Haunted Getaways: West Virginia Edition!

Summary

Morbid Podcast

Haunted Getaways: West Virginia Edition!

Hosts: Ash Kelley & Alaina Urquhart
Date: March 30, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Ash and Alaina take listeners on a “lighthearted nightmare” tour of some of West Virginia’s most haunted getaways—one chilling true crime tragedy at the infamous Cabin 13 in Babcock State Park, followed by ghostly happenings at the historic Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg. Delivering their signature blend of creepy research, candid banter, and gallows humor, the hosts explore tales of murder, restless spirits, and even a few quirky hauntings, perfect for fans craving a double dose of real-life terror and the supernatural.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

Opening Banter (01:24–07:37)

• Ash and Alaina catch up: Playful confusion about who introduces the show, jokes about slipping into dimensions, and updates about Elena’s books and Ash mastering TikTok.
• Shout-outs: Elena discusses her PR box from Patricia Cornwell’s Scarpetta series and shares excitement about their upcoming Radio City Music Hall show (06:00).
• Theme Reveal: Both hosts felt the itch for spookiness and dedicated the episode to haunted West Virginia tales—Alaina focusing on true crime, Ash on classic hauntings.

“We were craving a spooky ookie episode.” – Ash (07:41)

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Segment 1: True Crime & Hauntings at Babcock State Park’s Cabin 13

Speaker: Alaina (10:00–33:19)

[Cabin 13: The Setting and Legend]

• Cabin 13 is the last in a row of secluded cabins at Babcock State Park, infamous for its isolation and dark history.

[The Murder of Cheryl Flippo] (11:48–27:44)

• 1996: Cheryl Flippo, wife of Reverend James Michael Flippo, is brutally murdered in Cabin 13.
• Backstory: The couple appeared happy but endured years of stalking via anonymous, threatening notes (ultimately revealed to be sent by James himself).
• Days before, Reverend Flippo baptizes a friend, Joel Boges, in the park; borrows Joel’s red Camaro for a “romantic” getaway to Cabin 13.
• The Crime: At 2:11am, Flippo calls 911, claiming he and Cheryl were attacked by a masked intruder; Cheryl is found dead with her skull crushed, and James has only minor self-inflicted injuries.
• Investigation Red Flags:
  • No forced entry or muddy footprints despite recent rain.
  • Implausible claims about an assailant wearing a “toboggan” (leading to humorous banter about the word).
  • Inconsistencies in statements and weak injury evidence.
  • $100,000 life insurance policy taken out less than 30 days prior.
  • James is revealed to be financially unstable, a thief, and possibly engaged in extramarital affairs.
  • Evidence planted clumsily: only his fingerprints on duct tape, his cell phone found burned in the fireplace, blood stains staged.
  • The borrowed car is found at the scene though he denies knowledge.

“Why would a killer just sit on top of you and cut your legs?” – Ash (26:05)

• Conviction: Life without parole; his case shapes a Supreme Court ruling about search times at crime scenes.

[Hauntings Linked to Cabin 13] (29:40–33:19)

• Unmistakably eerie atmosphere; “the hollow around cabin 13 falls silent, like they’ve entered a void.” (31:22)
• Sightings of a woman in a nightgown staring from the window or wandering the woods—always mournful.
• Sounds of struggle, residual noises of fights, unexplained sobbing at night.
• Guests report waking to shadow figures lingering at the foot of the bed, being shaken awake, or hearing an unintelligible female voice pleading for help.

“People say they see a woman standing in the window when the cabin is vacant… she just stares outside.” – Alaina (30:11)

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Segment 2: Old World Hauntings at the Blennerhassett Hotel

Speaker: Ash (33:19–57:36)

[History & Opulence of the Blennerhassett Hotel] (33:30–42:54)

• Opened 1889, Queen Anne–style luxury, steam heating, elevators, intricate architecture; named for Irish aristocrats Harmon and Margaret Blennerhassett (who were, scandalously, uncle and niece).
• Historic stays, including JFK in 1960.

“He said, I’m not building a hotel, I’m building the hotel. And I respect that.” – Ash (34:53)

[Haunted Hotspots] (44:02–57:36)

• Suite 409: “The Most Haunted Room in WV”

  • Site of the “man in the bowler hat”: a solid figure in early 20th-century business garb. Most guests see him silently, but one woman was reportedly held down by the neck.
  • Other spirits include the probable presence of hotel founder Colonel William Chancellor, often detected via the smell or sight of cigar smoke.
  • During renovations, Chancellor’s displaced portrait seemed to disturb the supernatural peace; staff experienced ghostly figures and heard declarations like “I was here first.”

• Paranormal Parties

  • Guests in or near 409 often awaken to raucous, Gatsby-style phantom parties; one guest learned he was alone on the floor despite the noise.
  • Unexplained movement of furniture and rearranged place settings in the ballroom.

• The “Woman in White”

  • Sighted on the second floor—1920s–style white dress and cap, always accompanied by the scent of lavender.
  • She sometimes holds elevator doors open, but vanishes as soon as anyone approaches.

• Child Spirits

  • Pranks on maids (toilet paper spinning, children’s footprints on beds).
  • Disembodied children’s voices sing “Jingle Bells” during holidays—an unsettling highlight for Ash.

“Here I am like, this man in a bowler hat is just, like, materializing in your room, sometimes choking you, and I’m like, the kids thing is a little unsettling. I hate that.” – Alaina (55:08)

• Other Entities
  • Ghostly sea captain or possibly Harmon Blennerhassett seen in mirrors.
  • Library haunted by residual screams (possibly from a tragic accident at the building’s earlier incarnation as a bank).
  • “Howdy, fellas!” — A cracking female voice once came through the ballroom microphone, believed to be a local madam making the afterlife fun.

“That’s what you should do with your afterlife. You should jump onto microphones and be like, ‘Howdy, fellas.’” – Alaina (56:26)

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Notable & Memorable Quotes

• “Sometimes the right decision is right in front of you. All you have to do is trust your gut.” – Ash (00:42)
• “It just makes me think of Hannibal Lecter saying to Clarice Starling, ‘Your accent, which you try so hard to shed, is pure West Virginia.’” – Elena (08:39)
• “Dude, is that your car? …And James Flippo was like, ‘No, that’s not my car.’” – Alaina (15:44)
• “No forced entry, no evidence of anyone else being there, and things that were even put in strange places, like they were trying to make it look like a scene.” – Alaina (24:08)
• “The whole hollow around cabin 13… just falls silent, like they’ve entered a void.” – Alaina (31:22)
• “If you go to the Blennerhassett and you see a man walking down the hallway in a nice suit smoking a cigar, he’s a ghost and he was there first.” – Ash (48:07)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [07:37] – Switch to main content, preview of each host’s story
• [10:00] – Start of Cabin 13 / Cheryl Flippo segment (true crime + hauntings)
• [29:40] – Discussion of Cabin 13 ghostly activity
• [33:19] – Ash begins Blennerhassett Hotel segment
• [44:07] – Suite 409 and its hauntings (“man in the bowler hat”)
• [48:22] – Great Gatsby–style phantom parties
• [49:30] – The “woman in white” and the haunted elevator
• [51:34] – The haunted library and its tragic history
• [54:00] – Disembodied children’s voices and haunting pranks
• [55:36] – Ballrooms and the “Howdy, fellas” ghostly microphone moment

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Episode Tone & Takeaways

The episode perfectly balanced dark, real-life horror (the brutal murder case and subsequent haunting) with the gleeful weirdness and wit listeners expect from Morbid. No matter how grisly or bizarre, Ash and Alaina inject levity, empathy, and skeptical curiosity into every ghost story and true crime case. The show offers both a chilling exploration for haunted travel dreamers and an affectionate roast of America’s spookiest getaways.

Final Note:
Stay weird, but “not so weird that in your afterlife you don’t just yell, ‘Howdy, fellas!’” – The Morbid Team (58:06)

Transcript

[Ash]

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[Pandora Jewelry Announcer]

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[Elena]

I'm Elena.

[Ash]

I'm Ash.

[Elena]

And this is morbid.

[Ash]

I wasn't expecting you to say that. The first part.

[Elena]

And I feel like I haven't started in a while.

[Ash]

I know we used to switch off every episode, but now it's like impossible to figure out who did the last one. But I was looking down and I went to say it and then it felt like your voice came out of my mouth.

[Elena]

I was like, hello. Like, what's happening?

[Ash]

I was like, am I in a. Am I in the sixth dimension?

[Elena]

Yeah, you are.

[Ash]

Just so you know, this is not the six dimension.

[Elena]

This is.

[Ash]

I think this is like the first one or some shit.

[Elena]

This is a dimension that I would like to escape. Yeah, I don't. I don't want to visit it again.

[Ash]

Yeah, our lives are cool.

[Elena]

Like, personally, I like my life, like pretty rad.

[Ash]

I just hate the things happening around us.

[Elena]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not great.

[Ash]

No, it's really bad.

[Elena]

But.

[Ash]

But let's not bring you all the way down.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Let's tell you about a cool opportunity for you.

[Elena]

Yeah, right. What is that cool opportunity?

[Ash]

They can buy your book in the uk, I was like, mama, we just talked about this.

[Elena]

I was like, wait, they have an opportunity. What is it?

[Ash]

We literally were like, okay, like, what do we have at the top of the show? She's like, okay, my uk. But I'm like, a cool opportunity for you guys. This is a cool opportunity.

[Elena]

I don't know why I didn't think of it that way.

[Ash]

It's the morning.

[Elena]

It is. It's the morning. I haven't had enough coffee, but uk, wonderful. Baby Face Magooches, period. You can buy. You can pre order the Butcher Legacy.

[Ash]

What? What?

[Elena]

And the Butcher game.

[Ash]

And you can buy the Butcher game now. Hell yeah. That's cool. Because you get it. Haven't been able to.

[Elena]

Now you can. So you can get both of the. Now you can get all three. You can pre order the Butcher game. You can pre order the Butcher Legacy. It's going to be awesome. I'm going to try my very hardest to get some. Something signed over to you. Trust me, that's top, top, top of the morning. On my mind today is getting. Making sure I get something signed.

[Ash]

Things are happening in group text messages.

[Elena]

Yeah. I'm looking at stickers all kinds of just to make it happen. So I pro. I'm trying to. And yeah, so that's really rad because I love you guys.

[Ash]

She loves you guys.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

For me, my business is just that. I figured out how to use TikTok

[Elena]

appropriately, which is a big deal.

[Ash]

I figured out how to edit, like, legitimate videos and make them funny.

[Elena]

Yeah. So it's a good job.

[Ash]

It's over for you people.

[Elena]

It is. It's over for every bitch.

[Ash]

I feel like every single bitch. I feel like I unlocked a new skill. And I also feel like, you know, like, when your grandma figures out Facebook and she just, like, won't stop posting. Yep, that's me now.

[Elena]

I'm really excited about that.

[Ash]

Yeah, I'm excited, too.

[Elena]

I'm excited that you're just going to keep going.

[Ash]

I'm now your grandma.

[Elena]

Yeah. Hell yeah, you are. Party as you should be.

[Ash]

Just going to insert my queen Big Ang into every video that I can. My green velvet glasses.

[Elena]

She already did.

[Ash]

Got to have them. Yeah, you got to see.

[Elena]

You got to see. I love her because. Yeah, I got the. I was super, super fortunate to get a PR box for the new Scarpetta show because my entire life, I've loved K. Scarpetta and Patricia Cornwell and what a dream.

[Ash]

That was one of the coolest PR boxes that I've ever seen.

[Elena]

I always See, people get PR boxes for cool TV shows and like movies. And I'm always like, I want one of those.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

And then like, usually I don't get them. No. But like a lot of them, I'm

[Ash]

like, that's so cool.

[Elena]

I think this one, I saw it and I was like, I will die if I don't get that.

[Ash]

Yeah. And honestly, Patricia Cornwell's team is so nice. They like went out of their way to send one.

[Elena]

Yeah, they are the best.

[Ash]

But I think now that we posted one, maybe we'll get more pr.

[Elena]

I hope so, because I'll. I'll post them.

[Ash]

We'll post videos. You guys, I can edit them now.

[Elena]

Yeah, I. Exactly.

[Ash]

Elena can open the boxes and.

[Elena]

And I almost called you your aunt name. And Ash will edit them.

[Ash]

Incredible. And TT will edit.

[Elena]

I was thinking TT is gonna edit

[Ash]

them the amount of times that happens. Or you'll just call me.

[Elena]

Well, I call you Love a lot.

[Ash]

Because she calls her kids that. So it's just like a vocal stim. I think I do that.

[Elena]

It's. I might call one of you Love. Who knows what Love. It might happen.

[Ash]

John did that the other day. I think I was like, what?

[Elena]

You're like, what? Sorry.

[Ash]

He's like, I can do that love.

[Elena]

Yeah, it's okay. I can do that love. So funny. And also, if you haven't already, get yourself some tickets to our Radio City Music hall show.

[Ash]

Please do.

[Elena]

There's still tickets available. It's a one night show. We're not doing it. Another one. So come and do it. Spend. Spend a little. Little weekend in New York. New York. Spend a day in New York.

[Ash]

Who the cares? Spend some time in the Big Apple.

[Elena]

Do whatever you want. But come to our show.

[Ash]

Yeah. Do whatever you want. And even if you don't want to come to our show, just do one thing that you don't want to do and come.

[Elena]

Exactly.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

Please do that thing.

[Ash]

Maybe we'll do a quick live.

[Elena]

No, it'll be fun.

[Ash]

I'm excited for this one. We're figuring out like themies right now.

[Elena]

Some merch.

[Ash]

Merchies. I have to send an email that just reminded me about that. And I think it, like, it's gonna be fun. We're gonna be in costume.

[Elena]

Yeah. It's gonna be really fun. We have a whole theme where it. Trust me, it's. Trust me. You want to be there.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

We got. We got surprises. We got fun. We got.

[Ash]

We have an openers.

[Elena]

We got an opener. Yeah.

[Ash]

So maybe we'll Like, I don't know. I'm not.

[Elena]

I don't know. Yeah.

[Ash]

I don't know.

[Elena]

I don't know. I'm not making any promises. It's gonna be great.

[Ash]

You gotta see. You gotta come and see.

[Elena]

You gotta come and see. So get your tickets. But just know that we. Yeah. Ticketmaster is the only ones that we, like, know what. And approved the prices. So outside of that, we have not approved prices.

[Ash]

Sometimes bots, they go and they buy the tickets. They're out there being.

[Elena]

Scoop them up if they're out there being crazy.

[Ash]

Not me.

[Elena]

We have not approved that. Not us.

[Ash]

So them, Big Red and TT Would never.

[Elena]

No way. Never. Okay.

[Ash]

We wanted to do something spooky today. We did.

[Elena]

We were craving a spooky ookie episode.

[Ash]

And also. What?

[Elena]

This one has a legitimate true crime. Oh, you do? Part of it. Like, most of mine is true crime. Oh, so. So it's definitely got spookiness.

[Ash]

True crime.

[Elena]

But I have a true crime.

[Ash]

We have a true crime episode.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

That has weight for us.

[Elena]

It does. And the person who knows who they

[Ash]

are, you know who you are.

[Elena]

They're not listening, though.

[Ash]

Anyway, mine is just purely haunted. Love that. But it involves Aaron Burr, so.

[Elena]

Sir.

[Ash]

Yes, sir.

[Elena]

I love that.

[Ash]

Yeah. I feel like you should go first, though, because Moida.

[Elena]

Yeah. I think ending on, like, purely haunting, I think is the way to go.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

So this is going to be a West Virginia. Yeah.

[Ash]

Yeah. West Virginia.

[Elena]

What our theme is. Yeah.

[Ash]

I saw that you were doing something from West Virginia, so I said I saw Elena Urquhart researching things about West Virginia. So I started researching haunted things in West Virginia.

[Elena]

I love that a lot.

[Ash]

Party.

[Elena]

And it just makes me think of Hannibal Lecter saying to Clarice Starling, and your accent, which you've tried so hard to shed, is pure West Virginia. Oh, a read makes me think of it.

