatever happens to be on our minds for 20 or 30 minutes every couple weeks. Again, only for the Plus Club. This is not to mention our interview shows exclusively for the Plus Club like Ghost Insight and UFO Encounters and the other side and more. You can find all of this at Jimherald.com

slash plus. Again, that's Jimherald.com slash plus. And there's some great deals available to. Apple Podcast offers a free trial if you do it right in their app. And through Supporting Cast, we have discounts like $5 off your first month or $30 off your first year. And honestly, your support matters more than ever. Yes, we still have ads on the free shows. By the way, the new episodes coming out, if your Plus Club member, do not have ads. But anyway, advertising doesn't support independent podcasting the way it once did. The main reason we're still able to do this full time is because of our Plus Club members.

And Plus Club members, we thank you. We thank all of you. But if you're not a member and you enjoy what we do and want us to keep doing it and it fits your budget, please join the Plus Club. It's the single best way to support our work and keep these shows going. That's at Jimherald.com slash plus. Thank you so much for your support. Stay spooky.

And now back to the campfire. Oh, I'm always up for a good Ouija board story. And I think we have one tonight. Christine is here. She's been listening since 2022 faithfully. We appreciate it very much. And can't wait to hear this Ouija board story. So let's get ready to it. Christine, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Tell us what happened. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. So this story took place around 2015. I was a, sophomore in college. And my roommates and I, we were living in an off-campus apartment. And we decided to play with a Ouija board that one of my roommates just so happened to have. And this whole experience was kind of my first or second time. I had never played a Ouija board with any other group of friends before this. So I still knew to it all. And one of the big reasons that I wanted to come on the show to tell my story is because there were a few rules we had while playing that I have yet

to hear anyone on the show also share. And I'm really curious if anyone else had done this too. And so the few of us, there's probably three or maybe three people that were like on the board with the planchette and a few, maybe one or two other people that were sitting outside of our circle. And each person who was going to be playing or who was going to be having their hands in the planchette, each person behind them had a lit candle. So we made sure to have that. I was told it was for protection. And so all for that, of course. And a couple other things.

One, we would always ask them kind of early on in our conversations, are you a sun or a moon? Because there is a sun and a moon on the board. Yeah. And that was kind of our way of vetting out. Either good spirits or bad. So if they were good, they would answer, yeah, I'm a son. If they were bad, they would answer, I'm a moon. And of course, spirits can lie, but I was not really thinking about that at the time.

So we would do that. And we would also kind of make it a rule not to ask how they passed. So those were three things that I wanted to share, mostly to see if anyone else did that too. So basically, I myself, I'm one of the few people that are on the board. We were talking to a few other spirits. Those conversations kind of died down. And so we got, you know, someone new. We asked, is anyone there?

And very key part is that the plan chat was moving really, really slowly. So super slowly it went to yes, as in, yes, someone's here. So we were like, okay. Let me bring it back. And so we asked, what is your name? And so very slowly again, it went to B and then it went to Z very slowly. And it just kept going back and forth between B and Z really slowly. So we're letting this happen, kind of freaking out a little bit, but also like kind of confused.

So someone who's not in the circle who was in the background in the room was like, it's moving so slow. It's not making sense. Just say goodbye. And at that moment, the planchette moved really fast to know. Oh, I'm even getting chills right now. That we all had like a collective freak out. We were like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And so at that point, we kind of calmed down a little bit. And then we asked, are you a sun or a moon? And it went to moon. And so at that point, we were like, okay, now we have to say goodbye, whether they like it or not. And so how we would do that, how we would kind of force a goodbye is everyone who is playing would go over to goodbye and swipe over it completely.

And then we talk our hands off the board and we stopped playing. And that was the last time I ever played with the Ouija board. And I probably won't for a really long time. I don't say that I blame you. So, yeah, so you've done. And then that was going to be my question. That's always my question. This happens will you go back?

Some people like, I'll go right back. I'll go right back. And other people, not so much. So you really think there was something kind of sinister out there going on? I think so. I definitely got that vibe. And I think a lot of us did too. And they weren't shy about it, really.

Yeah, apparently not. Apparently not. Yeah, that's one of those things. You know, again, I'm not anti-weegeeager board if someone. wants to play it and those kind of things. Like, you know, that's up to them. I just do wonder if it opens some kind of door and you don't know what's going to walk through. Because I do think there is a power.

Now, again, I've said this many times. And you, I'm sure you heard me say it. I've talked to people like Karen Dahlman and other people who are very expert in the Ouija Board and say, there's nothing wrong with it. It's, you know, there's nothing inherently bad about the board or anything. It's a tool. But then I always say I have my same comeback. So it was a chainsaw.

But if I use one, I'm just as likely to cut my arm off as do something productive with it. Although, ironically, I used a chainsaw this weekend, which is kind of frightening in itself. That could be a campfire story. But I didn't cut my arms off. They're here. Well, Christine, thank you so much. I appreciate. Thank you for being a part of the campfire and stay spooky.

Thank you so much. Stay spooky. Neil is on the line from the U.K. and we're so glad to speak with him today. He looks like he's next door. This is always, this technology is amazing to me. I know I'm just an old guy. I'm not 90 years old, though, like a lot of you think.

When you hear me and then you see me, it's like, well, he's not 90. He's only 70. No, I'm not 70. I'm just joking. But the point is, Neil is fantastic. Not only has he been listening to the campfire for probably about a dozen years, we appreciate that. He has been in law enforcement. And we appreciate that, all the law enforcement people around the world

who help their communities by serving. Neil, you had an experience while serving. Please tell us what happened. And welcome to the show. Okay, thank you, Jen. Thank you very much. So this would have happened around about, I think, about 1995, 1996. And I was in uniform at the time.

It was a Sunday night. I was on a night shift. And the night shift started at 10 o'clock in those days. And we used to have a briefing before we started work. And a detective from the CID came on and told us that there was going to be, he received information that there was a house, a large house in the area that got stained glass windows that were quite expensive. The house was empty. It was being renovated.

And the two people were going to try and steal these windows. but he had no time. He basically didn't know when it was going to be. So he just asked that we could pay this premises passing attention during the night. And it was on my patch. So yes, I did. But other jobs came in.

After a couple of hours, I kind of forgot about it and carried on going to the other jobs that came in. So it would have been about 3 o'clock in the morning And back in those days, there were no mobile phones or cell phones, as you call them. A taxi driver came into the police station and reported two people acting suspicious outside this house. So the controller sent us all there. It was a silent approach. We parked some distance away and we made it on foot.

No torches out or anything like that. And we surrounded this house. So Jim, this house was massive. It's at least three stories high. It's now a care home. So big place. And when we searched it, we found a small window insecure, which was roundabout headlight,

and it was only a small window. Now, I'm not the tallest of police officers. so I was voluntled to be picked up unceremoniously and posted this window

feet first into this building so I get inside and I'm not all I'm thinking is there's two bad guys in there and those guys can't get into out me

because I was the only one who could fit through this window that's all I was thinking about when I got in so once I dropped in I remember stayed still listening I was convinced that somebody was going to be in there I had my torch

so at Maglite I used to put my hand over the lens of it because if you turn your torch on and shine it around you only see what's in your beam but everybody sees that beam so I wanted to have the element of surprise on these guys. So I start searching the first room. So once I got into the room, I'd take my hand off the torch, shine it around quickly, see if anybody was in. And then I turned to leave,

to go to the next room. And the minute I turned, I just got this horrible feeling I was being watched. So I turned back, shan the torch again, saying, you know, come on, come on, get a grip. and I carried on. And when I got to the second floor, this was far more intense, this feeling. In fact, I was really frightened

by the time I got up there. I'm almost got to the point where I've forgotten about the two guys that are in there. I just want to search this place and get out of it. By the time I got to the top floor, I was terrified. And I wasn't even covering my torch.

I was shining my torch round. I was kicking doors in, shining the torch around, and then I was actually backing out of the rooms. I didn't want to turn me back onto the rooms when I left them. I was that scared. And then there was nobody there, so I made me way down to where I came into the building. Colleagues are still outside waiting.

