Ghost Hunters Visit The Mark Twain House

Is The Mark Twain House Haunted? That's the question on the lips of many visitors to the 19th century Victorian on Farmington Avenue in Hartford.

Over the years there have been numerous reports by both visitors and staff of strange experiences in the house. Experiences varying from a feeling of being watched, hearing whispers and giggles when there is no one else in the room, hearing the sound of billiard balls knock against each other, the sound of footsteps in an empty room, the reek of cigar smoke and people even seeing misty full-bodied apparitions.  There were so many reports that they started to catalog them for evidence.

"One of the reports included a tour guide who was giving a tour and talking about Mark Twain's daughter that had died and someone in the hall shushed him." - Jacques Lamarre

With so many reports of paranormal activity, it was time to call in the experts.

The Mark Twain House's Manager of Communications & Special Projects Jacques Lamarre got in touch with The Atlantic Paranormal Society, known as TAPS, a Rhode Island based organization with an excellent reputation for cutting through the claims of supposed haunted activity to get the facts.

Jason Hawes, 37 and Grant Wilson, 35, the co-founders of TAPS, and stars of the reality show Ghost Hunters on Syfy visited the Twain House in September to investigate the claims of paranormal activity. They brought with them their team of investigators including Amy Bruni, Kris Williams, Dustin Pari and Britt Griffith. The team stayed two-nights for the investigation, and a third day for research.

During the overnight investigations the TAPS teams used recording equipment in the hope of catching electronic voice phenomena or EVPs, infrared and thermal imaging cameras, to catch what the naked-eye cannot see, a K2 meter and EMF detectors to find fluctuations of electromagnetic energy.

This was not the first investigation for a paranormal group in the house. Earlier this year a team of researchers from the Smoking Gun Research Agency also investigated. Even the famed Ed and Lorraine Warren have had walk-throughs, and felt the presence of a spirit. Some believe that the house is haunted by Mark Twain's daughter Suzie who died of spinal meningitis as a child, and is the only person to have died in the house.

Set your DVRs Ghost Hunters at the Mark Twain House airs Wednesday, December 2nd at 9pm on SyFy.

Watch a Preview

Premiere Party

The Mark Twain House will have a premiere event at the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford on December 2nd which will feature local paranormal research group the Smoking Gun Research Agency who will discuss the science behind the search for the unexplained. There is a suggested donation of $10.00 for the event, which will help to support the activities of the Mark Twain House. http://www.ctsciencecenter.org/visit/

Ghost Lecture

Noted Ghost Hunters Dustin Pari from "Ghost Hunters International" and John Zaffis the so-called "Grandfather of Paranormal" will be hosting a lecture at the Mark Twain House on December 16th at 6pm. Tickets are $50 available at: http://www.idealeventmanage.com/twainlecture.html

Related Links:

The Atlantic Paranormal Society
http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/

Ghost Hunters on SyFy
http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/

The Mark Twain House
http://www.www.marktwainhouse.org/