[Ash]

I haven't seen Silence of the Lambs in so long. I feel like I might have said that on every episode for the last three months. But I need to watch that movie again.

[Elena]

It's one of my favorite movies.

[Ash]

It's such a good movie.

[Elena]

It is. It's fucking genius.

[Ash]

It is.

[Elena]

The way it's shot is unbelievable.

[Ash]

It's chilling.

[Elena]

The performances. Oh, my God.

[Ash]

Me and Drew went to this museum in LA when we were there, and they had, like, a whole recreation. Yeah. Of the cell area. It was sick. If we can ever get your ass on a plane, we got to bring you there.

[Elena]

If you can ever get your ass right now.

[Ash]

I'm playing right now. I can't believe when we went to Disney, like, me and Drew and we came back, that we were able to get back in a timely fashion.

[Elena]

I think you slipped through that right before.

[Ash]

No, we literally did. Like, and I'm talking right before because we turned around and I was like. Like, as we got through security, I was like, oh, we got here just in time.

[Elena]

Literally slipped through, I think. Yeah.

[Ash]

I'm not trying to. Trying to test the fates. Yeah.

[Elena]

I'll just be road tripping for a while.

[Ash]

Yeah. I'm just going to stay on ground for a while.

[Elena]

Yeah, we'll see how it shakes out. You know, grounded brothers stay grounded from an earth sign. So today I'm going to be talking about Cabin 13 in Babcock State park in West Virginia.

[Ash]

See, that's the thing. Thirteen is a spooky number that I think it's almost.

[Elena]

I always think of 13 as, like, a fake spooky number that's like. I don't look at it as, like, a thing.

[Ash]

That's crazy because you're Irish.

[Elena]

I know.

[Ash]

Like, in Irish culture, we see it as bad luck. Ma will not see. I know. Team people at a table.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And she instilled that into me.

[Elena]

Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's. It got instilled into me that I, like, rebelled against it. Yeah. Like, I always just think of it as. Because, like, I don't know, 13 doesn't really bother me. So I think I look whenever it. It's showing up in a place like this where something really bad actually did happen, I'm like.

[Ash]

You're like.

[Elena]

Because I always look at it as, like, fiction a little bit. So when it translates into reality, it's like, oh, it really is cabin 13.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

So cabin 13 in Babcock State park in West Virginia is said to be wildly haunted. Want to go and. Yeah, because you can stay there. You can stay there. My friends, there's lots of. There's people who've done a lot of investigations in this place. So I've already. I've already thought about it.

[Ash]

We've already. We've already contacted a couple of friends.

[Elena]

We've already reached out to some friends

[Ash]

to say, do you want to go to West Virginia?

[Elena]

Isn't that far away? Do you want to go.

[Ash]

You can stay grounded and go there.

[Elena]

We can stay grounded and go there. And this cabin in particular, I'll mention it again at the end, but it's the last one in the series of cabins.

[Ash]

Oh, that makes it even spooky.

[Elena]

Yeah. It's on the end of a very. At the end of the road. It's very isolated, very secluded. It's in particular, the staff is like, this cabin is the most secluded from all of them.

[Ash]

Freaky.

[Elena]

So there was a real, very confirmed murder that happened there in 1996 in that cabin.

[Ash]

1996. Yeah. For some reason, I thought you were taking me way back.

[Elena]

Nope, I'm just taking you back to

[Ash]

your birth 29 years ago.

[Elena]

Yeah. That year, in the middle of the night on April 30, Cheryl Flippo, a 46 year old wife and mother who was devoted to her family and her church, was killed in cabin 13, brutally. Now, Cheryl was a beautiful, loving, and again, by all accounts, dedicated member of her church. She was married to the Reverend James Michael Flippo. And they were happy. From the outside, it looked like, like, but evidently not. Nothing to be shocked about. Like, but I'm just. From the outside, you're like, okay. Nothing that I can see. Okay. In the 1980s, though, something started happening to them. They found themselves being stalked. Oh. They were getting letters and they were sent in that, like, classic magazine letter cut out, like, ransom note. Yeah, like, ransom note kind of vibe. And they would say, like, you're next and I'm gonna get you. And like, just like scary. And it freaked them out, especially Cheryl, who obviously was like, who the is doing this? But they just kind of went on with their life because they couldn't figure out who sent them. And they also couldn't figure out when they were coming or why they were coming.

[Ash]

Like, they would just remember reason.

[Elena]

Yeah, it was very willy nilly. So they were like, we don't even have, like a pattern here. I'm not even sure why they're coming. Okay. Very strange. Now, she and her husband, Reverend James Michael Flippo, decided to take a spontaneous trip to the park, to Babcock State park in 1996. This was after Reverend Flippo had taken a man named Joel Boges to the park to baptize him in the water. He, like, performed a baptism in the. In the crick in the creek. A cricketism and a cryptism. He was doing a cryptism. Okay. And that he was doing that on April 27, 1996.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

So he apparently loved the place when he was there because he made reservations that day for him and his wife to go stay.

[Ash]

He said, this place is the tits and I would like to stay.

[Elena]

He said, let's go. So the reservation was for April 29, and they arrived a bit later. Than expected that day, according to Mike James Michael Flippo. So they didn't pick up a key at the office. They just went to the cabin anyways. And the cabin was unlocked, so they're really cool. Everything was chill. Although James Flippo did use a payphone at some point during the evening to make a phone call. Okay. At 2:11am that night. That night. That morning. Excuse me. That morning, I was like. As soon as I said it, I was like, that night.