And I've got to get back through this window, which is head height. And I was absolutely convinced that when I went through it, head first, something was going to grab my legs and pull me back in. I was absolutely convinced. So in the end, I said to the guys outside, I said, look, I'm coming out, get ready to catch me. And I took a run, and I jumped through this window, and they caught me. And basically, that was it.

But I was in the police for 30 years. and I went to, I don't know, loads and loads of jobs like that. I wanted to surveillance for an entire week and an undertaker's on drug dealers who were opposite. And I've never, ever in my life felt anything like that. I've been scared plenty of times, but that was the living.

The living scared me. I've never such a fear of nothing, you know, nothing that was there. and I never forgot that house and every time I drive past it I always look at it I never forgot it anyway a couple of years after that

maybe four or five years after that I was having a good tea with a chap sergeant and I tell him that story and he just said oh my God he goes I know exactly what you mean and he had been to a sudden death there one night so Jim in this country if somebody dies

and the doctor won't pronounce, won't give a death certificate. Then it's after arrive and make sure there's no foul play. It doesn't matter how we have to go. And he had to go to this. It was now a care room. He had to go to it. And he did the job.

And they made him a cup of tea in the dining area. So he's sitting down there. I'm in a cup of tea. And as he does, an old man walked him. and walked past him and Jeff said hello. This man never looked at him. He just walked past him and he walked into a kitchen area just off here. And then a few seconds later, I remember a staff came out.

So Jeff said, oh, just to let you know, one of your residences up and they've just gone into that room. And she said, well, nobody should be up. And so she walked in and she goes, there's nobody here. So he got up and he looked and there was nobody there. And there was no door for anybody to leave. One way in, one way out. Yeah.

So it was, so that's my, not that exciting, creepy story. But it's just that I've never been so creeped out with nothing tangible to actually scare me. I have one logical explanation. The place was haunted. And in fact, on a side note to that, Jim, a couple of things. years ago, my daughter went for a job interview there and I took her and I told her the story and we parked up and she went and she had the interview and then she said to the person, oh, my dad came here when it was in the police years and years ago. And she, he thinks it's haunted

and she said, oh, yes. This place. It's the perfect affirmation, confirmation. Neil, thank you for a great story. Thank you for your service. to your community and your country. And thanks for being a loyal campfire listener for a dozen years. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you and stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. Thank you. Good night. When you do this many times

some of the same names crop up and you always get a little smile on your face and such as the case today with Richard on Oregon. He's been on the campfire many times. I was looking back at least since 2014, at least 12 years, maybe further back than that. Richard, always good to talk to you. And I'm so excited today because, you know, we don't get enough Bigfoot stories.

Everybody says, ghosts, ghosts, ghost, ghost, which we love, which we love those stories. But, you know, the Campfire is not just about ghosts. It's about UFOs. It's about cryptic creatures, all kinds of high strangeness. So I'm so happy that you have your Bigfoot story to tell or a Bigfoot story to tell. So tell us what happened. and then welcome back and thanks for all your support. Oh, well, thanks, Jim.

Yeah, and thanks for having me on. And yeah, usually I tell ghost stories. But this one happened when I was, so I grew up in the Midwest and I grew up in Kansas. And so this actually happened on a family vacation. And when I was probably around, I'd say about 15 years old. And so we went to, on this vacation, we kind of did a lot. loop down to towards all the way through uh you know Oklahoma Texas Louisiana Arkansas this type of thing and I'm camping and so on this um yeah I'm kind of confused how to say it

sometimes I've heard it said different ways washita or O'Shton Mountains and um I think it was actually on the Oklahoma side it kind of straddles the Oklahoma Arkansas border so it was right over the border on that on the Oklahoma side and it's pretty you know it gets pretty people don't realize about Oklahoma and Arkansas, you know, of course, they've heard about the Ozarks and stuff like that. But it gets pretty, you know, it's not like a mountain like you'd think like in the west like we have. But if it's, you know, it's pretty, they get pretty, it's pretty rugged terrain and it gets pretty hilly. And I mean, you know, you're in some, the woods are pretty dense in some places. So, so I was about 15 and we were on this vacation.

And so I remember, you know, my parents, we stopped and we. we came to this place and it was kind of by a, I know there's a river or lake and unfortunately my parents are, my mom's pretty old now and my dad has passed away so I can't really, they don't really, my mother doesn't recall where this exactly was, but right, we stopped and we were camping and, you know, I was pretty rambos, I was pretty adventurous kid, you know, I was 15 and I thought, well, I love to go exploring, I love to go walking on trails and stuff. And so, they were setting up stuff and I just kind of took off and didn't tell anybody where I was and just took off I saw a trail going up this mountain this kind of small mountain or what we'd say

mountains were there and I thought I'm gonna I'm gonna go up there and see what's what happens with that trail so I had like a little I think I had like a little buoy knife and uh you know and no water anything like that there's just uh just like nothing to really be out in the woods but I um I went up on the trail and I was walking and kind of to hiking up and I kept hiking and hiking. And I there eventually I came to, I remember as I started thinking, well, it's getting kind of late. It's getting kind of dark, you know, because it's right, probably around dusk. So it was pretty late to start doing something like that, but I was just a kid. So I thought to myself, I saw this kind of, now when I look back on it, maybe it was a fire cut.

There was something in the road. Right. It might have been just a creek or something, a dried up creek, but I thought, okay, it was kind of long, you know, and I couldn't jump across it, so I had to climb down into it and come back up. And I, and I kept going, and I thought, well, okay, that's pretty, I just had to remember that when I come back because I don't want to fall in that thing, because it's pretty deep. And so I kept going, kept going, and I got around, you know, it was pretty, I mean, I would say a good mile or something up the, up maybe close to that and I got the top or close to top and I remember thinking it was a really strange thing because I saw this cave and um this cave uh there were um this is a really strange part of the story I don't know if it has any significance but it was strange there were these kind of white kittens that were out around the cave and that you know now maybe they were mountain lion cubs I don't really know maybe they're bobcat cubs but the time I thought wow, that's really weird. So I was kind of looking at those, you know, and I thought, well, I better get back. You know, it's getting dark. And also I thought maybe the mom's around somewhere, you know,

I don't know what she's, what's going to happen. So I started to come back. And I, you know, and I remember the son was on my left side. I was coming down the trail. And I saw like this in the distance, like, you know, maybe 20 or 30 feet from me back in the woods. I saw this shadow. And I thought, okay, that's my shadow, you know. And I was just a kid, so I didn't really quite occur to me that, you know, your shadow kind of stretches from you. I just wasn't putting it together. And I saw a shadow and I was walking down and I kept walking, you know, kept just looking over every now and then because I just kind of got a creepy feeling. Right. And I finally, I, yeah, I looked, I looked over. And it's kept, you know, I kept thinking, okay, that's kind of strange, but me, it's just shadow.

So I kept walking and pretty soon I started just get that feeling, you know. So then at one point I stopped suddenly and I heard the behind me a crunch like there was more like the thing was like my shadow didn't replicate. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't my shadow. It was something replicating my mood. Like it was kind of, I guess in crudest terms it was kind of aping me. and it felt like something was like I heard a crunch, like something kept walking after I stopped, you know, and I looked over and the thing kind of stopped.

And I was like, oh, man, you know, and it suddenly dawned on me, hey, this wasn't my shadow. This thing is, what is this thing, you know? And I just got that feeling, you know, like fight or flight. And I just took off as fast as I could down the trail. And this thing started chasing me, you know. And you could hear it crunch into the woods, trying to come onto the trail.

It was like just chasing me. And, you know, and I never look back. I mean, I never looked back to see what happened to it or because I thought I had that feeling that if you stop and you look back, it's going to get you, you know. Right. So I just kept going as fast as I could. And I was pretty quick, you know, for that time. It was very lanky, you know.

And I was pretty quick. And, but I know at the, you know, I found out of time I came to that fire cut and I had to stop and slow down and get back up and jump across. And then I just kept going. From then on, it was a real, you know, I was just going as hard as I could because I knew there was nothing in front of me. But I can still feel, hear it chasing me, you know, I was still going. And like I said, didn't turn around.

