Spooked - Pinky's Place

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

Josh moves into an old hotel in Pittsburgh to help his family renovate it. As he starts to experience things he can’t explain, it quickly becomes clear to him that some people may have never left. Thank you, Josh, for sharing your story with Spooked! Original score by Daniel Riera, produced by Marisa Dodge Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you will, a landscape of magical bliss. Just you and me for my darling. Listen to a few of the can of the courtyard. And all of it shrouded and gloom. The crow's beak, it opens and closes. And then the rain, the rain, the pain, the rain descends on you. Listen to spooked. Stay.

Every year. almost a thousand souls gather in respect and memory to people that most of us have never met. Robert and Sarah Jane Carter, my great-great-grandparents. And I know that Robert Carter was a sharecropper with his wife, toiled under a hot Mississippi son to have his labor stolen from him. But still rose again every day to protect his family. That I do know. But I know little else, I be of a copy, and I can barely see his cocky, upturned grin staring back defiantly at the camera.

His kids gathered round. She looks down. Too busy to bother with some photographer. He listed someday her descendant would long to see just a glimpse of her eyes. Her lips, her smile. I wish it were clearer. and I've tried. I have tried, but

reached the outer limits of what Photoshop can accomplish. There are not enough pixels to improve the focus, but I'd like to think. I do see a little of her. A little of them, day in the mirror. Him looking up,

she turning down, backs unbiled under the heel of the system determined to steal their souls. But the humanity burns like fire few pixels that I do have left Spookstar See legacy

Spooksters When Josh When Josh moves into an old Thrower to help renovate it He's with his family He's with a crew of workers And he's with some other people So I was

18 years old And I had already been out of high school For about a year I didn't have any desire To go to university I didn't really have any prospects at all And so my parents told me that my grandparents bought an old hotel in the Pittsburgh area. And they wanted to turn it into an independent senior living facility.

A lot of my extended family were going to renovate the place. And so they thought that would be something I would be interested in. And I, of course, no-brainer. I'm like, yeah, that sounds fun. I get to check out this really old, you know, hotel building and, you know, do work that I enjoy. So I was going with my dad. We were picking up a pickup truck that my grandfather had bought for us to use during the demolition. And there was an older guy there in his 60s, maybe even 70s.

And he was asking us, you know, what are you doing in town? And so we explained to him, you know, our grandfather just bought this old hotel and we're fixing it up, going to turn it into a new business. And he was like, oh, that's the old hotel. That's Pinky's place. And, you know, of course, we're like, well, who's Pinky? And he says, Pinky was an old mob boss. They lived here back in the day.

And he really loved that place. And I just kind of brushed it off. It's like, well, maybe that's true. Maybe it's not. I don't know. It's just people talking. So when I first got there, it was. After dark, it was still pretty cold because it was earlier in the year.

I think it was February or March. And the first thing I noticed when walking into this building was what I would call this oppressive watchfulness. It's a very odd feeling. And I'm like, oh, God, this is a little uncomfortable. I don't know why it feels this way, but it was a creepy building. So that's just what I chalked it up to is it's a creepy building. And it didn't bother me that much when I first got there because I had my immediate family there and we were all happy and having a good time. The first week, it was mostly just chillaxing and getting used to the area, right?

And I was really the first one to start doing substantial work other than my dad who had done the wiring and some of the plumbing. And the place they wanted me to start was the kitchen. When I first walked into the kitchen, the ceilings were pretty high. The paint was peeling, the plaster was cracking, and starting to come down. And I would work on the ceiling about nine, ten hours a day. And I love audiobooks, so I was playing audiobooks on the stereo while I worked. But one day while I was in there working, I actually felt like a presence. It felt like there was someone standing right next to.

me at all times. It was like a different level of discomfort. And as I'm looking at this spot in the ceiling, just below it, in the doorway to this little room, I see a woman wearing a blue dress with a white apron. And the dress sleeves went down to her wrists. And she was holding her hands kind of like one hand on top of the other just down in front of her. She had really dark like black hair. She had dark eyes, and she was young, but not that young.

I would guess she was somewhere in her 30s. I see this, and I get this flash impression from her. The impression I got was curiosity. Like someone was just watching me work, wondering what I'm doing, or just enjoying watching me work. And then I kind of blink, And there's nobody standing there.

And I just about fell off my ladder. And I had no idea what to think about it. If I had to make a guess, I would say she really cared about the kitchen and its condition, which is why she was watching me as I was working. So every now and then as I walked through one of these doors, I imagine the kitchen full of people hurriedly rushing around trying to prepare something or walking back out to the dining room and seeing everyone in tuxes and ball gowns or when, you know, you had a bunch of gangsters hanging around.

I worked in there for like two or three weeks, and I would see her again. So the one night, as I'm scraping down the ceiling, I'm using a tool that's called a five-in-one, and I drop the tool. So I have to get down on my hands and knees, and I have to stretch to grab this tool. I grab it, and I'm pulling it back out. and two feet to my left. I see the lady in the blue dress again, and I see her blue skirt,

and she was wearing brown shoes. And that made me jump, like, like twice as much as when I was on the ladder, because she was a lot closer to me then. And from that point, I would see her every now and then while I was working in there, and she would just, you know, bounce around.

