Episode 389 - Haunted University of Georgia & Sorority Ghosts

0:00Hi there, it's Jonathan Beness from Getting Better with Jonathan Vaness. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has been in this fight since 1949, and honestly, 250 years into the American experiment, it's time we all decide what kind of country we actually want to be. The founding fathers got plenty wrong, but keeping Church and State separate, they got that one right. Right now, Christian nationalists are trying to erase that history. They're misusing government power to push their beliefs, rewrite what America looks like, and decide who gets to belong here. Americans United is holding a line against every bit of it. They've sued the Trump administration seven times in the past year alone, 12 times since its second term started. They're calling out officials who use our tax dollars to push their religion, defending public schools, and making sure the government actually follows the Constitution. None of that happens without people like you. If you want to be part of a community that's actually doing something about this, go to aew.org slash getting dash better. Enjoying the fight.

1:03Because when America is divided, we are Americans United. I've been in therapy for so many years. I love it. I'm a big proponent of other people starting therapy. And I feel like the barrier to entering to therapy is sometimes finding a therapist, especially when it's covered by insurance, and that's why I love grow sessions average at $21 with insurance, and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. I get really stressed out by mundane small tasks, like returning things to a store. And in therapy, I've been working through how to manage that, and the other day I noticed, I went and did returns, and it didn't bother me at all. That is what growing feels like. And that's exactly what grow therapy is here for. Grow is therapy that works. It's covered by insurance. Over 230 million people nationwide can use their insurance on grow. So odds are you're likely covered too. Sessions average at $21 with insurance, and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. You can search by what matters like insurance, specialty, identity, or availability. See if you could pay as

2:05little as $0 for therapy. In seconds, at growtherapy.com slash TG OG. That's growtherapy.com slash TG OG. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. Hey, hi, what's up? How's it going? Oh yeah, you can't talk back. Sorry. This is two girls on my ghost. Two girls on my ghost. We are your ghost. This is that is Corinne. I'm Sabrina. I'm trying to do drink today. Oh my god, I didn't even notice. I know. Would you get? Is this like a refresher thing? It's a glam berry. I hate these stickers so much. I usually take them off before I come in here. It's one of my like weird kind of bother me. Anyway, it's like one of those

3:12energy drinks. Were you just inspired today or did you see it somewhere? Was it recommended? Well, I just wasn't in the mood for coffee. It's hard to stray from the past and I mixed it up. Yeah. It's officially September. If you are listening to this when it comes out and it's not time of year, where school's back in session. And so the kids are returning to their schools with their friends and some of the children are moving away to haunted colleges. And don't do they know their dorm room is going to torment them for the whole first year. Or maybe their entire campus. Okay. So end of summer means literally happen to us. Yeah. Freshman here. Yeah. Both of our rooms. Win go something. The end of summer means it's back to school. And if you're in college, maybe it's move-in weekend. Maybe you're a freshman. Maybe you're filled with that. Mix of anxiety and excitement. The fear and cheer because you're going to have new roommates, new beginnings, new school, new rules, or maybe no rules for the first time in your life. And perhaps you're heading to campus one week early for one of the oldest traditions in history.

4:15Greek life rush week. Or maybe you're a seasoned college student heading back to campus after a summer. So you've built your community. You can't wait to live it up again. And maybe just maybe you're moving back into the sorority house. Or maybe you're moving into the sorority house for the very first time. Is this a haunted Greek row? It's a whole haunted campus, but there's a lot of Greek life. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Hundreds sororities incoming. This is exciting. I almost pulled out my theta sweatshirt for this episode, but it's in a bin like in the back of a closet. And I did not do it. Yeah. I don't think I own mine anymore. Because I was like, what's the realistically, what are the chances that I have a daughter? And then that daughter joins alfalfee for me to give them that sweatshirt? I kept one sweatshirt from theta. And then I kept my sweet heart sweatshirt from Sigma Kai. I just kept the pin, like the tiny little pin from. Oh yeah. I don't know where my pin is. That was like, that's the one trinket. But if we should this ever happen, that will be passed on. So if you're moving into the sorority house, hopefully they told you about the ghosts.

5:19So today we are going to talk about one of the most haunted colleges, the University of Georgia. Go Bulldogs. I also saw Go Dogs online. So, oh, I don't know. Maybe we're DAWG dogs. I don't know. But the fact of this is like a Georgia campus and like Greek life in Georgia makes this feel even more intense. Oh, our experience with the history was like not really that authentic at all. I actually really liked ours because we, so we started LMU. You have your whole first semester. You don't rush until your second semester freshman year, which is nice because like you and I became friends. And then our friend group, it was all mixed. Right. And we joined different sororities, but we were able to stay friends. And like it wasn't so exclusive or you only ever socialized with your sorority. But we also didn't have a Greek row. So it's like, there's no house to move into. There's we made our own little houses. Yeah, people just like rented houses. Yeah. Six or seven people in like one house scattered all over Westchester in Los Angeles. Well, just wait until you see

6:23these houses. They're insane. There's a lot of you. A lot of us are just going to like the USC U CLA ones when we would like take little field trips. The decoration and like interior design is insane. But I just like watching the rush videos when they're all doing like copying in the door. So intense. It's a little scary, but it's also very like that's the cult that I would join. We did join. We did. Yeah. That's true. Okay. So the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia is one of the most quintessential Southern college towns in America. Streets lined with old oak trees, historic buildings, football and Sundays. Like everyone in town is dedicated to the Sunday football games. Although I think it's Saturdays, right at college. I think it's anyway. I'm a fraud. We also didn't have a football team. So no. So that means we're undefeated. So we said in my high school too. And also in this quintessential Southern college town, there are plenty of ghosts. Not very surprised given its location. Oh, and we're going to talk about

7:25some of the history. Yeah. Although the last bit probably wasn't mentioned in orientation. As you walk through the front doors of the sorority houses, they won't tell you they're haunted. Like ghosts staring at you through the window haunted or body buried beneath the front steps haunted or maybe piano plays by itself haunted or also, oh, yes, someone was murdered here haunted. Oh my gosh. Piano fine, but like you walk up the front steps. So there's your classroom, your house or something. Yeah. Yep. So today, we're going to talk about the hauntings at the University of Georgia and not just the sorority houses, but the entire campus itself. There are over 240 years of history here. And sometimes history has a way of leading into the present in the form of ghosts ghosts ghosts. And just as context, there are so many buildings on this campus. Actually, I wanted to look up how many students are here. 43,888 students. That's massive. That's like the site. That's the population of Vermont. Yeah, that's crazy. That's so many people.