And, you know, and I finally got to the down to the bottom of the trail, and it kind stopped and I got kind of close to it. And then my parents were there. and I told him, I was like, oh, my God, you know, something was chasing me. Like, this thing was after me. And, of course, they were like, oh, you know, kind of, you know, those parents just they do. Yeah. Dismissure.

So it was kind of crazy. So then I, so here's, you know, after a little bit after that, we kept driving and we came across Arkansas side and kept driving and down. And actually, it wasn't that far. I mean, it was probably within a hundred or some miles of folk, Arkansas, which you've probably heard of. Yeah. With the movie that was made and all that kind of stuff about the Boggy Creek monster and stuff. But I found out later, too, you know, that Wachita Mountains are actually real, that's a very significant place for Bigfoot sightings. And it has been for a long time since the Osage were there.

And even further, because they had a lot of legends and more about it. And then as it went further when white settlers came in and took the territory, like there were a lot of, a lot of these, you know, the sightings have been reported. So it was, so it's pretty significant, you know. But I always think to myself, it was, oh, sorry. No, no, no, no, finish your thought. Well, let's just say, I always think to myself, too, that if it was really wanting to catch me, if it was a, you know, and I don't think it was an adult, because it wasn't

that tall. I always thought it was like a juvenile, but I always thought if it really wanted to catch me, it could have caught me. I think it was more a game, kind of, something to, you know, it was, playing. Well, you think about it, I mean, people don't, I'll take the example of bears. My understanding is, and I'm not an expert on bears, but you would look at a bear and say, well, they can't move very fast. But if I understand correctly, a bear could outrun a human. You know, a bear can run fast. And so if you think you're going to run away from a bear, you know, because I think a lot of people think, oh, you know,

they're big, they're lumbering and things, and you're going to run away from a bear if you get attacked, it's like, I don't think so. So, I mean, yeah, to your point, and I don't know, do we have any instances of somebody getting caught by a big foot? I don't think so. So it seems to me that, I mean, it seems most likely to me that they want to be left alone and they don't really want a lot to do with humans. And that's probably pretty smart, you know. Obviously, you as a young person, you weren't going to do anything to it. But there's people out there.

I mean, I interviewed some of these people. and they say, well, you know, we have to kill one to prove it. Oh, right, right. So, I mean, the Bigfoot ain't wrong or the big feet aren't wrong. Right. But, I mean, I assume that this experience through your adulthood and stuff, it's really made you a believer in Bigfoot. Well, it's kind of weird.

I'm still, you know, still sometimes can be a little skeptical when I hear stories about it. You know, Northwest, where I live now, is really notorious for the Bigfoot. And I've heard some stories firsthand accounts from people that were very, I mean, very, very, very, seemed very authentic. And they were very, you know, changed by the experience and what happened where they actually cited Bigfoot came in contact with them, like right face to face. And so it really made me think differently about it. I'm still a little, you know, I mean, it's kind of one of those things that seems so fantastical sometimes. And you think, well, again, like you're saying, the proof, the evidence, like, where's that at? Like, you know, like, no one's ever found a lot of even hair samples have been dubious and stuff like that.

Right. So it's always, it's always stuff that, you know, but that experience, I mean, whatever it was, definitely something was chasing me. And it was humanoid, you know, it was on two. It was bipedal, you know, it looked like it was by, you know, two legs. Again, it's sort of looked like my shadow first. So something, you know, I don't know. Well, I believe it happens. I believe it happens. Thanks for joining us, Richard. Thanks for being on the show. And appreciate it very much sharing your story and all your support over the years. Stay spooky. Justin is on the line from California. He's been listening for 10 years, 10 years. We appreciate it very much, Justin. And you have a story about you and your dad, an experience you guys had. Tell us what happened. And welcome to the show. And thanks for listening for all these years. Go ahead.

All right. So, yeah, I was in my house. It was nighttime. Me and my dad were around. I was in my room. I just watching TV. And then my dad was outside. He was smoking a cigarette outside the sliding glass door.

And it was just an average night. And out of nowhere, like this really loud, buzzing, ringing, vibrating the house sound happened out of nowhere. And it startled me really bad. I jumped up right away and went straight towards the noise. And it was my guitar amp was on. And it was kicking back reverb from the guitar sitting right next to it. Oh, yeah, I know what that sounds like.

It's like, you got to turn that thing off. It's really loud. Yeah, it's really loud. and it's from the speaker vibrating the strings on the guitar and then it kind of feeds itself back. And I turned my amp off and I'm like, what? How did this happen? Like, was it always on?

Did I just leave it on? So I turned my amp off and then I went to turn it back on after I muted the strings. And the reverb kicked on immediately, like immediately. So I know that it turned on at that. that time that I heard the noise. Right. And I'm like thinking, okay, how could that have happened? Maybe the button was stuck in the middle and it flipped on by itself.

Well, I tried to get it stuck in the middle and it wouldn't stick. So it's one of those switches that you find on power strips where it's like an I and an O. Yeah, I know an I and an O. So it's either on or it's off, right? Yeah, it just gets stuck. I mean, it doesn't get stuck in the middle. at all. It just flips back and forth. It's really,

it really doesn't do that, like, ever. Like, I haven't never had that happen. Right. Even that amp, it's sitting right now, it has been sitting for years with blankets on top of it recently, because I haven't been playing guitar much. And it still has never switched on by itself, even with stuff on top of it. And I asked my dad if he saw anything, too,

because he was about the same distance away from the, guitar app as I was just in a different direction. And he said he didn't see anything because he kind of startled him too. And he looking towards that direction. And so that's the first part. The second part is for the next couple weeks, my guitar picks would be in the middle of the floor when I came home and nobody was home. They would just be like 20 feet away,

moved sitting right in the middle of the floor and I would just be completely baffled by how they had moved or why they would be there I have no idea I'm baffled by it it seems like whatever this was it was like I fixated on the guitar with guitar picks and the feedback and the reverb

and all that it seems like it was really focused on the music piece of it, do you think there's any possibility that this was a ghost or something that had some tie to music of some type? Yeah, I think it might have liked me playing, and then it was trying to tell me to keep playing or something, some kind of spirit, something, I don't know. My dad said it was a mischievous ghost. Right, right. No, I mean, I think it could be a mischievous ghost. I don't think there's any. question. I was thinking like it was Jimmy Hendricks or something from the other side.

No, he probably wouldn't want to hear me play. Well, you know what? I bet you that Jimmy Hendricks when he first started out, maybe at the very beginning didn't sound that good and then it got really great. So, I mean, it was kind of left at that. I mean, you never really figured out or had any idea what it might have been? No, I just tried to disprove it as much as I could. Couldn't figure it. it out and there's no explanation to how this switch turned on by itself. Yeah. No idea.

And it's weird, again, the fact, okay, that happened. That's one thing. And then you had the whole guitar pick scenario. So, yeah, it was really focusing in on that, on the guitar. Do you still play today? Every once in a while, I keep my, what I know up to date. Okay. I don't learn anything new, but, yeah.

Well, rock on, and thank you for being on the show. I appreciate it very much. And thanks for all your support and listening for 10 years and stay spooky. Thank you, Jim. Thank you for joining us today on the Campfire. I appreciate it. Thank you to all of our storytellers. It's most appreciated because without you, we don't have a show. Speaking of which, as I said at the beginning of the show, please sign up to tell your story. We see a lot of people in our virtual campfire who is sharing their stories. And that's great. But come on the air. Take the next step and tell us your stories. Jim harold.com slash campfire. Jimherald.com slash campfire. Also, please share the show with a friend.

That's how we get the word out. Send them a link to this very episode. People who, you know, love the spooky because we're not in Halloween season yet. So everybody else is like off having barbecues and doing this. And I love all that stuff and I do all that stuff. But I always have time for the spooky. And we always have the spooky here. Every week is Halloween here around the spooky studio.

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We will talk to you next time. Stay safe. And of course, stay spooky. Bye-bye.