I would just see her somewhere in the kid, but she would normally stay like 15 feet or more away from me. I didn't feel like this was something I should tell anyone for any reason. At this point, it was something I could brush off and I just tried my best to ignore it. But during this time, just in general, around the building, there was, stuff was just happening that I couldn't explain. I was just seeing people everywhere, not like a shape or a shadow, like a full-fledged person. There's a man in a tuck standing next to me.

And then I look over and there's no one there. There's a woman in a sundress or like a ball gown or something. And every time there would be nothing there. And there was one person in particular that I'll never forget. I would walk up the staircase at the front of the building. And this staircase had this giant, antique mirror. And every time I went up the staircase, and I would usually look at myself in the mirror,

and I would see in my peripheral a man standing on the landing. And all I could make out was that he was wearing a brown suit coat, and he had a round bowler hat, and he looked like a very thin man. But I swear, every time I went up or down the stairs, I would see him on the edge of my sight. One night I was walking to my room, and it was after dark, and I was walking through the ballroom. As I'm walking, I heard what to me sounded like a second set of footsteps behind me about 10 feet. So I stop and I turn around. And of course there's nobody there, but I hear the steps go on for like another second and then stop.

and I just like I got goosebumps all over and I was looking in the direction of the footsteps were coming and I walked backwards all the way to my room and I stayed in my room for the rest of the night but that was a real turning point for me I was definitely on edge at this point I was like this is gone beyond my imagination a big part of me was really excited

but there was also a part of me that was like this is not cool this is scary. I don't want things that I can't see following me. And I still didn't want to tell anyone because nobody else said anything or did anything. So I felt like I was completely alone in this experience and I didn't want to look like a coward in front of everyone. So once we had a lot of the crew in and working, we decided to tackle the west wing of the building. The west wing was in the worst shape and needed the most work done. So there was a lot of demolition work we had to do. When I first stepped into the West Wing, I felt something really off. It felt like I was stepping

into someone else's territory, so to speak. It was like, I don't know, if you, if someone is bullying you and they say, hey, the next time I see you, I'm going to beat the shit out of you. it just felt dangerous. It just felt like something that you do not want to antagonize. Eventually, as, you know, we progressed in our work, on the second floor, I see someone standing at the far end of the hallway. It was just a dark silhouette of a man.

I knew it was a man because the energy felt very masculine to me. it felt really territorial. It was like a really hardened, twisted human presence. It was like someone who had not only been through suffering, but had made people suffer. And it spooked me a little bit, you know, because not only am I seeing something, but I'm feeling this thing that just feels like I want,

to punch me in the face. And once or twice, I noticed that it was not at the end of the hall, but it would be like halfway down the hall or it would be a couple rooms closer. And then it would be farther away as if it was like testing my awareness or something. So this was right in the middle of summer. This was like August. And it was really warm. I was assigned the job of breaking out these old tubs.

that were in each of the bathrooms of the rooms on the West Wing. And there was a danger of breaking these tubs of either cutting myself or getting lead poisoning. So in order to do this safely, I had to cover up every inch of my skin. So I was about as covered as I could get. And I had an eight-pound sledgehammer, and I just went to work. The very second I hit the first time. tub, I felt this really angry pressure. I'm hitting the tub like, boom, boom, boom, and it's super loud.

Every time I hit the tub, I feel like the room is getting smaller. It just felt suffocating. And on top of all that, I felt this pressure on me telling me to stop. It feels like an attack. It feels like it's mentally. trying to wear me down or force me out of that space. And the only way I can describe it is that I was like pushing back mentally with my own, my own emotional energy.

And I just get so angry while I'm doing this. And I just mentally tell this thing to fuck off. Like, I've had it. At a certain point, all the fear is gone. And I'm just like, I am so sick of dealing with this. I don't need this bullshit right now. I don't give a shit. I'm doing this.

I'm muslin through this situation. All I remember is breaking the tubs. I don't remember walking between rooms. I just remember hitting the tub with all of my strength. And as I'm going, hitting the tub is like getting easier. It's taking fewer swings. And by the end of the second floor, I'm able to break the tub in half with three swings. I would hit left, right, center.

Move on to the next one. Left, right, center. And I'm just swinging with everything I have. I'm trying to combat this pressure. And just telling it, like, I don't care what you want or think. Like, I'm just doing this. As I finished the last tub, I just collapsed. I just, like, fall in my ass and drop my sledgehammer.

And I'm just completely spent. And I just, like, rip off my sweatshirt and all this stuff. And I'm just dying. And, you know, one of the guys brings me water and I just, you know, guzzle the water. And I didn't, I didn't feel that pressure anymore. As soon as I was done with the task, I didn't. I still felt his presence and I still felt this lingering anger. But there was no pressure.