[Ash]

It still feels like the night because it's so late. So I'll give you that.

[Elena]

So at 2:11 that morning, a 911 call came from the pay phone. Okay. It was James Flippo. He was absolutely panicked. And he said that he and his wife Cheryl had been attacked in the middle of the night by a home invader. And they were both hurt. He didn't know if Cheryl was okay. Like, he was frantic.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

They sent police out immediately. And so the Fayetteville County Sheriff's department arrived very quickly. Deputy C. Bryant was the first one on scene, and he noted that James Slippo appeared to be bleeding. Only a little bit, though. And he was only wearing underwear.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

Just in tighty whiteies. He had to drive there, he said, because when he came out of his house, like, out of the cabin, his car was gone. So he's like, someone stole my car. Like, the person who came in must have stole my car. So he had to, like, run to the payphone. That's why he was, like, just in his underwear. Like, blah. Okay. So he. The police officer was like, I'll drive us back to the cabin and we can figure out what happened. So he gets there, and there's a red Camaro parked in front of the cabin. And so as his protocol, Deputy Bryant was like, is that car yours? His? Dude, is that your car? And James Slippo was like, no, that's not my car. He was like, I don't know whose car that is. And he said he had driven his wife and him to the cabin in a green Cadillac, and this was a red Camaro.

[Ash]

Who the is just leaving a Camaro?

[Elena]

So he was like, what? And he was like, I. I think, like, this person stole my car. I don't know who that car is. And he was like, so did he. Like, so this person stole your car and left his. Like, why would he just trade out your cars? Tradesies.

[Ash]

Like, what?

[Elena]

And so he was like, what the. So James Flippo said that his wife was still in the cabin, very badly hurt. Again, didn't know if she Was alive. Like, anyone asked if she had. If he had, like, actually done anything to see if she was alive, he was like, no, I didn't.

[Ash]

That's weird.

[Elena]

I just ran out of there. Which is like, okay, what? So, leaving James Slippo in the car, Deputy Bryant made his way into the cabin. And immediately he took notes that there was no signs of force entry in this cabin. Okay. He was like, I don't know if, like, the door was unlocked or what, but there did not seem like somebody broke in there. And it had recently rained, and so the ground was very squishy and muddy. And he said there was absolutely no footprints anywhere around the cabin besides theirs. And he said when he went into the cabin, he was like, there was no mud, there was no water on the floor.

[Ash]

Like somebody had come in, like Mr. Flippo.

[Elena]

So he was like. Which obviously is not like, smoking gun, but it. It made his radar go up a little bit because he was like, it's

[Ash]

a pretty big deal.

[Elena]

He's like, I guess if I'm. If you're thinking like an investigator, you're gonna go, okay, maybe they cleaned up. Maybe they wiped out their. Their muddy footprints. And I just don't see them.

[Ash]

Right. But like, somehow there are no tracks in the mud as well.

[Elena]

That's the thing. He's like, but how does that happen? So making his way into the cabin, he found Cheryl Flippo. After a lot of searching, because he couldn't find her at first. She was, in fact, very deceased and was laying between the wall and the bed with a roll of duct tape near her that appeared to have been used or attempted to be used on her. Okay. There was a ton of blood everywhere and her skull had been completely crushed.

[Ash]

Oh, wow.

[Elena]

He even noted, and it's noted in court documents, that there was brain matter exposed and there was brain matter on the wall.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

That's how brutally she had been beaten. Later it was discovered that she had been horrifically beaten with firewood and fire. Like, basically fire pokers.

[Ash]

Like, holy shit.

[Elena]

Yeah. That's really brutal. So paramedics declared Cheryl dead as soon as they arrived. And they brought James to the hospital where he was treated for literally a bruise on his head and scratches on his legs. Uh huh. That's it. Foreign,

[Ash]

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[Elena]

So he was taken to the police station to give a statement to Detective S. Kessler. His statement said that he had arrived at the cabin with Cheryl, gone to the pay phone to call a sick friend who was in the hospital just to check on them.

[Ash]

Random.

[Elena]

And they made a fire. They ate some ice cream, they played cards. Like, sounds like a nice night together. Yeah. And he said after they went to sleep, nothing out of the ordinary. No fights or anything like that. And he said at some point in the middle of the night, he heard a noise and he woke up to see Cheryl on the ground next to the bed and a person with something over his face and a rope. And when he described what was over his face, I have to say this because I felt like a dingus. He said a toboggan over his face.

[Ash]

A toboggan. Isn't that a sled?

[Elena]

Okay, I'm really glad that you thought that as well. Apparently, a toboggan is also like a hat of some sort. I pictured somebody with a toboggan strapped to their face. And I said. I said, that's horrifying.

[Ash]

No, Donna. Toboggan.

[Elena]

Like, I'm laughing at this part of this because I need you to picture somebody with a toboggan. Like, the sled. I need you to picture to their

[Ash]

face a sled face.

[Elena]

Yeah, I need you to picture that

[Ash]

and then try to understand. I'm trying to look at the hat.

[Elena]

A toboggan is basically like a ski hat. I think so, yeah. I didn't know it was called.

[Ash]

And it's just like a beanie.

[Elena]

And when I saw it in the court documents, I was like, what the. And I looked it up, and I was like, oh, that's Funny.

[Ash]

Oh, it's because that's the hat that

[Elena]

you wear to go to toboggan.

[Ash]

Tobogganing.

[Elena]

See, that makes sense. Okay. See, it all makes sense. There you go. And later he would say, like, he would change his story with this. It was like a hat. A hat with eyes cut out, a hat with the mouth cut out. A how? Like, you know, like he would change

[Ash]

it up a lot.

[Elena]

Seriously, I think you killed your wife. He wakes up, he sees this person. He said before he could do anything, he was walloped with a piece of firewood. When he woke up because he knocked out, the stranger was sitting on him, cutting his legs with a knife.

[Ash]

That's ridiculous.

[Elena]

Just cutting his legs with a knife, that's ridiculous. He said he was knocked out again. And when he woke up, the stranger, the killer was gone. He checked Cheryl and this is when he said, I checked Cheryl and I laid my head on her chest and she had a heartbeat. So I ran to the payoff.

[Ash]

Previously, he said, you said you hadn't done anything.

[Elena]

Yeah. So meanwhile a detective, and they're noting all of these things. And meanwhile, a detective at the scene has called now and said that there was clearly no sourced entry and also that this was a very sloppily staged scene, in his opinion.

[Ash]

Yeah, I would say so.

[Elena]

No forced entry, no evidence of anyone else being there, and things that were even put in strange places, like they were trying to make it look like a scene. Furniture was just like weirdly overturned. Like things that wouldn't make sense. Yeah. This along with the brutality of Cheryl's injuries and his surface level scratches that he's claiming he got from a knife. It was clear something was off. Okay. So James Slippo was immediately told he was a suspect and soon after he was indicted on first degree murder for his wife.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

During his trial, some of the evidence that came out was it was discovered that 30 days prior to that, within 30 days before this, he had taken out a $100,000 life insurance policy. She was aware of this. Okay. Probably because she just thought like, yeah, going to murder her for that money. Right. Like a lot of married couples take these out. Yeah. But yeah, he had done it less than 30 days before that. He was also an overspender. Oh, she had complete control of the finances because he couldn't handle having control of the finances.

[Ash]

Yikes.

[Elena]

She would also, like, she took his credit cards away because he had maxed them all out and she like cut them up and was like, you can't have credit cards.

[Ash]

Oh my God.

[Elena]

Yeah. Like he was like, like ruining their finances. So she was like, she was trying to take control of it. Yeah. But also, Cheryl had recently accused Flippo of having an affair with a man who attended the church. Oh. So that had caused some tension in the marriage as well. So there was things going on bubbling under the surface, obviously, big time. Further investigation showed that Flippo wasn't just bad with money, he was a thief. Oh, no. He had stolen $12,000 from a fund that the church had set up to help us save sick child.

[Ash]

Oh, this guy is scum.

[Elena]

So he's just a piece of.

[Ash]

He's scum.

[Elena]

Yeah. Literally scum. So Dr. Irvin M. Sofer, a former chief medical examiner, testified that James Flippo's injuries were not enough to even render him unconscious.

[Ash]

I like that. He said that the killer was just cutting his legs.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Which.

[Elena]

Like what?

[Ash]

Well, they literally. They were scratches.

[Elena]

They discovered that they were self inflicted. Yeah. Obviously, like, it was very obvious to

[Ash]

see, why would a killer just sit on top of you and cut your legs?

[Elena]

Because you can also see the direction where the scratches start and stop. And if he's doing it, it from his angle, it's clearly he's scratching his own legs. It's like, people are not dumb. People go to medical school for this. Yeah.

[Ash]

Get a grip.

[Elena]

And in the 911 call, like I said before, there was the discrepancy between him saying he didn't check to see if she was alive and then later saying he put his head on her chest to see to hear a heartbeat. Yeah, that's.

[Ash]

You would remember that.

[Elena]

That's a big deal. He later said that he had to use the payphone because his cellular phone was actually missing. That's why he was using the payphone that day. And he said he arrived at the. At the cabin and he didn't know where his phone was. That's why he had to use it right away to make that phone call

[Ash]

to the sick friend.

[Elena]

Sick friend. They found his phone, his cellular phone, in the fireplace.

[Ash]

Brother.

[Elena]

The roll of duct tape, you didn't even go throw it in the water? No, in the fireplace.

[Ash]

Like, I'm glad you're dumb.

[Elena]

Yeah. The roll of duct tape found next to Cheryl's body. Only James's fingerprints were on it. Investigators.

[Ash]

Man is a idiot.

[Elena]

Investigators also found that the blood that they had found on the bed was not there because of the attack. Someone had soaked up the blood on the floor and plopped it onto the bed to make it look like the attack had Happened there.

[Ash]

That's actually crazy that they could figure that out. Isn't that nuts? Yeah.

[Elena]

But a weird thing to do. Yeah. And that call he had said was to a sick friend was actually to Joel Bogus, who he baptized in the park a couple of days earlier.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

And that car outside the cabin?

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

That was also Joel's. He claimed he didn't recognize it. That was Joel's. Joel's had. Joel had let James borrow his car to go to the park that day, and he.

[Ash]

To just, like, he planned to say, my car was stolen, and a random man left his car here and then. And I also just happened to baptize him two days ago.

[Elena]

Well, that's. He's a friend, right? He's a literal friend. And Joel was like, I let him borrow my car because it's convertible. And I think he was, like, like, gonna be getting rid of it or selling it. So he had asked, like, oh, can I take the red convertible up to the park with Cheryl? Because I want it to be, like, a romantic weekend. And he was like, yeah, that's so

[Ash]

sad to think that she probably thought this was, like, a nice romantic that

[Elena]

they were gonna, like, try to, like,

[Ash]

rekindle, especially after they were going through what they were going through.

[Elena]

Yeah. James had also claimed that he had never been in the park, but we know that's not true, dude. And staff confirmed that he was there only two days earlier. They also spoke with witnesses who said that James claimed that this was a spur of the moment romantic getaway, not planned at all.

[Ash]

You did two days before.

[Elena]

He had not only made reservations two days before when he was baptizing Joel, but Joel said, he pointed out specifically cabin 13. This cabin, again, is the last in the row, very secluded. He was like, I want to stay there. Right.

[Ash]

Like, he, like, I wonder why now?

[Elena]

Also, that stalker we talked about was him. That was James.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

I had.

[Ash]

As soon as you started, I was like, oh, that was him.

[Elena]

He sent them to scare Cheryl whenever she would get close to, like, catching him in all his. Or probably leaving, stealing money or claiming, like, anything to keep her on her

[Ash]

toes and, like, needing support.

[Elena]

Exactly. Now, there were some appeals, of course, and they tried to argue the police procedures, searching the crime scene for too long without a warrant kind of thing. They did argue this. Well, you can look up the court case, and they go, like, really obviously thoroughly into, like, each of the appeals and how they argued them. And it's pretty interesting, actually.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

His conviction, which was a life sentence without possibility of parole Good. Was upheld. Wow. Out of this. There was a Supreme Court ruling that came out that did limit the amount of time investigators can search a scene without a warrant. So something did come out of this. Now, the clearly cursed energy that is probably pretty Prevalent in Cabin 13 at Babcock State park is definitely. It's definitely been experienced by people.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

People say they see a woman standing in the window when the cabin is vacant. She just stares outside. And sometimes she's wearing a nightgown, like, just looking outside. And they see her sometimes walking through the woods. And they all report that she just has, like, a very sad, grieving kind of look on her face. Awful.

[Ash]

I hope that it's not Cheryl. I hope she's not stuck there.

[Elena]

I really don't want her to be stuck in that cabin. Yeah. Now, in the silence of the middle of the night, people will hear sobbing or moaning coming from the cabin, and it'll be vacant.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Some visitors hear a residual struggle inside the cabin. Like, almost like they hear thuds and crashing and thrashing. Like someone is in a fight in the cabin, but it's empty.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

Which feels like a residual. Like just reliving it. Which. Which I really hope that's not it.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Now, investigators have noted that when they came towards. This is interesting. When they come towards cabin 30 13, the whole hollow around cabin 13 feels. It just falls silent, like they've entered a void. Oh. They said all insects stop making noises. Animals don't make noise. Like, it's like. It reminds me of Aokigahara, the suicide forest.

[Ash]

And it's like the death.

[Elena]

How it just like, is like this womb of silence in there. And it feels very unnatural. It can feel very threatening. And it can. That kind of silence. Because it happens in a Kigahara a lot. It can with you psychologically. Yeah. Like we're just not meant to be that, I think, like, you know, devoid of any kind of sensory. Yeah. You know, But. But people who stay in the cabin report that they wake, and this is a report that happens a lot, that they wake up to see a shadow looming over them at the foot of the bed. Oh, yeah. Sometimes that gave me such a big

[Ash]

chill, just like a shadow.

[Elena]

And sometimes they see the shadow lurking in the corners of the bedroom. I don't like just like hanging out over there.

[Ash]

Nor.

[Elena]

And others said that they've been shook awake by something. And when they open their eyes, they hear a woman talking to them, but they can't understand what she's saying or she'll, like, ask for Help or be crying.

[Ash]

Oh, I have non stop chills right now.

[Elena]

They will also hear knocking at the door and no one is there when they go check.

[Ash]

Oh, I hate this so much.

[Elena]

And they hear someone creeping around outside and they'll look and no one's around. I saw one report where a family stayed there and they woke up a few times to someone banging on the door hard and hard enough that their father opened the door several times to like scream out there, go away. But no one was there.

[Ash]

Several times, brother, pack up your family. Get the out of there.

[Elena]

That's what I'm saying.

[Ash]

Several times on the door for the, like, that's. That's some strangers type.

[Elena]

Yeah, so that's. Yeah.

[Ash]

I don't like the banging on the cabin door.

[Elena]

I hate the banging.

[Ash]

What are you doing staying in cabins, Folks?

[Elena]

I have to ask. Don't stay in cabins like this, nay. Unless you're going to investigate. Cuz I would like to now.

[Ash]

I'm not staying there though.

[Elena]

Stay awake. Yeah, stay awake. Keep those eyes open. Red Bull. Oh, let's go.

[Ash]

Hello.

[Elena]

Hello.

[Ash]

Okay. Well, mine is significantly less sad and horrifying, to be honest.

[Elena]

I mean, that's good.

[Ash]

And some of my haunts are kind of funny, but some are scary.

[Elena]

Oh, I love it.

[Ash]

So there's haunts.

[Elena]

We get a mix of everything.

[Ash]

So mine's a hotel, and it's the Blenner has it hotel in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

[Elena]

West Virginia.

[Ash]

West Virginia. Because like I said, I saw you research in West Virginia and then I said, I would like to research West Virginia.

[Elena]

West Virginia. You.

[Ash]

So the Blennerhasset Hotel is one of the oldest hotels and it opened on May 6, 1889.

[Elena]

Damn, that's like as old as me.

[Ash]

No, it's older.

[Elena]

Not quite.

[Ash]

No, it's a little bit older. The hotel took six years to build and the whole entire project was managed by Colonel William Nelson Chancellor. The goal was to make this like the most opulent hotel in West Virginia.

