Ep 30: Haunted America: Southwestern States

Join us as we explore of hauntings in the Southwestern states of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. Have a haunted experience or story to share? Send us an email to readytoconnectpodacst@gmail.com or reach out to us through our social media. Consider becoming a supporter through Patreon and get access to bonus content. Get Ready to Connect! #metaphysicalpodcast 

#metaphysical #hauntedamerica #paranormal

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

This podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of their affiliated organizations.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Welcome back, everybody, to Ready to Connect. I'm Lisa. I'm Heather.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

And I'm Ryan.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

And today we're the podcast in blue. We just noticed we're all wearing blue. So we're the podcast in blue. Talk about the ladies in white, ladies in blue, ladies. We're the podcast in blue today. And we're not blue. We're not blue. We're not sad today. No, not at all. We're gonna be exploring the western states today of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. But before we get into our Haunted America series, just want to hear what's been going on with everybody. What have you been up to? Heather, what you been up to?

SPEAKER_01 1:00

So this weekend we went decided to go antiquing, and I've really had to work hard at like making sure my psychic shields are up because whenever I walk into an antique store, it's like instant, like you know, everybody's talking to me, all the furniture's talking to me, all the things are talking because they all have this energy. And I I want to say, like, I do a really great job, but sometimes you just don't do a great job, especially when you start getting tired, you kind of lessen like your protection shield that you kind of put up. And it was so interesting. We walked into this room, and I immediately was like taken back, and I was like, I don't know if I can go in this room. And all I could smell, and this isn't a fun story, unfortunately, all I could smell was cat pee. And I was like, oh man, I don't, you know, I wouldn't buy any antiques that smell like this, anyways. But then out of the peripheral, uh, you know, being clairvoyant, out of my peripheral over in the corner, there was like a like a whole litter of cats. And I was like, oh my God, you know, Kyle, what is, oh my god, someone's cats are here. And he's like, what are you talking about? And he kept looking at me and I'm like, don't you smell it? It smells like cat pee in here. And there's a whole litter of kittens over there.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

He's like, no, no, they're not.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

And I was like, okay, I'm out. I'll meet you in the other room. So, you know, it was it was very interesting. So where whatever this building was must have at some point had a litter of kitties, and unfortunately, it made the whole room smell like PP, which nobody wants to deal with.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

It's interesting you say cat urine as being like, you know, that spirit smell. And I do have unfortunately some deceased cats in my you know history, and one always presents with cat urine because when she was alive, she had a hard time with her bladder towards end of club. And um everything was I I had to change my carpet in my house twice because of it. So um, yeah. So now when we smell the cat urine, you go, you do a mad dash to look, but then we realize it's just you know, scratches visiting.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

So yeah, yeah. But uh, so yeah, you know, it's not always the the fun smells when you're you know, when that gustance kicks in, it's not always fun smells, it's not always the best visions, and but you know, I I wish the the litter of kitties well and I hopefully they made it through. And um, but I didn't buy anything in that room just because it was, you know, just imprinted on me like, no, I'm not taking anything home that smells like any other cat because I know my cat will have a heart attack. And Mr. Sophie would definitely have a heart attack about that. What about you, Ryan?

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Well, speaking of uh you know, psychic abilities and everything, sometimes I like to call it like the spider Spider-Man sense senses, but it just reminds me of Spider-Man.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Spidey Spidey senses.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Yep. So uh I I I have to learn whenever you get like those random thoughts that I I just think are just random, I need to learn to write them down because then they end up happening. And I'm like, oh man, like I wish I I thought of that before. So the other day, speaking of of animals, so I was you know petting my roommate's dog Watson, and uh I was kind of looking at his nails and I was thinking, hmm, you know, I I had the random thought. I'm like, what if this nail gets like ripped off? And not not that that's fun or anything, but it was just like a random thought, and I was like, no, that can't happen. Like, we're not doing anything crazy, like he'll be fine. But then yesterday when we were out on a walk, we we went for a it was a nice day, we went for a nice long walk. I'm like, yeah, buddy, we're gonna go on an adventure, because he just loves doing that stuff, and then you know, it was a great time, and then we came back home, and then he was like lifting up his paw and like trying to show me, and yep, the nail ripped off, and I was like, Oh, yeah, so we had to deal with that last night. I'm like, how do we stop the bleeding? Like, it was like it was this whole thing, but he's he's doing okay. Yeah, it's just one of those things that I'm like, next time I get random thoughts, I really need to start writing them down because uh Or just act on it, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Just take care of it so that it doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Right, right. And I'm like, you know, thank you, Intuition, for the warning. Like, I feel bad. I just I didn't think it would really happen. But then um, yeah, but he was a trooper though. Like he he at least he showed it to me, like, and and he was he was a trooper all night. Um, so that was good. And he's doing okay today. So that's good. But then, you know, a positive thought too that I had was I was randomly thinking last night, like, oh, my my band waiting for London. Like, I had a thought. Remember when when we were playing here and it was just like really great? And then last night my cousin Chris texted me and he's like, Hey, I got us a gig in July, so we're doing like a in downtown Rockville, they do um they're gonna be doing like a cultural district festival once a month now in the summer. And we got picked to to perform, so we're gonna be there in July.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

So you gotta send me that date because just this weekend Kyle looked over at me. He's like, When are we gonna get to see Ryan play? And I'm like, There we go. I was like, I don't know. He's like, Well, we could totally rock out with him and be like fan people for him. And I was like, absolutely. So you're gonna make Miles gay today. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

What is the date? Do you know the date? Because we should share it on the podcast. If anybody's walking out and see you guys perform.

SPEAKER_03 6:49

Sure, it's July 16th. Awesome, perfect.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Going in the calendar, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Yeah, put in the calendar header. We'll we'll be the band performing. So we'll it's just an hour set, but that's fine. We're allowed to play original music, which is awesome. So can't wait to get out there because we're we have a new acoustic album we're gonna be promoting. So sweet. So yeah, so that was good news. So there we go. At least it it balanced.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, so sorry, Lisa Prue. Unfortunately, not a happy story about Mr. Watson.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

I know, I'm sorry. I'll have to have a better story for next time.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Yeah, but for our listeners, we're gonna be putting up on our social media, and Ryan was the first to do it, share our pets. So Mr. Watson is up on our ready to connect big Facebook, Instagram. So be on the lookout for the kitty cats to come next from both Heather and myself. So for me on the weekend, I had such a wonderful Saturday night at the movie theater. I went to go see Project Hail Mary, and it was absolutely amazing. So now I read the book, and you don't have to have read the book to enjoy the movie at all. Not at all. There were six of us that went to the theater, um, three who had read the book and three who did not, and we all enjoyed it just as much. It is such a f fantastic movie. I do highly recommend people to go watch it. It'll restore faith in humanity. It's just wonderful. Ryan Gosling did an amazing job, and I just it was a great time. And then talk about spiritual sense. So my cats, particularly Odin, but both of them, um, but Odin's a little bit louder, have been clamoring at me to go back outside. So I don't I have basically indoor kitties. They are not outside kitties. I do not let them go outside without me. I'm always out with them. And last year, I was able to let them I gradually got them used to the yard, so they knew the boundaries, and they were able to go out and they stuck pretty close to the house. I worry about hawks, I don't know, grabbing them and things, but Sully tends to stay real close to the porch. He just likes to be under the tree that and watch the bird feeder, where Odin is the explorer. And but they always come running back, and Odin loves to run. Well, he has been beside himself with the snow gone, trying to get outside. And I just got new collars for them that have the GPS tag in it. Oh, I worry. I've had cats that have wandered, which made me make sure that my cats now don't go out without me, and I constantly check where they are. But now the GPS tag, it makes me feel even a little bit safer about it. But he has been, you know, hitting the outside button. We have the communication buttons, hitting the outside button, running to the door. He's trying to slip out twice. So I finally listened to him. He's like, Mom, mom, please, mom, let me out. So went out with him, and they he loved it. They went, you know, cavorting around a little bit in their area, and then my husband comes out to do some yard work and pulls out one of the you know, blower or whatever, and those two ran so fast back into the house. Like, nope, scary, scary. But it's nice to know that they come right back home, right? And so, uh, and so ever since then he's been, you know, at me again. Can I get out? Can I get out? But I don't know, it's chilly to me outside, you know, and I don't just open the door and let them out, I go out with them. And you know, they could be upwards half an hour just kind of hanging outside with them, and it's cold to me. And I'm not walking. Cats don't go for a walk first, at least mine don't. I've tried it, didn't work. They go for a uh a stroll and then sit. Basically. Um, yeah. Had a great family you know, time playing games and stuff. That was always, you know, good to do, have family together. So yeah, it was a good weekend. All right. Well, let's continue with our Heart America series. We're gonna start with the state that I did, which was Oklahoma. I've never been to Oklahoma. I don't know if either of you have been to Oklahoma. I've never been to Oklahoma. It's one of the 50 states I've yet to go to. I don't even think we drove through it. We might have driven through it.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

Why would you actually?

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Uh no, on our when my husband and I did the baseball um road trip because we were in Texas and we had to go up, so we might have gone, we had to go north, so we might have gone driven through it, but didn't really stay in Oklahoma. So I have no no ghost walk stories of Oklahoma for personal. But I will tell you that if we go, there is one place I do want to stay, and it is called the Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City. So if we go to Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. So the Skirvin Hilton Hotel, it was originally built, I think, in 1911. In 1911, it was known as sort of like the Grande Dame of Oklahoma City. Think of it sort of like the Waldorf Astoria of America's Heartland. Put it that way. All right. It is a four 14-story art deco property, and it has a haunting. Of course it does.

unknown 12:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

W.B. Skirvin is the hotel founder. And as the story goes, he he had an affair with one of the housemaids, the maids, named her name was Effie, and of course got her pregnant. And she apparently jumped to her death with her with her child. So as the story goes, the way it is said, um, and I just wanna the legend says that W.B. Skirvin locked Effie into room 1015, so on the 10th floor, 1015, I guess. Or maybe that's the 11th, I don't know, 1015. This room is considered to be the most haunted room of the hotel. Uh so the original odor, Skirvin, Effie, the one he had the affair with, he locked when he found out she was pregnant, locked her in this room, uh, 1015. And apparently just to save his reputation. And eventually she jumped out a window, killing herself and the baby. So I guess it's said to avoid the negative press attention that this would bring, maybe to the hoteller himself. They wrote the death off as a suicide by a salesperson, not necessarily a housemate. So interesting, right? So, what I find interesting about this hotel, though, according to an author, his name is Steve Lackmire. Uh, he wrote a book about Skurvin. Said that there's the spooky, sad effie, right? Effie's the one that haunts the hotel. There's a spooky, sad effie. And then there's the effie that wants to get it on. Yeah. Guess she matured. Wants to get it on to Barry White music, apparently. Um and this particular hotel will host uh many of the NBA players. So the other hotel that had the MLB, the baseball players, stay at it, this one has the NBA players uh that are there to play against the Oklahoma team, the Oklahoma City team. And many NBA players have reported have reported their own experience with Effie. Oh. Uh-huh. Yeah, it's quite the interesting read. But like one of the Lakers that stayed there was assaulted by the amorous ghost of Effie in 2016. In 2010, I don't know if I can use the player's names, but the seven-foot, two hundred and ninety-five-pound center for the New York Knicks, apparently, after being haunted in his room, spent most of his Skurvin's day in a different room of a teammate for protection. Wow. You can imagine a seven foot, 295-pound man saying, nope, I'm out. And apparently, this guy, there's um, there's another player who is with the Brooklyn Nets. He's gonna plan to start in a film about the Skurvin's hauntings, so that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Oh, okay. Definitely put that on the calendar.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

Yeah, I I didn't look up to see if that movie's already been made, but it interesting, right? But many of these NBA players have their stories of the basically the horny effie assaulting them.

SPEAKER_04 15:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

So I would imagine it's more like a touch, a touching, maybe it's a cooing, maybe it's a song, maybe it's the feeling of someone kind of watching you or getting into your bed with you.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Well, apparently, apparently Effie likes tall men that play basketball. I mean, some women have a thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Well, after her experience with Skurvin, maybe, you know, I don't know. But other reports that happen in in this hotel are, of course, your typical lights flickering at night. Uh, closet doors will slam unexpectedly. That's something that happens too. Um, you know, stories of creaking doors, but creaking doors in an old hotel, I don't think, is something out of the ordinary, but your closet door slamming, slamming, yeah, that's different. Yeah. And so it is reported also in this hotel that there is a lady in a red dress. So there's a lady in red here. Um, and she is said to to lurk the hallways of the 11th floor. And then there's also reports of a woman pushing a baby carriage linked to the owner, too. So and that that could be Effie. It might, she might not. I I mean, it is known that Skirvin, W.B. Skirvin, the the originator of the hotel, uh, he was a notorious womanizer and drinker, and the 10th floor was known to have lots of incidences of gambling and other vices that were there back in the early 1900s. So, you know, a lady in red walking the halls probably wasn't out of the norm. So we have a lady in red there. So that would be a cool hotel to stay at if we could stay in room 1015. There was another report, and I think this is sort of it mirrors, uh, mirrors, pun intended. One of the reports from the other hotel where people wake up to the words help me written on a mirror. Oh wow. Oh boy. Yeah. But again, that yeah, I mean, you can write help me on a mirror and then leave, and then the next person coming in, if they take a shower, could see that form. So it's hard, you know. I don't know. Help me. I mean, if you clean the mirror and it comes back, I guess, but yeah. So interesting hotel. I wouldn't mind staying there. Room 1015. Another place that would be cool to go to is the Stone Line Inn in Gusry, Oklahoma. The Stone Line Inn uh was built in 1907 by Mr. Effie Hofton for his family. At the time, this mansion, well, the the mansion has an 8,000 square feet to it and four floors, so it's quite the mansion. And at the time of its completion, it cost $11,900 to build. So this is back in 1907. I wonder what that would compare to now in price. Somebody with good, you know, math skills.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Somebody with good math skills. Come on, Ryan. We know you got the math skills over there.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

So it was considered the most expensive home in Guthrie, Oklahoma. It be after it became in 1920, it became the Smith Funeral Home. So you can imagine what stories will come from that. And then in 1986, it was purchased by Becky Lucre and renovated and converted into a bed and breakfast. Oh, now Heather and I could tell you, whenever you renovate a property, that's always going to promote or bring out some sort of spiritual, you know, experience or chaos that happens. And the stone line inn is no different during the renovation, is when a lot of things started to happen. Unexplainable noises were heard, loud footsteps were reported coming from the back staircase in the early hours of the morning. Doors would open and close by themselves. The police were often called upon uh for fear that there were intruders in the home during the renovation because of all this type of activity. And then obviously, the new owner, Becky, she started to realize that the intruders in her home were not really of this world, they were of otherworldly, they were ghostly visitors. So it became a hot spot of ghostly activities, and most of the hauntings come from the original family. So Hufton and his wife, they had 12 children.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Oh 12 children, same same mother, same mother, yeah, same mother. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Um so one of the children, Augusta, uh, became very ill and died of whooping cough after her nurse gave her the wrong medicine.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Whooping cough is no fun.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

So it is said that you know, the children will haunt this mansion, um, or at least this child will. Um, so in Becky's son's room, so Becky, of course, moved into her own inn, and in her son's room, she would put her toys away neatly at night, and every morning uh when he wakes up, the toys would be scattered all about. So someone's playing. So Augusta is said to still haunt these halls playing with these toys. Apparently, the father has been seen many times throughout the house huffing and puffing on his tobacco pipe. Another pipe smoker here. Guest of the inn will witness a childlike figure that will come and tuck them into bed at night. That's kind of sweet, actually, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

Sweet.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Uh others, though, will complain about noisy children that are jumping on the bed, but there's no children there at the inn. Um, and then uh a common sound that you can hear is that of a of a ball, a wooden ball that will roll across the floors. Um, you can hear it echo in the mansion. And so that's something that's fun to do when you have child energy in a place to play with them, to put out electronic toys and they can play with them, or to put out a ball or something that will roll, and you can sometimes capture the ball rolling or put something out, mark where it is, and then you could see how it's changed location a little bit. It's kind of fun. So, this this stone line inn is in Guthrie, Oklahoma, and it's a hot spot of activity. And the very last place I found was Canes Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I was gonna stop after the start of Guthrie Inn, except for what do we have at the Keynes Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma? But a lady in red.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Lady in red. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

We're gonna need a lot of red and green pins, I think, for our map.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Well, we've got them. So Canes was built in 1924, and it was originally built to be a garage for automobiles for one of Tulsa's founders, Tate Brady. Um, but shortly after it was built in 1930, Madison Kane purchased the building and began to use it to host dance lessons and named it the Cain's Dance Academy. It is now a musical venue where you can go to hear music. And apparently, Bob Willis's do you know Bob Willis? At all as a musician, Ryan. Bob Willis is it's probably before your time. The Western his Western swing band, the Texas Playboys, uh would be started holding their regular radio broadcast from that ballroom.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

So the paranormal activities or accounts that happen here at the Keynes Ballroom is um a lot of it is attributed to Bob Willis himself. He said to haunt Keynes. Um so I imagine that you might see him or maybe you hear his music. Um there's also a presence of a spirit named Joan, although some say her name is Jane. So again, when I hear that, like unsure about the name, I hearken back to my own readings where I will get a name, but it's distorted a bit. So I always say, well, it could be Joan, Jane, John. Like I know there's a J, there's an N, you know, kind of thing. So, and the presence of her goes back to the 1950s. There's said to be a spirit girl named Chloe that's very active there. What you can get is uh uh the cold spots, the differentiation of temperatures, hot and cold spots throughout. A lot of orbs show up in photographs that are taken inside the canes uh ballroom. You know, uh disembodied voices, giggling, singing, uh, the feeling of being watched. A lot of the same kind of reports you get in different places, but there are sightings of a lady in red here. I could not find any particular person that she's attributed to, like this lady was wearing red and died here or whatever. I couldn't find anything like that. I just hear that they cite a lady in red, and she's heard and felt by both employees and patrons alike. So she has some connection, some connection, maybe during the dance time, maybe she was one of the dancers there. I don't know. Uh there's literally broke the leg. Not much is said, but another lady in red. So two ladies in red in Oklahoma. Red's the color there, I guess. Uh yeah, yeah. So from Oklahoma, why don't we go down to Texas?

SPEAKER_01 24:06

All right, saddle up. Uh, Texas was absolutely loaded with haunted history, it was full of uh tragic romances, hotel room legends, and some unforgettable spirits, but there's so many to talk about, but I'm just gonna go right to the few that stood out to me. First one was um the Sheridan Gunter Hotel in room 636, and that hotel opened. Yeah, I think we're gonna have to start another board of rooms, right? This hotel opened up in 1909, and it has been the center of haunting stories all the way up until even just last year, which is fantastic. But apparently, the outstanding um murder happened in 636 or 636 in 1965. There was the murder, and it was a murder of an unknown woman who is simply described as murdered, blonde, and elegant. And I was like, What? That's more information, but apparently a man checked into room 636, and the mysterious woman came in, which if she wasn't on the roster, right? We can pretty much assume what the lady was doing there. Um but it is sad that later on the maid later discovered the blood-soaked crime scene, right? And the man instantly became a suspect. Imagine that, right?

SPEAKER_04 25:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Who knew, right? But and of course, the maid also noticed that the man was behaving very strangely. So this has sparked, you know, decades of paranormal lore. But it is sad if you go to 636 that you're gonna feel cold spots and whispering, which again, you know, blonde, elegant, snuck in, you know, maybe she is whispering some stuff. Um lots of shadow figures, but most importantly, people say when they check into uh this room that they can smell the cigar smoke. Um so there is a sighting that the the blonde, elegant woman was wearing white, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of proof of that. I don't know if that got tied tied later into history because the original stories just say the woman was blonde and elegant and didn't say that she was wearing white.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

I don't know if that can really classify her then as a lady in white.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't put that on our board just because it seems like that came in, that lore kind of came in a little later. But I guess because of all the trauma, it's just a constant replay uh of murder energy. I love how sometimes you look up all these stories and like the drama around the murder energy. But it is said that the the elegant blonde is intelligent and she does respond. Um, she also will move with you, almost like she's walking side by side with you. The guests say that whoever stays in room 636 will be mocked. You get mocked when you're in there, which I don't know, that doesn't sound relaxing, but but not to provoke her because she's uh she's gonna she'll lean in and kind of uh act out, which I would too. If someone murdered me, I'd come in back and you know, definitely I'd mock anybody that's in there, like, hey, what's going on? But apparently, this is a this hotel is still open to this day, and they understand that their hotel is haunted, and they encourage people to talk about their your experience at this hotel, and they're they have a reputation and they totally support it. And everyone that to this as of 2025 still say that the intensity is still there and it's active. So if we happen to go to this corner of Texas, definitely we're gonna we're gonna stop in. I I want to talk to the elegant blonde. Um talking to her right now, darling. Oh, darling.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

Although I haven't been murdered, and I'm I don't I don't want to wish that on myself, so you know, and you're not wearing white today, you're wearing blue.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

So then we move on down to Fort Worth, Texas, and this is an 1800 Bordello era style story. Her name was Josie King, and she was the madam of the house, and it is said that if you go to Miss Molly's hotel and go to Miss Josie's room, you will be able to see the Madame, and she will always stand at the foot of the bed to make sure that you are well taken care of. People say that you will hear footsteps in the private bath and that a female voice will interact with you through your conversations. Uh, so very cool. I definitely want to bring, you know, a voice recorder and and have a conversation, you know, with Miss Josie. And it is said that she is an intellectual haunting. And the rumor is if you do not, when you go into the room, uh if you do not acknowledge her politely, she will make your stay very uncomfortable. And you know what? I want to be as comfortable as possible, so we will acknowledge her. Please and thank you. Yes, please and thank you. Absolutely. Uh so that was really, you know, it's kind of fun. It's old taboo, right? It's that kind of circles around all our ghost stories that we're looking up. Then we move over into the lady in white and the ghost lady of Lady of White Rock uh in Rock Lake, and that's in Dallas. Didn't you go to Dallas, Lisa?

SPEAKER_02 30:39

Yeah, we were in Dallas to see a baseball game when we did the road trip with my husband. Yeah, it was it was actually a lovely time there. Didn't get to the city proper, though, really, just just to the baseball venue, and then we headed down to Houston for the baseball down there. Then we headed to the next baseball stadium and the next one and the next one and the next one.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

So apparently there's White Rock Lake in Dallas, and it's a drowning legend that occurred in the 1930s. There are reports all the way up until 1960s in the newspapers, which were fun to kind of look at. And some of the images were still free where you could look at the images. And the appearance of this woman is that she's uh in a water-soaked evening dress, often described as white or pale cream color. And it is said that she goes out to the road and she asks drivers for a ride.

SPEAKER_04 31:37

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

And then if you acknowledge her or don't excuse me, if you don't acknowledge her, she vanishes. If you do acknowledge her, she will leave your car seat wet. Well, I got leather, I don't want her on my seat.

SPEAKER_04 31:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

But she was a hitchhiker, and so um, this is a residual energy with some kind of uh intellect. Obviously, if she's coming up to your car and asking if she can have a ride, right? You can visit this lake, it is a public park, and I'm I'm thinking we need to see if she uh if she comes up to our windows, right? Absolutely. And my final one, my final one is in San Antonio, and that's the lady in red. Okay. Now we have another lady in red. The Western states like their red. They do, they like their red, and she is the elegant woman in a red dress, and she she has said that if you go into the uh restroom stalls that are public, I guess, in San Antonio, that she will follow you in and then she disappears. But when you're in the ladies' room, apparently you can hear when you're alone, obviously, uh, the clicking sound of her heels on the marble floors. And that's a folklore. That's a haunting folklore, which I, as I was reading through this, I noticed that this is a public area, so it's been heavily traveled, and something must have happened, but I couldn't find, but had to speak of the lady in red, right? Yeah, absolutely. So lots more going on in Texas, but that's all we have time for today, folks. We're gonna send this uh off to Ryan. And Ryan, what do you got?

SPEAKER_03 33:36

Well, that was that was interesting. Well, before I forget, I did look up what was it, eleven thousand dollars in the early 1900s?

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

Okay, so in today's you gotta love numbers. So yeah, in in today's that would be about $430,000. So close to half a million.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Wow, I mean so it costs about half a million to build that mansion in today's world in Oklahoma. Yep. Wonder what that would cost to build it here in Connecticut. Triple that. Triple that. I don't know what the costs are in Oklahoma compared to Connecticut, but I imagine there's a little bit of a difference. Uh because I'm thinking half a million would barely build you, you know. Maybe you get a three-bedroom house out of a half a million here in Connecticut. I know. Ridiculous. Depending on where in Connecticut, maybe. I don't know. True. Well, we're talking building costs, not necessarily the cost of the house.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

So that would take more research to figure out the conversion between Oklahoma or Connecticut. I'm on it. I'm on it. All right, Lisa, you can figure it, you can find it. You know, math word problems. Like if you know, if it cost eleven thousand dollars in 1900 in Oklahoma, what's the conversion rate?

SPEAKER_01 35:14

Uh that might be college level at this point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:18

That's a multi-step math word problem right there.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Although I've met some young children recently and they're brilliant, and it's like, wow.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

You know, those little star seeds out there that are super smart.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

Well, I did find out that in based on 2026 real estate data, a $400,000 home in Oklahoma City is in a market of 11.5% lower than what you would buy in Hartford. So if we were to put $4,000, $400,000 times 11.5%.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

The teachers are at work over here.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

You can't see it. Something wrong on my cat. I'm on it. Okay. I'm on it. All right. Yeah. Oh. Smell the smoke.

unknown 36:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

I can I can see the wheels turn it back.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

So a $400,000 home in Oklahoma City will cost well over half a million here in Connecticut in Hartford, Connecticut. But if you were to go to a place like Stamford or Farmington or along the west coast of Connecticut, I'm sure, or even along the shoreline.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

You know what? It would be awesome if our listeners can solve this problem too. And yes. Who wants to solve a math problem? Like 8,000 square feet.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Calling all math teachers.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

And I was like, in in one of my cars, I just I I never change the time in it because I enjoy doing math first thing in the morning while I was driving to work. So I was always trying to figure out what time it really was.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

I have a my clock upstairs, it's the same way. I never change it.

SPEAKER_04 37:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Uh just because I love in the morning, I'm like, okay, it says 11. Oh no, it's 10.

SPEAKER_03 37:16

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Like you get excited, like you just gained some time when you're like, right.

SPEAKER_04 37:21

Absolutely. Okay, I got it.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

I got it. Okay. All right. An 8,000 square foot home in Connecticut will generally cost between 2 million and 4.8 million dollars, depending on where it is in the state.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

Good lord. Okay. But how much does it cost in Oklahoma?

SPEAKER_02 37:38

No, I'm just gonna We already said it was $400,000.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

All right, carry on. New Mexico. Take us to New Mexico.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

So New Mexico has uh quite a few hauntings as well. Two of them actually sound quite similar. I had to look back at my notes and I was like, is this the same place? But they're two completely different hotels, just similar paths, I suppose. But uh the first one is uh St. James Hotel in Cermarone, New Mexico. Probably butchered that. But the hotel was originally a saloon in the 1870s. It was in a rough frontier town on the Santa Fe Trail. At least 26 people were killed there, mostly through uh shootings or fights. You can actually see they found like hundreds of bullet holes later in the ceiling, so there was a lot going on there.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

And what era is this?

SPEAKER_03 38:36

1870s.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Okay, so they would have been using revolvers at that point. Can you imagine what it would take to do a hundred rounds of a revolver through the ceiling? You know, I mean, a revolver what generally holds sick six bullets, right? One in the chamber and then six in the in the wheel, right? So, like, think about a hundred bullets back then. That is astronomical. It's not like our new powered weapons that we have available, right? Where they could look, you know, shoot off a hundred in a second. Back then, a revolver, or even just your pistol. I'm trying to think, was that pistol area or is that did revolvers actually come into play? But even still, a hundred bullets in the ceiling, that's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 39:22

They said hundred hundreds, hundreds of bullet holes.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

Hundreds. Yeah, so there wasn't just like a one person kind of thing, right? We got like the battle going on, like everything's happening there, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Like, yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

I mean, just constant, you know, just in concept, like we forget with our AK, you know, our our machine, you know, machine guns and AK-47s and what we have in this society for you know weapons. Now you're saying over hundreds of bullets. I mean, whether it's a revolver or a pistol, that's that's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

I'm on it. So I found during this time in New Mexico the handguns, revolvers called 1860 Army, 1851 Navy, Remington, new model army of 1858. I don't know, and pocket pistols, small cheap revolvers or derangers.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Yep, which is only like four bullets, two or thirty-eight caliber.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Yep. And then, of course, probably more common found in um New Mexico at this time would have been shotguns, rifles.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

So if it was a shotgun and they used buckshot, that could that could just spray hundreds of BBs into the wall, but you're saying they're actual like gunshots, right? Yeah, is what you read?

SPEAKER_04 40:41

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

That's just incredible. I mean, think about the perspective there. Just in that era, to to reload a revolver that fast, or to have you're gonna have to have multiple people involved. All right, sorry, I went on a tangent.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

Keep going, then we're just we're doing a lot of like extra research here to in this episode, but that's fine. This is great, it's quite educational. Um that's what this is about. Yeah, so yeah, absolutely. No, that's fantastic. So basically, they're saying that guests and staff over the years have reported the typical things that we found in other places too: cold spots, lights flickering, objects moving, smells of cigar smoke, strong uh rose perfume scent, uh shadowy figures.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

But most of So where would the roses come from? You're in Mexico or New Mexico.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

Well, it's perfume.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

Desert rose.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

I think we may find out with specific spirits that are there. So so most of the activity happens on the second floor. The main spirit that people have noticed is in room 18, Thomas James TJ Wright. They're saying, uh, he checked into the St. James Hotel on April 5th, 1882. The story goes that he got into a high-stakes game with the owner of the hotel, uh, Henry Lambert. TJ Wright, uh, he he won not only all of Lambert's money, but some of his cattle, and then lastly, the hotel. So on his way back to his room, TJ was shot and killed. And so he crawled to his room. That's where he he passed away. So his spirit is said to haunt room 18. But that room is now locked, it's not rented. So that's that. Yeah, I was like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

I wonder if it's because they just don't want to get the reputation that they're haunted, or if the room is just in disarray. I I'd be interested in knowing why they don't rent the room out.

SPEAKER_03 42:46

Exactly. Yeah, I'd be curious as well. Like, can we just open the door and look?

SPEAKER_01 42:53

I'll wear a map, I'll wear a hat, you know, like one of those filtered masks so that all the dust doesn't hit me, you know?

SPEAKER_03 42:59

Yeah, there you go. There you go. And then um, room 17, that's Mary Elizabeth Lambert. That was the wife of the hotel's founder. Uh, she lived there and passed away there as well. With her, she's she has the smell of rose perfume. She apparently uh gently taps on like if if windows or doors are open, she'll start tapping, like to remind people, hey, you have to close that. But she's seen as like very protective over the environment. So I found that interesting.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

There's glad or she has some Dom Syndrome and you have to close the windows and the shades when it gets dark.

SPEAKER_03 43:37

Maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

I'm just throwing stuff out there, man.

SPEAKER_03 43:41

Yeah, you never know. You never know. There's they're calling this spirit the imp. It's uh described as a small prankster like spirit. The imp? I love that it moves objects, locking doors, um, hiding and returning items, things like that. Like that.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Oh, sort of like the hobbit with the precious.

unknown 44:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:04

Yeah, exactly. Yep. There's also some unnamed spirits there, too, because they're saying like so many people died there. There's multiple spirits going around. But there's like you'll see uh like cowboy apparitions in mirrors, you know, shadowy figures in hallways. Uh so things like that.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Well, you know, there's some men and women out there that like a cowboy or a cowgirl, you know?

SPEAKER_03 44:29

Yeah. If you look in a mirror, you might find someone.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

So you never know.

SPEAKER_03 44:34

Yeah. And then we move on to uh Clayton, New Mexico. There's another hotel, Hotel Eklund. It was built in 1892. Um, started out as a store, and then became a saloon, and then finally a hotel. There's more bar fights and shootouts there as well. Um, there's still bullet holes in the ceiling as there as well. So that's why I was like, did I look up the same hotel twice or what? No, there's no it was too different.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

But I just had a random thought, Ryan. What if the room they don't rent out is the janitor's closet now for the other hotel?

SPEAKER_03 45:11

Oh. There you go. You never know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

That's why kids stay in there.

SPEAKER_03 45:16

Yeah, yeah. A large closet for janitorial stuff. Okay. Maybe they use it as storage, you know. Yeah.

unknown 45:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

But wow, how cool is it that same kind of dynamic in this old town and you know, all that happening.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So in this in the second hotel, there's specific spirits there. Uh there's a maid called Irene. She's in room 307. She's actually the most famous ghost in this hotel. She's a maid who died tragically there, possibly by suicide after heartbreak. That's what they're guessing. Basically, you'll hear her by creaking floors, or what I found this one fascinating. Um, her face appears in wallpaper patterns.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

What?

SPEAKER_03 46:06

That's that's what they were thinking. Yeah, I was like, what?

SPEAKER_02 46:10

What? Well, I that's gotta be something like matriculation, right? Your your eyes start seeing something just because you can see it. Like you can make a face out of anything in the house while you see something. Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

Yeah, I was like, why? Yeah, kind of like when you look at the clouds and you see imageries, because come on, how does your face appear in wallpaper? I know, like, hey, you know what?

SPEAKER_03 46:31

When when I pass away, I'm gonna make sure my face appears in this wallpaper.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

Like, what like as a repeating pattern of the wallpaper? Is what they're saying?

SPEAKER_03 46:40

I'm guessing she just appears in the wallpaper.

SPEAKER_02 46:42

Well, okay, it'd be one thing like if if the face comes through, like, you know, the handprint or whatever on wallpaper, but if it's like the repeating pattern of her face on the wallpaper, like it's part of the pattern of the wallpaper, I'm that's matriculation. That's people seeing something and then saying it's there all the time.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

Or they're drunk.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

I mean, you never know. It's not like I think that phrase, are you high?

SPEAKER_03 47:07

Yeah. Yeah. So I was gonna ask, like, how does that happen? I'm I when I read that, I interpreted it as okay, her face is just appearing in the wallpaper. Not necessarily like it's all over the wallpaper. Like maybe she just maybe she's just standing there. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

You know, uh, that's just how but I was like you're looking into a mirror, but there's no mirror, it's just the wallpaper. Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

I know. Now we have to go there because now I gotta try this out.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

Like, so where's the wallpaper? Yeah, yeah. And then she'll like gently touch guests by like stroking their hair. Um, so yeah, she just seems it's like caring.

SPEAKER_01 47:49

I like my head rubbed. Anybody's willing to scrap, you know, give me a little head rub. I'm all for it. I know Lisa's all for it too. We like our head rubs.

SPEAKER_03 48:00

Um, there's also an outlaw presence, Tom Blackjack Ketchum. He's a famous outlaw who was executed in Clayton Clayton in 1901. But yeah, he's known to visit the the hotel from time to time. There's a lot of leaders.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Yeah, say his name again.

SPEAKER_03 48:18

Tom Blackjack Ketchum. Ketchum. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

Kitchum, right? All right, so so Tom played blackjack and his last name was Kitchum.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Ketchum.

SPEAKER_01 48:30

Ketchum. So like he catches someone. Where what would be the blackjack blackjack kind of um I'm guessing he was gambling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then if you jipped him, he caught you.

SPEAKER_03 48:46

Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. So that those were the they they're saying like typical thing, things like also there's shadowy figures in the hallways, feeling being watched, general presence in certain rooms. I feel like we find that like everywhere we're going here. But they're also saying that some paranormal investigators have even suggested a sassy older woman spirit roaming the building. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

That's gonna be me someday. I was gonna say that's gonna be us someday. Ryan's gonna be the old man, and we're gonna be the old ladies.

SPEAKER_03 49:22

Well, I'm gonna have my face in the wallpaper.

unknown 49:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

You're gonna throw coins at people, make birds come to the window. Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 49:36

Exactly. That's what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

Like all of a sudden smoking in a Sherlock Holmes pipe. Absolutely. We got you all pegged for what kind of spirit you're gonna be when you die, Ryan.

SPEAKER_03 49:51

Yeah, there's a spirit that brings crows to the yard, and also there's like a Sherlock Holmes, like a magnifying glass. Like what? Yeah, that's Ryan.

SPEAKER_00 50:02

It's just Ryan. Keep going, he won't hear you.

SPEAKER_03 50:07

Yeah, yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

Um the man in brown.

SPEAKER_03 50:12

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 50:13

I realize now I'm gonna have to play around with patterns in my art space to see if I can get our faces and faces into a pattern that could eventually be wallpaper. Okay. We'll call it the wallpaper. Sure. People can put it up on their on their wall so that we can constantly be staring at them and they'll have the feeling of being watched. You talk about a real ghostly experience.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 50:34

Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 50:35

Exactly. So and then lastly, there is a theater in Albuquerque, New Mexico called I think Chemo. I think that's what they're calling it, or Chymo. Um, K-I-M-O. I say chemo. Chemo? Yeah. So there's a tragic death inside the theater in uh 1951. Basically, a water heater exploded in the lobby, which injured several several people. However, there was a little boy named Bobby who was killed in that blast. He was six years old. Bobby in the lobby. Yeah. So according to witnesses, Bobby went to run down the stairs during a movie just before the explosion happened. And so it was a very sudden thing, but yeah. But after the accident, and especially after renovations in the 1970s, uh staff and performers also uh began reporting like lights flickering, equipment falling, doors opening and closing on their own, sounds of children laughing or running, objects being moved or going missing. So they're thinking that it could be Bobby doing that. So they actually have a tradition where performers often leave gifts, so toys, candy, or donuts backstage for Bobby.

SPEAKER_02 51:52

Because they think you know what, that's what I want people to leave me, a donut.

SPEAKER_03 51:58

Yeah. Yep, yep. Basically, they're saying they feel like if they don't, then the production is there because now it's used as like a theater. So if they don't, then they feel like the productions have technical failures, actors forgetting lines, or accidents or mishaps you know happening on stage.

SPEAKER_01 52:15

Feels very phantom of the opera down south.

SPEAKER_03 52:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

Southern version.

SPEAKER_03 52:24

Yeah, so so Bobby is the main spirit there. Once again, he's around six years old. He's usually seen in the balcony or running on the stairs. But yeah, he's he's sometimes blamed for tripping actors, messing with the lights and sound, hiding objects, things like that. So that's why they have like a shrine for him backstage where it's like, here's some toys, here's some donuts, you know, and let's hope that we have a good show.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

You know the night janitor's eating those donuts. You know.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

Yeah, there you go. Yep. This isn't um a woman in a in a fancy dress or anything, but it's the lady in a bonnet. I don't know if we can use that. Oh, absolutely. What color's the bonnet? What color is the bonnet? Oh, rats, it doesn't say. But um but hold on. She's only wearing a bonnet? No, she's wearing a she does have old style clothing on, but she happens to they just recognize her because they see the bonnet. But she's seen walking quietly through the halls. She doesn't interact, so it just seems like residual, she'll just appear and disappear. Um that's that's pretty much it. But yeah, the most uh lively spirit there is Bobby, most active.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

Do you know what I find fascinating through all of this? There's always the lady in a color, the room of the hotel, but none of the investigation work that we've done ever leads to a man in a certain color.

SPEAKER_03 53:52

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 53:53

Men just wear black, and that's why. Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

Well, I I think back in the time, I mean, most of the colors of men's clothes was just dark.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

Black, blue, and brown, right?

SPEAKER_03 54:04

Yeah, maybe it or I mean maybe it's a specific style hat that they're wearing, perhaps.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

Or I think that's probably more likely. Yeah, I think also, you know, a lot of traumatic things, unless it's a a a man in a uniform, we get that soldiers in uniform that have that traumatic death on a battlefield, right? But a lot of it seems like a lot of trauma happened to women back in the day, you know, and that's probably no different than it is today either, you know, unfortunately. But anyway. Well, that was a wonderful little uh trek through some of the western states, and we're gonna continue our Haunted America series next week in the Western States. And before we leave you, I have an affirmation. It's the start of spring. Do you want to hear it?

SPEAKER_04 54:49

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

It's a great affirmation for those that do spring being new beginnings, a newness, rebirth. So this season, I will get everything I have been manifesting.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 55:00

Stand in that power, stand in that belief, stand in that positive vibe throughout the season and watch it trickle for you.

SPEAKER_01 55:08

So if you follow planetary retrogrades right now, there are no planets in retrograde. So everything is a smooth sail right now.

SPEAKER_02 55:19

And on that note, we look forward to connecting with you next week.

SPEAKER_03 55:33

Thank you for tuning in to Ready to Connect. If you're interested in exclusive behind the scenes content, be sure to like, share, and follow us on social media by searching for Ready to Connect Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. And for those looking to further support our podcast, consider subscribing to our Patreon at patreon.comslash ready to connect podcast. And until next time, get ready to connect.