I wasn't being like oppressed or attacked. It felt like an accomplishment for sure. But at the same time, I just felt empty. It felt so exhausting. And it did feel like I had kind of won over against the presence in the West Wing. but it didn't exactly feel like a victory because it was still there. I could still feel it. At this point that we've done most of the renovations to the West Wing,

and it's looking decent. It still needed some work. I was ready to just leave the building. I was tired of living in that place. It was just this feeling of, oh, no, I don't want to be here anymore. At this point, they were starting to bring in tenants. So there were some people to, like, talk to and stuff, but I wasn't going to mention any of the weird stuff to them,

because I don't want to ruin their business and scare them away or anything. So, you know, part of my duties was to help my grandparents with different things. So one of the things I had to do periodically was mow the grass on the west side. It was like a beautiful sunny day, blue sky. It was like the best weather you could hope for.

And so I'm out there. I get the push mower, and I start mowing. So I'm at the top of the lawn move. down towards the parking lot. And I look towards the building toward one of the exits, and I see someone standing on the second balcony, the second floor balcony. And it's a man in a black suit.

It looked like a tailored suit. He had a shaved head. He had leather shoes on, and one of his feet was up on the bottom rung of the railing. and he was kind of leaning on the top of the railing, watching me mow. And so I'm mowing and I see him there. I just get this flash of vivid detail and this emotional impression. It was so extremely brutal and cold-blooded.

It was just this really cold demeanor. It's like he didn't have an expression. His face was kind of just stone and flat. He just looked like someone you do not want to fuck with. And so as soon as that happened to me, my heart is in my throat because he was looking directly at me. And I let go of the mower and the mower chokes out. And I am standing there.

And I'm just paralyzed with fear. I'm like so scared. This energy I was feeling from him. just it felt like the same energy I'd been feeling the West Wing the whole time. It was the same feeling of you're in my territory and I don't like that. And I don't like that you're changing things about my place. You know, that type of feeling that I didn't really feel anywhere else in the building. It just kind of clicked for me after I saw him.

I'm like, oh my God, that is the guy. That's the guy who's been like breathing down my neck this whole time. And it wasn't until then, until I realized, like, the magnitude of this being. At that point, he was fully making his presence known to me. And it just kind of, he just kind of slapped me in the face with it. Like, it was a warning. He was like, all right, I've been playing nice up to this point. I'm making myself fully known.

And now you need to watch out. I definitely think he wanted, you know, a final goodbye to me. You know, goodbye, fuck off, don't ever come back, that sort of thing. And it just hit me. I blink, look where he was standing, and there's nobody there. I eventually calm myself down and I finish mowing, and I put the mower away, and I don't ever go to the West Wing ever again. So the entire time I lived there, whenever I was out and about in the neighborhood,

and I would, you know, talk to people and make friends. And people would ask me like, you know, where do you live? And I'd be like, oh, I'm at the old hotel, you know, right next to the plaza. And they're like, oh, that's Pinky's place. Or, you know, they'd say like, oh, that's where Pinky died. And it just seemed to be like everyone around who was older knew about this gangster named Pinky and his hotel. It wasn't until after I had moved out that I thought about what people said about Pinky at this place. that was just something people said.

I'm like, I don't know if it's true or not. It wasn't until years later that I asked my dad, I'm like, yeah, people always mention this guy Pinky. And my dad kind of gave me a cursory history of the place. And he was like, yeah, this place was built pre-World War II. I think it was like the 30s, 20 or 30s. And when it was built, it was owned by the mob. Because back in the day, the mafia ran Pittsburgh, the whole city.

And it wasn't until after World War II that the feds came in and drove out the mob. So my dad tells me all this history and how Pinky was the guy who ran the place. And Pinky was eventually shot to death in his own parking lot right out front of the building. So, you know, I didn't try to go to, you know, city hall or something. I try to find, you know, more out about it. But I really believe that the guy on the West Wing was probably Pinky the gangster. Much Josh for introducing us to Pinky and sharing your story with the spooked. Folks, Josh is a scooped listener.

He reached out to share his story with us and we love hearing from you. If you have a terrifying tale that we need to know, drop us a line, spooked and stamp judgment, that ORG. That original score was by Daniel Riera. It was produced. by Marissa Dodge. A story of a real interaction with the power or a force that you clashed with over time, over years that's changed you and your life forever,

a story that you can't tell anybody because they won't understand? Well, tell me, email us, spook at stampjudgment.org because there's nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener. Spook at stampjudgment.org. and let those who spook know you spook as well. The spook t-shirt available right now at snapjudgment.org. And remember, if you like your storytelling, under the bright light of day,

get the amazing, stupendous snap judgment podcast. It's storytelling with a beat. Toot was created by the team that knows the poor libations for those who have come before, except for Mark Ristich, who will, in fact, pour himself a couple extra shots of whatever is on offer. there's Anna Sussman.

Liza Smith is our chief spookster, Chris Hambrick, Annie Newin, Lauren Newsom, Leon Morimoto, Renzel Goryo, Tateau, Marissa Dodge, Zoy Fregno, Davy Kim, Tiffany Dilliza, Anne Ford, Jacob Winnick, Doug Stewart, the spook theme song

is by Pat Macedia Miller. My name is from Washington. And consider Consider why the moth flees from the darkness and is drawn to the flame because it knows, It knows.

It knows that whatever lurks out there is far worse. Ever. Never, ever, never, never, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever.