Museum believed to be haunted

PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR Jimmy Kelly Billman explains to Freestone County Museum board members the methodology and findings from a January visit to the museum by Texas Paranormal Advanced Research Team. Freestone County Museum in Fairfield may really be haunted.

At least that is the opinion of Jimmy Kelly Billman, lead investigator with Texas Paranormal Advanced Research Team which investigated the museum over the weekend of Jan. 8-10.

Billman presented a “reveal” of the team’s findings to the museum board Monday evening.

“In my own personal opinion, I would say it’s haunted,” he says. “We feel like there is paranormal activity.”

Museum board members viewed a 12-minute video and audio program prepared by TEXPART showing some of the evidence gathered that indicates activity of a ghostly nature.

Billman says that the team captured 45 minutes of electronic voice phenomenon during the weekend investigation.

The EVP was captured on digital recorders throughout the museum grounds—-the old county jail, exhibits building, Bethel Church and log cabins.

“I go over these for weeks at a time, over and over,” the paranormal investigator reports.

The findings indicate that the museum grounds are a hotbed of otherworldly activity.

“This turns out to be the one place we captured the most activity, ever,” Billman says.

More than a dozen TEXPART members manned audio, video and electromagnetic monitoring equipment during the weekend at the museum, and logged personal experiences.

EVP recordings picked up men’s and women’s voices uttering “What’s going on?;” “Get down;” “No hope;” and “Oh, my God.”

Many of the voices were made clear only after the recordings were enhanced. Sometimes an investigator thought they heard something, but what they heard was not intelligible until it was separated and enhanced.

However, the team did pick up what is known as a Class A EVP, a voice that was clear without electronic help.

In the church, a voice said, “Help me.”

“True, boss” was recorded in response to a statement by Billman, in which he declared, “You better do what the boss man says.”

The jail served Freestone county from 1879-1913, was a private residence from 1913-1966 and then was deeded to Freestone County Historical Commission for use as a museum.

Site for the brick structure also was the site for a prior jail.

Over the years, four inmates were hanged at the site, and Sheriff J.B. Rogers was gunned down in 1872 by horse thieves less than a block away.

“I think there was a lot of despair in the area,” museum curator Sandy Bell says.

Cameras set up during the weekend investigation picked up the first floor lights in the old jail turning on when nobody was in the building, an occurence reported on several occasions by museum volunteers.

While the crew was away from the grounds eating supper, audio equipment picked up the sound of a door opening and closing in the jail.

A K2 meter measures changes in electromagnetic fields and started registering wildly in the exhibits building the second night of the investigation, when several persons present reported the sound of footsteps running, banging noises and shaking at a cabinet.

Cameras captured two orbs at different locations in the exhibits building—- one of the orbs, green in color, appeared before a locked gun cabinet and it was later noticed that a pistol inside was cocked.

Billman and investigator Mike Johnson had a personal experience as they were standing outside the church and heard footsteps over frosted grass and saw a shadow walk between the church and a nearby cabin.

“It was the first time Mike had ever had anything happen,” Billman says. “We were the only people outside at that time.”

Being a site of paranormal activity could be a source of revenue for the museum if board members decide to let guided groups spend nights conducting their own investigations, or experiencing ghostly encounters, for a fee.

The TEXPART investigator reports that the group investigated several sites in downtown McKinney and found paranormal activity. They then helped set up a “Ghost Walk” there at Halloween that generated $48,000 in revenue in a single night.

“I want to get these places funded to get them built up,” Billman says. “The kind of money this can generate can mean survival for a business.”

In addition to investigating sites, TEXPART takes groups to experience paranormal activity. The team does not charge to act as guides, but donations have helped purchase equipment.

Billman reports that he has nearly 1,000 people interested in going on a paranormal investigation, gathered through a web site.

“I have people begging me to bring them down here,” he says.

Ms. Bell also says that she is generating a list of people who are interested in spending time at the Freestone County Museum.

The museum curator and TEXPART investigator report that a writer working on a book about paranormal activity spent part of one night during the January event at the museum, but fled about 4 a.m. after having an experience in the jail.

“This whole thing changed his thinking and it will be a major part of his book,” Ms. Bell says.

Billman also has spoken to Brad and Barry Klinge, founders of Everyday Paranormal and stars of the Discovery Channel show “Ghost Lab” about what was found at the museum, and it possibly could develop into a segment for the show.

“It got their attention. That’s the kind of things these shows are looking for,” the TEXPART investigator says.

Ms. Bell reports she has been contacted by Jackson Burns, star of “Redneck Archeologist” which airs on the Discovery Channel and History Channel about doing a historical perspective on the museum complex.

And, a paranormal investigating team from Waco is interested in coming to the museum to see what it can find.

The museum board will make the final decisions on how to use its newfound paranormal activity information, whether to use it to generate funding.

In the meantime, Billman says that TEXPART wants to make a return trip to Fairfield to look at other promising sites.