8:26Many people. So this campus is massive. And obviously, we're not going to talk about all of it, but I wonder if it's always been huge. I mean, probably because so many of them started as like, boys only or whatever. I mean, all of them basically are ours too. Yeah, except for like the women only schools like Wellesley and when I'm, but yeah, anyway, there are a lot of hauntings to cover in this episode. We're talking urban legends, mysterious, booked up buildings and pathways, murders, revenge, a haunted Greek row, and so much more. But before we get to all of those hauntings, we're going to talk about the history of the University of Georgia and why it's so haunted as context. This history certainly predates what I'm going to start it in this episode, but we're not going to go to the beginning of time. We're going to start with January 27, 1785. The American Revolution has just ended. The United States of America was more of like a percolating thought. It was cooking. And Burr was having duels in the street. Heading to New Jersey. And for the bagels. I want a bagel now. They're so fluffy. I've never

9:28tasted one. Just to look at them. That's so sad for you. Yeah, I know. The New Jersey bagels look so much better than the New York or anything else. They're similar to New York. Wow, hot take from you. I feel like everyone. No, New York pizza, New York and New Jersey pizza and food, I feel like that's same. But they look so different. Bagels. Where are you getting bagels in New York? Where are you seeing bagels in New York? You're seeing the Roman ones. Brian, we go to bagel shops. I don't get to eat anything, but I personally believe they're very similar. Okay, but it's here in this uncertain time post-American revolution where a man named Abraham Baldwin who was a Connecticut born Yale graduate and Georgia State legislator decided I'm going to make some moves. He believed a true democracy could not function without an educated citizenry, which I agree. I think that's a very smart take. And the people of his state and his country he believed should be educated. So with that, he dropped a charter and presented it to the Georgia Assembly. And on January 27th, 1785, the University of Georgia became the first state chartered public university

10:30in all of America. Wow. And fun fact, Abraham Baldwin later assigned to the US Constitution. Good for him. He followed Jan Hancock. Jan? Jan Hancock. But no one can really follow Jan Hancock. That's, you know, he's well, I do feel bad. Like no one like if you told me his name, I would never know. He was one of the signatures. I know. He was in the room where it happened though. It was. Okay, so 1785, UGA exists, although at the time it was called Franklin College after Benjamin Franklin. And despite being chartered in 1785, there was no physical campus until 1801 in 1801, 633 acres of land were purchased along the Oconi River. I probably said that wrong and was donated to the University as a campus. So the very first on campus classes began in September of 1801. I like that is a period of time that if time travel was a thing, I think I would want to go back like the first week that that opens. Right. Just like what is the excitement? See what it's like. Yeah, are people like buzzing with excitement? And it's like awkward and cool. Or is it just

11:35to understand how awesome it is? That's a good question. We'll have to get a time machine and find out. Yeah. And this is also still such a long time ago, like 1801. That's a long time ago. Super long. And America's barely been, yeah, I think we're still babies, 250 years. Yeah, 400 years this year for Salem. That means some of the buildings on campus have been standing for some 200 plus years. They've stood witness to the Civil War, generations of students coming and going. And also, it's very important to note that these buildings were in large part built on the labor of enslaved people. And actually, this is a wild story. And I feel like it's not talked about very often when you look up what's going on. And then also some sources say the wrong date. So that kind of hizes me off. But in November of 2015, during a campus construction project to expand Baldwin Hill Hall, the remains of 105 people were discovered beneath the campus grounds. They did DNA analysis

12:35and confirmed the vast majority of remains were of African descent and had most likely been enslaved in the dispiried beneath the campus. Unmarked, buried with little care and little compassion. It's so upsetting. But at the same time, like given the amount of land that was given. Yeah. And what was going on and how horrific everything was, like, I'm not surprised. No, it's not surprising. It's just upsetting. It's just upsetting. And the first instinct of the school itself was not to like, oh, let's commemorate the people here. They were basically like, let's just ignore it and move on. It took years of student activism and public pressure to actually acknowledge and memorialize the souls. I've been buried there. That's great years. Yeah. So already we can see heavy, dark history. Yeah. And then there was a civil war. In 1861, Athens was a Confederate stronghold, so south, and the city supplied men, uniforms, and weapons. And then that year, the university fall semester started with 113 students enrolled. So not always that big. But by 1863, so many of the students and faculty members had been called to the front lines

13:40that the school closed entirely and then was handed over to the Confederate soldiers as like a base camp. That's kind of a wild, like I understand anyone can be called. Like for some reason, I just thought of academic campuses as kind of being safe. Well, I always think of them across the university ever watch that movie with all the Beatles music. Yes. And how, I mean, I was showing World War II, I think probably. And the like ways that these like men and boys are trying to like get out of being called to the front lines, but even if they're in college, they still get called like handmade. Same same. So we're like based right here. Yeah. Okay. So the campus shuts down. It's handed over to the Confederate soldiers, soldiers and refugees move into the campus. They actually turned the chapel that still stands today into an army hospital where wounded and dying Confederate soldiers were taken and treated. And there, I couldn't find an exact number of documented deaths. I guess there weren't a ton here. And then in 1864, the chapel was converted into

14:42a prison where 431 Union soldiers were captured and held. Then Union forces swept through the campus towards the end of the war, camped on the college grounds and apparently some of them used the chapel's front columns for target practice. I tried to look up photos to see if there's any like bullet marks and whatnot that they've documented, but I couldn't find any. But yeah, this building still stands. Post Civil War, the campus reopened in 1866. But over 100 students remember it was 113 students enrolled. Yeah. Over 100 students and alumni had died. So it was very, very different when they were still being opened. Yeah. Oh, that's terrible. So not like 100 of the 113. Yeah. But still a significant number. Then there were students who left to go fight in world wars and never returned. All to say, there's been a lot of murders, suicides, tragedies. So, and quite a lot of injustice that took place on the land. I wonder if like dorm rooms were, like, did people board there? Or, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So all of this history and the hauntings attributed to this history

15:46has classified the University of Georgia as one of the most haunted campuses in America. So let's talk about some specific contexts. The first and arguably most haunted or most well known haunted building on campus is called Joe Brown Hall. Almost everyone agrees that this building gives them the creeps. And there's a reason Joe Brown is haunting it. No. Joe Brown, I don't think it was a great guy. I would make the assumption almost every person that they're named after is not. Yeah. When they're that old and in the Confederate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then we can. I'm going to assume that. Okay. So Joe, Joe Brown Hall was built in 1932 named after the 40 second governor of Georgia who ever wrote his political sands. No, boy, no. Me no like. I did write that too. He was around during the Civil War. This building was constructed and named after him in 1932. Many years after they lost the Civil War. So, interesting choice. But anyway, it was constructed as a men's dormitory and for decades, that's what it was. Male students lived, studied, slept here. And then a tragedy

16:48struck in the fall of 1971. I'll tell you the legend first as like it's kind of shared on campus and then I'll tell you the real story. The legend says that Thanksgiving of 1971, everyone packed up to go home for the holiday except for one student, one boy who was planning to stay on campus. Unfortunately, this boy died by suicide in his dorm and his body wasn't discovered for some time. Again, according to legend, when he was discovered, his body was so badly decomposed with a smell was impossible to get out. Oh, God. Residents started complaining of the smell for weeks and for months. It never got better. It got so bad that the janitors really sealed up this one wing of the dorm, meaning there are stairs that go to nowhere within this building. This staircase is a smell of her corrected self. I mean, no one goes in that hallway anymore. Right. So, I don't know. This staircase is now referred to as the stairs to nowhere and naturally, many people have reported eerie sensations and hauntings in this space in building. And so many people hear of this legend when they're on campus, like you and I for sure would have added this to our

17:51Oh, we would have tried to go. Because the legend says that if you go up this, if you find the stairs first of all, go up them and knock three times on this portrait. Because literally, this is the wall. It's like a portrait of a hallway on. It kind of is backboarded up. Esk. Very in a way. But it's like, why not just like leave it as a blank wall by add to this? Why to make it look like it's a hallway? I don't know. Maybe they're trying to add to the splelting. But so the legend says, if you walk up there, knock three times on that portrait, three knocks full respond. I wonder how many people do this? Because like knowing how many students are on this campus. A lot. Popular. Is there no mind every night? No, I'm a knock. What if you live in that building? Oh, that would. But popular paranormal shows have even investigated this stairwell. There's a student named Emma West who went looking for the stairway to know we're during her brushmanier. And when she found it, she immediately had chills of her entire body and felt a presence. People have also claimed that if you knock the door, it's a hollow knock,

18:54meaning that like there's like a big hallway in the side. But maybe there's such an eerie feeling because the student's tragic end has been turned into an urban legend and a drunken dare. I'm like playful adventure. But the truth is a young man really did spend his final moments on the other side of this wall. And he didn't have a name. And aside, it might not even be haunted. Like the hauntings might just exist right there at the door that everyone's knocking in on because of the energy that people are putting forward there. And this is the thing is like during the legend in every iteration of the legend I found not once is a student's name mentioned. Like I literally had to go searching for it. But yeah, I get it though because of like privacy and stuff. Like I feel like yeah, at LMU, it was the same thing. It was like I knew I was living in the dorm room where someone had passed away. But I didn't I wasn't able to like find the article or the name. It was just confirmed by the housing. Right. Okay. Well, in this case, he had a name. His name was Stanley Park Haddock. He was actually 26 years old and was discovered on March 1st, 1972. So not after

19:55Thanksgiving break as a legend sets. This discovery was reported in the Athens banner herald on March 2nd, 1972. And also in the school paper, the red and black on March 9th, 1972. The article was titled Stanley was a quiet fellow. And according to these articles, a janitor found Stanley's body after investigating a foul odor on the first floor. And the cause of death is still unknown. It was thought to be suicide, but has never actually been confirmed. The UGA police commented that the body was severely decomposed and described it as a bizarre death. It's hard. I mean, I know. I know. It could happen. You know, he was in aneurysm. Right. Yeah. Some undetected, congenital heart defect. Like there's so many things. Right. He was found wearing just a shirt and there was a bag of unopened donuts from the local bakery next to his body. So then it was added in these articles that the wind was in fact, boarded up because a smell could not be removed. That's wild. Yeah. And so sad. I really also makes me think even more so that it was like a

20:56freak accident where it's like, there's confusion from him as to what went down. Yeah. And that's why like the space is maintaining some energy. Yeah. I know. I'm curious if anyone has access to get to the other side of that wall. Mm-hmm. But yeah, it's a tragic story. And I really do hope Stanley has found some peace. Or if he does haunt the dorm, it's because he wants to. And he enjoys messing with freshman students who are like learning about this legend. And he's like, yeah, I'm going to haunt you. Yeah, that actually would be really fun. That's what I would do. At the end of the day, Joe Brown Hall is believed to be the most documented paranormal location on campus. Although there are so many others. So many others. Like Waddle, Waddle, Hall. I hope to not say that word again, but I probably will. This is where the first murder on campus took place. Oh, the first. So this hall was built in 1821. You like how I'm avoiding saying my name. And is the second oldest building on campus? It served as a lab, a dorm, and is now the office of special events. But what makes it so wanted is that it is the location of the first murder ever recorded on campus. Dang. Well,

22:00I sure hope it happened 200 some years ago. And not recently, I think it's been over 100 years. Okay. So as the story goes, again, I couldn't find hard evidence of this, but this is how the story goes. After World War One, a young soldier of a turned home and his friends who wanted to help him get back into like normalcy, like, hey, come stay at our dorm. Hang out here. And I guess before he left for the war, he had a fiance. So they're like spend some time with your fiance. They had to tell him that. But he'd been gone for a long time. And his fiance, she shows up and she's like, hey, she's like, so I found someone else. Oh, I thought she'd be like wicked pregnant. Oh, no, she had fallen in love with someone else. Okay. And she should have written a dear job, other. Well, we don't like this young soldier. Okay. He, when he found out murdered her. And then he died by suicide all within the walls of what L high hall. This is the college. This is University of Georgia, what L hall. And this tragedy, obviously, has left us like a haunting

23:04stain on the land. It's been more than a hundred years, but people still report on explain strange activity. They'll hear sounds loud, heavy footsteps, orbs of light. They'll feel like someone's watching them. But most people agree to residual energy. But even then, it's like very, very thick energy. Okay, there is one skincare brand that I keep coming back to. My mom keeps coming back to Corinne and her mom also keep coming back to and you've heard us talk about multiple times before it is one skin. It is nothing like your typical skincare brand. And it works to address how skin ages in the first place. It's backed by science and founded by four PhD longevity scientists. Listen, the last summer I went out, I was asked if I was lying about my age and they needed to see my ID just to make sure because they didn't believe that I was 33. My favorite product, especially right now because it's summer, is the OS one face SPF. And the greatest thing is that it has a little tint to it. So it adds into my makeup routine. Born from over 10 years of longevity research, one skin is helping you lock your healthiest skin

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25:08and no CD accepts most major insurance plans and is covered for over 155 million Americans. No CD also makes sure you're supported between sessions. They have powerful in-app tools. So if you're ready to start getting help from a therapist who truly understands OCD, visit nocd.com to book a free call. That's nocd.com. On September 10th, I've waited such a long time for this. She has. To be bewitched. Yeah, everyone we love does. It's not great. It's in their via. Sandra Bullock. Here's the thing about magic. It won't be silenced. Nicole Kidman. Everything is going to be okay. Maybe it's going to be okay. Just like it was when we had to bury a corpse under a roast bush. Different or same. The practical magic too. It's PG-13. Maybe an appropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters of September 10th. Okay, here's another really hard one to say. Demo-Sthenian Hall. Another very old and very haunted building was built in 1824 and is home

26:12to the Demo-Sthenian Literary Society. I heard for you. It sounds like you're saying it right, but I'm like oh man. I think that's it. It's not a fault. Did we have any buildings on campus that were really hard to say? I don't think so. We had U-Haul. Yeah, University Hall. U-Haul, which elevators were I've never once seen. The escalators, you mean? Or yeah, the escalators. Never once were all four work escalators working. And then a couple years ago when Nikita got married and I like stayed there for a week to watch her dog in between. It was in the Indian running to their money events and I like stayed there for a few days. We've afforded from her house. We did. We did. And Rolly was like hopping up like a... Yeah. Yeah, so I was watching. Preston Peace. But yeah, no, I was like walked to the campus and U-Haul's escalators were still broken. I was like, oh my god, this is like a building. That building reminds me of the back rooms in Maw world because it was literally designed to be like a Maw. It's massive. Like I think if you took all the

27:13furniture out, it would be a very liminal space. Well, the Steve Jobs movie was film there. So, look at us. Look at us. If you're curious what it looks like, it's look it up. LMU U-Haul. There was a period of time when we were on like our sorority was on like due-dishyl review or something like that. We had like a disciplinary action that before we went on our buses to our parties and events, we had to all be on campus for like an hour before we left to prevent pre-gaming. Oh, I think we had to do that too. Yeah. And they like stuck in that little theater space in U-Haul. Yeah. Yeah. But we would all still like bring water bottles full of alcohol. It's called there. Yeah. It's college. Anyway. Okay. Back to Demostinian Hall. It was built in 1824 and like I said, it was home to the Demostinian Literary Society, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious organizations in the University of Georgia's history. This building was actually added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and is haunted by a man named Robert Tumes. And I

28:18love this story. This might be one of my favorite stories. Robert Tumes is one of the most famous alumni to UGA. He arrived at the school in the 1820s and he very quickly made a name for himself. He was even chosen as a class graduation speaker, which was one of the highest honors a student could receive. He was brilliant, charismatic, ambitious, everyone loved him. He was on track to excellence. But just like a week before graduating, Robert Tumes was expelled. Because he had gambled. He was gambling. He got caught. The scandal. Just gambling or like was he running an underground gambling ring? I don't know. Look at this man. He looks like he's doing some salacious shit. That guy looks like he'd cheat in a card game. Yeah. He's counting cards. That's actually why he got expelled. He was playing against the campus president. I'm sure he was. Yeah. So sometime kind of right before graduation, he was expelled. But he was the thing about Tumes. He was like, well, I don't like that decision. So I'm going to come back to campus and still give my speech. But he couldn't do it at graduation. So he goes and he stands beneath a massive oak tree

29:21on the property of Demosthenian Hall. And he gives a speech to whoever will listen. People gather, people listen to him. I appreciate that. Yeah. He gives a speech. I said, I love this story. I don't love Tumes. He would have to become a very controversial Confederate government official. Okay. But I do love this story because legend says that at the very moment he died on December 15, 1885, the moment he took his last breath, miles and miles, miles away from this oak tree on the University of Tortoise campus where he gave his graduation speech despite being expelled. As he took his final breath, a strike of lightning hit the oak tree and destroyed it. Okay. One, what the fuck? That's so spooky and weird and like fantastic in a way. But the tree lover and me is devastated that this old massive oak tree just got destroyed. I know. From his, it's like, why are you hurting the oak tree? The oak tree gave you platform. I think he just wanted to have one final speech goodbye.

30:22I don't know or like make it clear. Yeah. So since then, various members of the literary society, which still exists, which I think is so cool, I want to be a part of literary society. They have been reporting encounters with his ghost. People have heard pacing on the second floor, doors opening, closing on their own. More recently, there was a member who was with like others. There was like a group of three or four literary society members. They were up on the second floor, walking down the hall, went all of a sudden, all of the doors to the hallway slowly start to open simultaneously. And they pause and they're like, what the hell is happening? And within like a second, all of the doors slam shut very loudly. So spooky. And they reported that they saw a man walk through one of the doors as the doors like a slam shot. And they believe it was Robert Tunes. And there's now a platform outside where the tree once stood. We he clearly like enjoyed his time there. He's who's asked to give a speech. I'm sure he's popular around campus. He ran a gambling ring. Yeah. And I listen saying. If he's in this literary society, he loves the dramatics,

31:25which so like that makes sense that he would strike a tree. Yeah. Upon dying. Anyway, there are some various other hauntings. I'll give you like a couple small ones and then we're going to get into the sororities. Okay. So a student named William Samuel Lloyd was living in Candler Hall in 1905 and went back to his dorm with his friends. Sadly, stupidly, they were in dorm. He takes out his pistol and he's like playing around with it and he actually fired it into his lower abdomen and died in his dorm room. The building is no longer a dorm, but for many years when it was, students reported this overwhelming sensation that someone was hovering over them while they slept, like watching them sleep. Ooh, I don't like the hovering over. Yeah. Because it makes me almost think of like the depictions of like the old, old, Christmas depictions of ghosts where they're literally hovering, like they're floating over you, not just leaning over you. Yeah. The faculty who work in this building today report hearing pacing, the elevator will go up and down on its own and people kind of agree that it feels like it's a willy spirit being restless, just lingering in

32:25the building. It's not at all, but like it reminds me just enough of my favorite ghost story from L and U, which isn't a ghost story at all. But they thought that in I can't remember the name of the building, but it's the white one. It's in the like quad area. Sunkin Gardens. Yeah, it's right by Sunkin Gardens. Wait, I want to see. What is that building called? I don't know, I had so many classes there. Interactive campus map. Let's look. It's the one across from the cafeteria. Wow, what? I had my stage combat final right there. St. Robert's Hall. Yeah, St. Rob's. But in St. Rob's, it's like, yeah, it's a building with just a it's a long ass hallway, a few floors. And it's just like this easy tiled hallway or whatever. Yeah. There was a year that everyone thought that it was, it was I think a couple of years before we started there. Everyone thought that there was a ghost on campus because the security cameras kept capturing like a whoosh of someone in the middle of the night going by the cameras. It would be like a blur of someone going by and they were like, Oh my God, middle of the night every once in a while, there's a there's like a central man going by. And then finally, one of the security guards

33:32was there when it happened. And it was a local man with roller blades who after hours when like the building was shut down. No kids had classes, no one's in the building. He would just rip it down. These like slick hallways on his roller blades. Honestly, love that for him. But like that's where you choose to do it on the campus. Go to you hall. Yeah, you will be the perfect. Please. You hall's always clout. Like I feel like they lock that shit up. St. Rob's was old and open. Yeah, the stores didn't lock. No, you could break in through any window. Someone wanted to know most of them are broken. Are you speaking from experience? Well, I just it's just something I observed as someone who's you watched people break the rules. You would never do it yourself. Whenever I break out of my yoga class, I call the window. Okay. So this is another story I really love because of the crimeginly old man. So there's a story of a faculty member who lived in what it was called the lustra house. I think this building still exists. He lived there in 1903. When the campus decided to like literally pick up this building and move it over a hundred feet or so in order to make more

34:34room for the new fireproof library that they were planning to build. But this professor Charles Morris, he was like, well, no, I'm not moving out. And they're like, well, you have to. And he's what I'm not doing it. He refused to like pack up his things. He's like a squatter. He literally vicious like, well, he was like, this is my home. Like I'm not moving time itself. And they're like, buddy, we'll give you a temporary housing. Like it'll be okay. He's just like, no. And like he can move back in after they move it, right? Yeah. It's just about moving the actual space. He just would not move. He didn't want to pack up a stuff. He didn't want to do any of it. He died not too long after this. And he has remained a permanent fixture of the building. He's like, I'm still not leaving. He's so stubborn. I love that for him. And he's still just as bitter and stubborn as he was in life. People see him in the windows like he will be what like he watches. If you were to break into the doors of this building, he would alert the authorities. He stares at people through the windows. He's often spotted in a rocking chair by the fireplace and keeps an eye on thing. So anytime

35:34people try to like move things around or change up things in this building, he gets more active. He's still he walks it to be the way it was. It was his house. It was his home. I know. So I keep my room the way that I had it. Okay. And then of course, we can't talk about Han campus without talking about a haunted theater. It's the number one place. Anywhere and everywhere. What is the theater without a ghost? That's why you have the ghost night. Exactly. Oh my god. Wait, I briefly texted you about this. And it will by the time this comes out, hopefully it will have come to fruition. My friend from high school, from my theater days, shout out to Peter. He works for Broadway, doing like marketing and stuff. And he's on the marketing team for the paranormal activity, Broadway show. Yes. And he's like, we're literally building stuff for like with you and Karen in mind. Like two girls went ghost things in my house at the like event, the like opening night event where they're like, I want to know what it is. I don't know. He's inspired by I don't know. But he's like, we can't pay for travel, but like you're invited. And I was like, I'm gonna be there. I'm the inspiration. You should. Yeah.

36:36Yeah. I'm so curious what like trickery and ghostly things are gonna have going on for opening night opening night. It's me so fun. I have seen like a couple little blips of I hear it so scary and so good. Yes. And just like set design and how they do it like that it's horrifying. Yeah. Okay. So haunted theater. James Oh James wasn't James Oh James James James Oh James. Oh my gosh. That is quite the name. James Oh James was an actor who is a long lingered in this building. He specifically shows up in the play bill. Hey, what do you mean? Like the team will print the playbills and then they'll like go to like check on them in the morning. And James Oh James's name is in the play bill. He's like, don't forget about me. I'm the star of the show. I will get my credits to join Sagaftra. You cannot do not stop me. No one has put it there. And then yeah, on the day of opening night they'll open the play bill and they're his name. It's James Oh James. That is hilarious. In more recent years he has been quiet, but there are people who

37:38everyone in the theater program knows not to say his name backstage. It's kind of like the Shakespeare Macbeth thing. Wait, why can't you say his name? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Doesn't he want the stardom? It would seem like he wants the attention given that he's printing his name in the playbook. It's probably an iteration of the Macbeth legend. Whereas if you say Macbeth backstage, you personally relearned. Yeah. After forgetting that we had done all the thing on it. So now they've actually decided to start printing his name in the playbills as a good gesture to him, hoping that he won't curse the show. Oh, they're like, we don't need you to do the one he hints to. I need to give you before you realize that like I need credit in every production because I'm doing a lot of stage. You might not know what I'm doing. Please give me my credit. Yeah. And now they do. What does he credit himself as? I don't know. I tried to find pictures of James O'James in the playbills, but I couldn't find specific ones. So if you go to University of Georgia, I was also surprised. I looked at Internet inbox. If there's 45,000 students that go here, no one's emailed us from that school. Here's like signing NDAs or something. What's going on? Yeah. What is up? Why are you hiding your secrets?

38:42Yes. Stop hiding. Someone tell us about James O'James. Okay. But what James, we know you're capable of printing. Yeah. He can use the computer, but what really drew me in for this episode, were the hauntings on Greek row, which at University of Georgia is called Millage. I want to say Millage. Millage Avenue or Milleywalk. Oh, the Milleywalk. Oh, man. I just know a sunny Saturday. Oh, afternoon is so freaking fun there. Yes. I'm imagining house bunny when they're doing like the car wash outside one of my favorite movies. I wish we had like an exchange program at LMU with Greek life where like we could have just gone for like a week or something and slept over like a summer party at a different. Yeah. I just like experience what it's like to be in a Greek row. Are we too old for that? Can we be the house bunny? We would be the house mom. We would be the house mother earth journey. We would be the moms that are in charge of the curfews or whatever. But I'm a cool mom. Okay. So this is my favorite part for so many reasons. One, we were both insororities, which we talked about. I did write how ours was different. We didn't have

39:46a Greek row. Yeah. But I remember going to LMU because we'll want it with L.A. and I wanted to go to L.A. But I had just watched the show Greek right before going to college. And I so like after watching that, I was like, I want to be in her sorority so bad I want a school that has Greek life. She was using schools to that had Greek life. Well, my mom is like, you have to go to a Jesuit school. And LMU? Are you Jesuit? Well, she just wanted like the Jesuit education, like the education of a whole person. Okay. And LMU was the only Jesuit school that has Greek life. And I wanted to go to L.A. Like in everything L.A. or just I think in general. Whoa. Yeah. That's kind of crazy. I didn't know that. Yeah. At least when we were applying to colleges, I don't know if that's changed. But yeah. Wow. So fascinating. Yeah. No, I had no plans to do Greek life at all. It was in a consideration. But then everyone first semester, like all of our friends decided to rush. So I was like, okay, I guess I will too. So I'm not going to be left out. Yeah. Well, the one thing we missed out, but I think is a good thing. Like we talked about is that we didn't have to like go back or go to school a week before and just immediately get thrown into the chaos. Yeah.

40:48Greek recruitment and sorority rush. But that's what it's like in the south, especially in these big schools. It's chaos. You show up the week before knowing nobody at all and you go through a recruitment. Millage Avenue is stunning. There are dozens of grand mansions set back behind sweeping front lawns, think white columns or neat iron railings, ancient magnolia trees. It feels like a time machine. It is the heart of Greek life at UGA lined with sorority and fraternity houses that have been home to students of many generations. And I'm sure many, if not all of them are haunted, but I'm going to tell you about two sorority houses each with their own tragic pills. Also, I wanted to talk about the history of the women at UGA. So for 133 years, University of Georgia was an all male university. Women weren't officially admitted into the school until 1918. And then even then it was extremely difficult to get admitted. And then if admitted, women were only allowed to enroll in home economics or education majors. And they also had different stricter rules. They had an 11 p.m. curfew. They needed to get permission to leave

41:52the campus or ride to town in a car. And every day was regulated. Actually in a twist of things, a woman named Mary Lyndon was the first woman to actually earn any degree from the University of Georgia. She earned a master's in 1914. But women weren't allowed to be admitted into the school until 1918. How should you do it? I don't know. She also helped organize five new sorority, which is the first sorority at the University of Georgia in 1924 before she died of pneumonia. And five new is where we're going to start our story. I wish I knew like the hand signals. I want to throw them up. I know. I know. Well, did I tell you when I joined theta? I thought they were all doing moustaches, but they were doing. So there's quite a few photos. You can default here. Yeah, the kite. Yeah, the kite. What are you doing? A alfafi and a teddy bear. Okay. Fineew is located at 250 South Millage Avenue. And it is a stunning historic home with intricate black cast iron railings sweeping double curved front staircase all in a very southern looking home. It's just like,

42:54it's so wild to me that it just looks like someone's house like a giant mansion. Yes, it is. Here, I'll show you. And there's a couple pictures of the interior. Damn. It's like pristine, even the lighting-fick light fixtures are beautiful. Yeah. Okay. So this house was built in 1858 by Colonel Thomas Napier Hamilton, who apparently was George's very first millionaire. And he saw that the very first bathtub in the city would be added into his home. I already appreciate this guy. Love a bathtub. Love a bathtub. Unfortunately, though, the Colonel died before the house was ever completed. So his widow, Sarah Hamilton, saw the completion of the home and then moved in heartbroken. God, I just feel like this is a story that happens so often in history. It's like so many man builds mansion dies and now widow and all their children and has to like wait for it to be finished and live there. But what I like though about this is that from the very beginning, this house has been for the girls. For the girls, baby. Sarah moved in with her daughters.

43:54And the home stayed in the family for some time before being sold and passed through various other families. The history of the home is so significant. It was designated a historic landmark in 1991. Can you imagine being in college, living in a home that's like a historic landmark? It's like I'm sure people don't think about this because you're so young when you're in college. But like now I'd feel the pressure to make sure nothing that's what house mom at us goes wrong in the house. I don't don't like don't break anything. Don't break anything. Don't breathe. Right. Okay, but the history here is actually really, really upsetting. So like I said, the Colonel built this house. But apparently he also built a house right next door because he had two daughters. So his plan was that one of the daughters put in here at this house and the other daughter would inherit the other house and they would be able to live next door to each other. Oh, I love that. But beautiful. That's a wonderful thought, Dad. Rumor also says that he connected these houses via tunnel. Oh, Hell yes. Which is art. He like took their like four-year-old drawing of like bringing them next to each other. We're going to be connected by tunnel in our houses. They're going to be coconut. It was like, oh, I'll make it reality for you girls. That's my dream.

44:55Art dream. I heard about it. I love it. But that's never been confirmed. So Sarah Hamilton raised her children and eventually Anna, although some articles called her Hannah, when she grew up, she decided to move in next door. She was engaged. She was set to be married soon. So she was ready to start her own life. And like, this was the time to move into the other house tragically though. One act. Sorry. I can't pay attention at all because now my brain has completely gone to us. I think that house with underground. The tunnel connecting us. And I was just like picture. It's this like old ancient chamber now, like the stones and it's all archway. And it's lit by the candlelight. And whenever we record, we just go down there. And that's our we recorded in the chamber. Yes. Why do I well now I'm picturing like where they torture people and dungeons. But that's kind of our and I'm like, kind of upset now that we don't have that. That's not what we have. There is still time. We can make it. We can take a tunnel, post into Salem. Okay. Pivoting to the tragedy here. Sadly, and tragically, one afternoon, apparently Anna or Hannah's fiance was brutally murdered by his own

45:59family. And I was trying to find all the details here. They're really, really vague. It's hard to validate, but it is said that Anna's fiance's body was buried beneath the steps of the house that is now the five new sorority house. By who? It's not clear. Yeah. The purpose. Why not clear? We're not certain. And this is like in a romantic way where it's like every time I come home, I'm I want to keep him here. Yeah. Yeah. Like I don't know. It's so sad. You're my home and I come home to you. And like you lead me into I don't know. I'm not sure. A little creepy because then you're also like walking on his grave. Which is supposed to be bad. Oh, man. And like moving on with your life. Well, Anna never did. Unfortunately, she moved back into this house that her dad had built for her family. And apparently was driven mad by the grief and horror. And she basically lived like hold up in this house until she passed away. But it is said that she has never left those who now live in this sorority house, the five new, they report hearing knocking in empty rooms. They'll hear sobbing and hallways. People have seen some really strange things. One sorority sister got

47:03locked out of the house and was like trying to get in. And she watched the lock turn by unseen hands opening up for her, which is great. A great haunting. But she was very like, I'm sorry, but how did that happen? Hello. A lot of people in the sorority house have tried to communicate with Anna by using a Ouija port. But I couldn't find specific stories. And that's why I do that, too. That's why I would email us. Yeah. Oh, wait, that's so sad. So, yeah, so, you got to contact your originals this time. Yeah. But like it makes me feel bad for her because she clearly is so heartbroken. But like, yeah, I was, she's in the perfect place to have a little fun. Well, and every report has seemed to say that the spirit is very helpful to the girls who live in the house now. That's good. Yeah. Like she likes being with the girls. Did you know 89% of dog parents consider their dog their best friend? So, safe to say people are obsessed with their pets. And if anyone gets being obsessed with dogs, it's Oli. They deliver fresh human-grade food and vibe, drool-worthy flavors. My brother's dog, Jackson, has a really

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50:11in her own systems. Yeah, everyone we love dies. It's not great for the tender fire. Sandra Bullock. Here's the thing about magic. It won't be silenced. Nicole Kidman. Everything's going to be okay. Maybe it's going to be okay? Just like it was when we had to bury a corpse under a roast bush? Different. Different. The practical magic too. Read PG-13. Maybe an appropriate for children under 13 only in theaters of 10th. Okay, so just down the road, there is another story house that is equally as haunted with an equally as devastating backstory. This is the Alpha Gamma Delta House. And this one looks like that. It is located at 530 South Millage Avenue and it is stunning. It is 7,000 square feet with ionic columns or Nate Garland's stained glass windows, Tiffany Beveled doors. It is even featured or it was featured 18 year olds living in nice and long until you see the photos. It was featured in Cosmos Top 20 most beautiful sorority houses. I'll put the link in the show notes but I'm going to add a couple photos in the actual video.

51:13Look at this. Oh my god. It is stunning. I dream. I dream. Yeah, it's so well decorated. It is so beautiful. It's gorgeous. I can't even imagine the do's to be a part of the sorority house. Oh yeah, that's true. I forgot about this. Okay, this house was officially called the Thomas Carre thers house but everyone in Athens calls it the Wedding Cake House. I can kind of see that. Well, it looks like a wedding cake and then it was gifted as an engagement gift. Oh, was it? It kind of looks like the White House too. It does look like a white house. Like the pillars, the levels, the white fluffiness to it all. So it was built in 1896 by William Winstead Thomas, who was a businessman, architect and civic leader in Athens. And he actually designed the official map of Athens in 1874. Thank you. He was one of the most prominent men in Athens and he designed this home as an engagement gift for his daughter. It was a wedding present. All these guys back in the day just building houses and giving out other daughters. My dad does left. It doesn't always happen for us today. My dad just keeps having kids and doesn't have enough

52:17money to buy us all houses. Sad. Okay, but even more sad on the wedding day, this woman's fiance never showed. She waited and waited hours past and it became clear he was not coming. Or so she thought. Tragically, after waiting for hours, this young girl went to the attic of the home and died by suicide. Not an hour later, her fiance arrived. But he had been delayed. He was never planning to abandon her. This is so sad. And this is also, I feel like this story comes up so often with old hauntings where it's like, I know someone doesn't show and there's just extreme heartbreak and the other person ends up dying very quickly after. But like it makes me, I feel like this is the first time I've ever thought like, well, what is actually happening in the community and society that would make someone do that when they're stood up from a wedding? Like why is it so impossible to be alone? I don't know. I'm especially be sure to try to figure that out right now. Also thinking about the time, like, how long did they actually know each other?

53:17Probably didn't. This is the first meeting. No, it's very sad and tragic. And I can't even imagine losing your daughter like that. But kind of reminds me of the board and sisters too. It's just like, you know, they have this reputation of being murderers and all of this stuff. One really half of it was just because they were 30 and single. And single. Yeah. Society has historically been terrible to women. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Okay. So William Win said Thomas, he was the father who built this house, died in 1904. And his widow leased the house before eventually selling it to another family. Then in 1913, it was purchased by James Yancy Carothers, which is like red that Thomas Carothers house came from when he died, his widow held on the property until 1939 when Alpha Gamma Delta purchased it from her directly. So this house passed through a lot of powerful families and Athens over those four decades. And through it all, whatever heartbreaking energy that was left in the attic stayed there lingering for years to come even till today. So in 1939, Alpha Gamma Delta

54:18sorting moved in. And almost immediately, the women of the sorority began to notice things. Doors opening and closing on their own, faucets turning on by themselves, lights flickering for no reason. And the sound of a chair being tried across the floor in the attic. But it also like reminds me of like the moments before death. Yeah. The antique piano in the parlor plays by itself. Oh, I like that. Yeah. I like what does it play? I'm not sure. Sometimes when people walk past the house late at night, they'll look up the attic window and which no one lives in the attic, but they'll see a woman standing looking out in the attic window, probably this woman. The girls of Alpha Gamma Delta have given the spirit the name Susie. Although I found in one article that her real name was Isabel. So I don't know where Susie came from, but she's not considered a scary ghost. And in fact, she's a helpful ghost. And the room that she lived in is actually now called the engagement suite. And legend says that every single girl who lives in this room gets engaged before she graduates from University of Georgia. That's wild. Yeah. And like, not that's what every woman wants,

55:23but some of the students here want that. Yeah. It's also the South's right. And it's a huge school. So I'm sure there's plenty of people that are looking for that. I'd be looking for the MRS to give me that one. Yeah. No. Whoa. But yeah, that's kind of because at first, I was like, oh gosh, it feels like kind of a mocking thing to no, she reminds her of all that. No, I think the the idea is that Susie makes it happen. Like she wants everyone to get the happy ending that she didn't have. There was an Alpha Gamma Delta member named Kaelin who said her friend woke up in the middle of the night and thought she saw Susie standing there, just like staring. There also, like, dozens of other first-hand encounters, but I couldn't find a ton. But overall, they do seem positive. Yeah. So those are the 200 sororities, like most haunted on campus. The point here is that the University of Georgia has plenty of hauntings. And they don't actually shy away from it, which was surprising to me. Also, even more surprising that we don't have any emails in our inbox. Right. There are multiple organizations on campus that lean into it. The Student Alumni Association has an annual ghost tour on North Campus every October. Oh, I love that. It's called

56:26Nightmare on Broad Street. And it's been running for the last 10 years and led by students in costume and they'll like take you through the ghost stories. That's so fun. Then every campus should have that. I agree. They're all haunted. Absolutely. Then the University's own historians, lead a walking tour during Halloween season two. It's harder to book, but it's very like historical and like factual, whereas the student one is probably a little bit more urban legend to add to myths. And the Athens haunted history walking tour also hosts a two-hour walking tour at Athens, like the whole city at large. But it does go through campus and it covers some of the hauntings there. It runs all year round. But then during September and October, it runs every night. Tourists start at 8 p.m. and it costs $24 per person. Yeah. So there's plenty. There's so many to choose from. To choose from. I would do all of them. We got to get stories from everyone. Because that's also the thing was when you go on different ghost tours, the tour guides are all different. They have their own personal stories. You got to get the right one. They're going to share your photos on their own phone from like some of the stories they've done in the past. That's

57:28always cool. Yeah. But yeah, that's the very haunted University of Georgia. Dang, so haunted. So many different types of hauntings. It's not a huge university too. Go dogs. Go dogs. Well, and not to hope anything tragic or horrific happens to anyone. I certainly don't hope that. But like the stories you're telling are from 100 plus years ago. It makes me curious in like 200 more years of this university being around where it's like, oh, there's some of my hauntings will come next. Nicole and she's obsessed with Kesha or whatever. You know, like, okay, Nicole, stop trying to be me. Like Kesha, this one girl's face will come in the mirror. That is a haunting. I will. I will follow through it on the other side. Okay. So we don't have a university of Georgia, but we have a story from a haunted college. And it's called the ghost of Willemina. Willemina. Willemina. I kind of love that name. I know. I love it too. It also just reminds me of the modeling agency in New York City. What's that? It's called Willemina. Yeah. Isn't that like one of the big ones? I don't know. I don't know anything about Willemina modeling agency. Is that from

58:32next top model? No, I think that's exactly where it is. I feel like that's why it's the only name I know. So funny. So it has to be from that show. I need to look it up. Willemina models. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Never heard of it. Oh, well, I guess I watched enough like two. I'll see when I was going to. Okay. Hey, Witchie, babe. It's my name is Emily. My husband James and I are huge fans. We listen and watch the podcast almost every day together. Love that. We met in college where this story takes place at a small Christian private school in the suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota. I was initially attracted to the campus because of its beautiful grounds and its historic buildings. The college itself is made of five large main buildings. They're all situated in a circle and then there's a large green field in the middle where you can find all the students playing frisbee, having picnics, doing homework, the quad for Elimia. Thank you, gardens. Same thing. I remember specifically one time because did you know that there was like there were cameras around Elimia? You're just like a couple. Yeah, of course. They got their eyes on it. Well, it was like, you could livestream from the campus. They were like live stream cameras. Oh, I didn't know that.

59:36So like if you were on Elimia's website, you could look at them. You could like, in one of them with sunken gardens. And so like my parents would check everyone's while they'd be like, have fun. And she'd be like, oh, it looks like it's overcast. Oh my god, what a great sunny day or whatever. Doesn't that feel questionable? Have access to. Right now I want to see it. Yeah, but they're really far away. It's like, it's like, there's so many of them all around the world where it's like you can watch a popular beach pier or whatever. It's not like close up. You're not watching these spaces go by. It's like a bird's eye area. Well, no, I want to see if they still have it. But I remember one time, texting my mom being a guy in sunken gardens tanning. And then she was like, oh, yeah, I see you. At least you pulled it up to see. Waves, say hi to mom. Okay, so another reason I love the school is that it's situated on a lake with an island. Oh my god, that sounds so pretty. That sounds very, very pretty. When I took my initial tour, we walked to the far end of campus to an along path that led to a bridge. Across the bridge was this island where there is a small swimming beach, sand, volleyball, net, and a pond fire pit. Whoa. Maybe I want to go back to college and go here. It sounds so nice. And if you could do it again, also on the island was

1:00:41a large hill. And at the very top of that hill was a small chapel, kind of eerie, but also beautiful. Each with the elements of nature and adorant with cobwebs stained glass windows, I started to imagine making friends and hanging out here in the fall. In time, the island would give many more different memories. I later learned that this chapel on the hill was a tomb. And it once carried the remains of a woman named Willamina Kulba. During my freshman year, I got an on-campus job sorting mail. During slow shifts, I had a lot of philosophical conversations with my manager, Joey, who had worked on the campus for decades. One day, I asked Joey if he believed in ghosts. And he replied, you haven't heard of Willamina yet? Joey. He then proceeded to tell me the lore of the campus ghost. Willamina was an ares who lived in the late 1800s and died sometime in the 1930s. She helped fund the construction of the small shrine chapel that sits on the island's hill. She drowned in Lake Michigan at the age of 62. And the chapel game to be her final resting place where her remains

1:01:42were buried in 1933 per her wishes. Oh, I love that. Her name is still inscribed in the inside walls of the crypt. Fast forward to 1970 when my college bought the property. They exhumed her body and moved her remains to a different location. That's not what she wanted. That would piss her off. Apparently, ever since, there have been very creepy sightings and weird encounters all over campus. She's pissed. Yeah. Enter all who say fuck around and find out. I mean, seriously, you think you can just dig up a woman in a crypt with her name on it and think nothing will happen. I would haunt that place too. I will say like the one thing about me is don't disrupt my sleep. And I feel like that also goes to my dad. You know what? I don't wish being a ghost upon you. I wish being like a, a zombie. I feel like that would be cool. Okay. Because you get the moment like the, the moment of fear where like someone disrupts you and you get the full. Oh, like, breaking my, my like a, eat your brains type of zombie. Or can I be like a vampire zombie? No, you're like a vampire zombie.

1:02:45Okay. I'm on board for that. Yeah. I like don't wake the dead. To wake the dead. It's very widow's bay. Oh, I just really love that show. That's so good. Okay. After Joey finished telling me the story, I asked him how many people knew about Wilhelmina. And he said most of the staff members and professor and professors on campus have either heard of Wilhelmina or have their own stories to share about her. So I decided from that day forward, I'm going to start interviewing people to compile witness Emily. So awesome. We love you. Joey was very quick to inform me that there was already a mini documentary online of someone who beat me to it. And she does share the link. It's a video on Vimeo from 2010. Oh, love. Being that there was already documentation of the ghost Wilhelmina. I wanted to experience something for myself. And that I did. My husband and I were part of the same friend group who to our surprise were more than willing to tag along. Good friends. Yes. We were also fascinated by this new information. A campus ghost. So we decided to meet near the path to the island late one night, probably around midnight. There were 10 of us who showed up and we were

1:03:49all aware of Wilhelmina's story, a lore of her spirit. And we were also aware that there were a lot of sightings of her on or near the island. In the dark of night, we used our phone flashlights and we walked across the bridge and up the hill to the spooky little chapel. The moon was bright. Tension was high. And we didn't really know what to expect. One of our friends Tyler started using his phone to record and take photos. After standing around and enticing something or someone to make their presence known, we very quickly got spooked and started running back to the bridge. Really happened. Something. When you're playing hide and seek and you're waiting for someone to find you and you get like giddy and nervous and excited. As we were walking back to the park, someone jokingly suggested that we should go inside of the main chapel called Nazareth Hall to explore. And you know, the chapel's not even named after Wilhelmina. I guess that's so cruel. So yeah, keep this spooky vibes going or whatever. Something to note about the campus is that the five main buildings are interconnected through underground tunnels. Did you have got through the

1:04:51tunnels in Elmia, which ones, the ones that we were actually like allowed to do on a guided tour or the ones that you have to do the like the fraternity ones that they did. No, I never did it either. The crawl space. They did. Like I remember, say, Mika, I did a pledge activity called the Shawshank Redemption. And they would late at night find the tunnel and like crawl through them. It's like a there's grounds like grass and dirt above you and giant spiders. Yeah. That one I did not do. I just did like the actual guided like you're underneath some of the buildings. Which those apparently are senior year you could do that and like write your name on the wall. And I didn't do it. No, I don't know why. Oh yeah, sad. Oh, it's a bummer because there were but well there were a bunch of different tours that you could sign up for. And I didn't do. You didn't do any. I think I maybe did like one or two, but like no, I didn't really do them. Oh, I don't know what I was doing. I don't know what you're doing. Getting drunk. I don't know. I did. I'm well, I also I feel like the knowing you could write like a note was incentive for me to sign up for that because then I wrote a

1:05:51note to my brother because I knew he was going out. Oh, that's cute. So that one heat four years later, he would see it. See it. That's so cute. He did. Very cute. Okay. So the five main buildings are interconnected through underground tunnels. I only learned about the tunnels after my first semester, but I didn't use them unless I had to wait. Whoa, they were actually use them. Which probably nice if it's cold. Yeah. That's pretty sick. Yeah. So I didn't use them unless I had to because they gave me the hibi jibis. And when I said had to, it's because well, Minnesota winters could be quite brutal. And those tunnels definitely came in handy when you needed to get to class and not freeze your ass off the tunnels lead to the basement of each building. And in those basements were some offices, some classrooms, the theater department, storage closets. And now the basement of Nazareth Hall was known to be a hot spot for activity. Naz was the original building. And it was built on this land more than a century ago. People have reported hearing footsteps, seeing apparitions, never really feeling alone, if you know what I mean. And as we're walking around in darkness, a few of us tumble

1:06:51across an art studio held for painting and pottery classes. It was at this point in the group that we started to kind of spread out into little groups. And the back of the art studio was a door that led to some random stairwell with spiral stairs going up and it led to a wooden door. Immediately upon entering the room with the bottom of the staircase, the air became cold, like a sea of breath in the air cold. It was obvious that this stairwell had been abandoned a long time ago. There were spiderwebs everywhere, broken glass here and there graffiti on the walls. It felt a wave of chills through every inch of my body. And we all wondered what was behind that door at the top of the staircase. Sounds like a stairwell to nowhere. Right. And it has been James and our friends Steve were brave enough to start to ascend and see if the door could be open. I'm getting such severe chills. I felt a wave of chills touch every inch of my body. That's what's happening to me right now. I waited at the bottom, though at this point, I'm wishing I hadn't because I really started to get the grapes. Once at the top, James tried to open the door. It was locked. Steve tried, locked.

1:07:57And at this point, they turned around and defeat and started coming down. When suddenly three huge bangs come from the other side of the door. We all froze. Who's there? Yo, Steve in the direction of the door. And then again, three loud bangs. A loud female whale. But not really so human. None of us reminds me of what's the Airbnb movie. Oh, barbarian. Barbarian. With like the tunnels. I tried to figure out how to do that as a Halloween costume, but the prosthetics alone. Yeah. I feel like you kind of almost did it with a golem. Yeah. I almost said, wait, no, you wish me goals. Okay. None of us had ever run so fast in our lives. And we ran across the green fields across a few parking lots. We did not stop until we were all back in the safety of our dorms. And I did not get any sleep that night or for days afterwards. The next morning, Tyler showed us some photos he'd taken that night on the island. And in one of them, you could see a fuzzy white

1:09:01orb that no one could explain away. It was genuinely the scariest thing James and I have ever experienced. And since then, I think we're maybe trauma bonded. My nears later. And we still sometimes run menace about college in that one fateful night when we met the spirit of Willemina, Francis Coolbaugh. See you on the other side. Well, I'm not surprised that Willemina is haunting that campus. No, I would too if I were Willemina. Oh, absolutely. Pist the heck off. The one request to be buried at the chapel and your body is literally zoomed and moved relocated. Put it in another thing that's interesting about the afterlife. Because if you think about like people getting the proper burials that they want for themselves or like within their culture or whatever, you think, okay, their spirit's at peace. But then, you know, a hundred years later, someone could come across that site and disrupt it. And it's like, where do the spirits go? Are some of them already reincarnated? Some of them not care? Or are some of them like, I have been awoken? Right. I don't know. I don't know either. Creepy. So many college

1:10:02campuses. So many haunted dorm rooms. So many bits of lore. So please email us if you have a story. Anything goes. So it doesn't just have to be from college. But if you have encounters with the paranormal. Yeah. And also if you went to University of Georgia, we want to hear from you because 49,000 students, I guarantee there's at least one of you who would tend to the school or worked there who's listening to this podcast right now. So yeah. Or if you know someone who went there, send this episode to them and then have them let us know what happened. Our emails, two girls, one guest podcasted Gmail.com. You can find it in the show notes. You can find out. So I mean, you can find it on our website. And also if you want episodes one week early and add free plus bonus content, plus which class and book club, plus we do every week. We have campfire stories where you can come and share your ghost story with us live on zoom. You can do that on Patreon. It's so much fun over there. It's a great little community. Also please tell your friends and your family about our podcast and strangers or any like find and excuse to be weird and tell them about our podcast because it that's how we grow and that's how we find.

1:11:05Yeah. Find new victims. Because if people are doing it on the paranormal activity Broadway set, you can be doing it. You should be doing it too. On the subway. Anyway, to taste test New York versus New Jersey bagels. As you're ordering a Jersey Mike sandwich. Tell the sandwich maker about two girls, one goes. Yeah. There's literally no reason not to. I'm promoting it on dating apps. So you guys can do it. If I don't find a boyfriend or a husband at least I'm telling everyone about two girls, one goes, it's guerrilla marketing. And thank you to Jamie Ryan who edits and produces our podcast. We love you all very, very much. And we will see you on the other side. Go dogs. On September 10th, I've waited such a long time for this. She has. Prepare to be bewitched. Yeah, everyone we love dies. It's not great for the tender fire. Sandra Bullock. Here's the thing about magic. It won't be silenced. Nicole Kidman. Everything's

1:12:09going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay. Just like it was when we had to bury a corpse under a roast bush. Different. Different. The practical magic too. Ready PG 13. Maybe an appropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters on September 10th.