[Elena]

I love when they have that goal.

[Ash]

They were like, listen, if anybody is traveling through this area, which there was a lot of travel at this time because it was like an oil boost boom and like a gas boom. It's was just booming.

[Elena]

Appalachia.

[Ash]

Appalachia. But they were like, if anybody is gonna come and stay here, they need to stay at this hotel and no other hotel in the area.

[Elena]

I think that's a. A pretty cool goal to be like, I'm gonna be it. Yeah, that's it.

[Ash]

Like the hotel.

[Elena]

And I love when they.

[Ash]

They have.

[Elena]

It's always the guy who says, this is gonna be the most luxurious, opulent hotel.

[Ash]

Yeah. I don't.

[Elena]

I want to say, like, go into it that way, but now I'm like, should you.

[Ash]

I think you should.

[Elena]

Like, sometimes it ends up poorly.

[Ash]

This is. This is good.

[Elena]

I think this is good. Yeah.

[Ash]

This is fine.

[Elena]

There's, like, fun haunts. Yeah.

[Ash]

He said, I'm not building a hotel. I'm building the hotel. And I respect that.

[Elena]

So this isn't, like, you know, tragic hauntings. These are like.

[Ash]

I mean, some of them were, like, a little bit sad, but nothing crazy.

[Elena]

I like that.

[Ash]

So it was built in the Queen Anne style, which was all the rage in the Victorian era. Picture ornate trims, towers, large stained glass windows. All of the above.

[Elena]

Get it?

[Ash]

Upon opening the hotel, it had the finest luxuries that anybody could have enjoyed at the time. Electric and gas lighting.

[Elena]

Get the out of here.

[Ash]

It was like this thing where, like, electric and gas were, like, working together to. To make electricity or some. They were collabing, and they were. They were working on a collab. And this was literally just one year after the city had, like, like, started transitioning over to using electricity. So this was a really big deal.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

It also had steam heating.

[Elena]

Whoa.

[Ash]

Both service and passenger elevators, which, like, that was huge at the time. Not having to carry all your suitcases up to your room was a big deal.

[Elena]

Hell, yeah.

[Ash]

And my favorite state of the art plumbing. Oh, I love good plumbing.

[Elena]

We love it when you can. In peace.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Yeah. You know.

[Ash]

Yeah, I do. Now. According to the hotel's website, guests could enjoy leisurely strolls through double parlors on the second level, one graced with an upright piano. A grand mirror stood in the lobby, shielded by a wire cage to deter any potential damage stemming from the lively streets below. A majestic central staircase spiraled through all five stories, overlooked by public restrooms on each floor, and offering Privacy in all 50 guest rooms.

[Elena]

I feel like we. We just don't make them like that anymore. We don't. We don't like that description. We don't see that.

[Ash]

Dare I say we make the ugliest

[Elena]

now, our buildings over here. I'm. I'm not speaking for any of you in any other place in the world other than, you know, but our buildings,

[Ash]

I'm like, they're ugly. Can we. And everything is just condos now. I just want.

[Elena]

I want it to be back to, like, ornate, intricate carvings.

[Ash]

Victorian era.

[Elena]

Like, you look at some. Some, like, cathedrals and shit in Like Germany and shit.

[Ash]

Oh, my God. There is one German cathedral in particular that every time I see it, I'm like, Elena has to go there.

[Elena]

Yeah, it's. Is it the Cologne?

[Ash]

Yeah, I think it is, actually.

[Elena]

I believe it is. It's the most gorgeous thing I have ever laid eyes on.

[Ash]

It's stunting.

[Elena]

Like, it's stupid.

[Ash]

It always. It always goes on tick tock to that sound that's like. And then they're like.

[Elena]

It's like the Ramstein or. Ramstein.

[Ash]

Yeah, that's an easier way to say it. That's an easier way to present the song.

[Elena]

Cologne Cathedral, I think, is one of the most gorgeous pieces of architecture I've ever seen in my entire existence.

[Ash]

Gorgeous. Also, look up a picture of this hotel because it's also very beautiful. So the hotel was named after Irish aristocrats Harmon and Margaret Blennerhassett.

[Elena]

Oh, I love that.

[Ash]

And they lived on this gorgeous island on the Ohio river, which is also now named Blennerhassett island after them. Now, Harmon and Margaret came to America from England for a couple of reasons. This was in 1796, and they had stirred up some trouble in England.

[Elena]

Oops.

[Ash]

One, because they were uncle and niece. Niece and also husband and wife.

[Elena]

Oh.

[Ash]

And two, because Harmon was advocating for Irish independence and his political homies were not trying to get arrested alongside him for that.

[Elena]

Oh, period. I'm just really focused on the uncle and niece of it all.

[Ash]

Yeah. Number two is not so bad. Number two is not bad at all. Number one bad.

[Elena]

But number one is really shaken me.

[Ash]

Yeah, I was shook.

[Elena]

Foreign.

[Ash]

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[Elena]

Oh no.

[Ash]

Aaron Burr apparently traveled to the island quite frequently to work on his military plans, which were like fucked up. Harmon was arrested twice in the US and financially ruined before he just eventually returned to England. But. But I mean, he still has a hotel and an island named after him. So I guess it all worked out. Now, they weren't the only famous people involved in the hotel's history. JFK campaigned there in 1960, and he stayed on two separate occasions in May of that year. Apparently he stayed in room 216 both times. At that time, 216 was the biggest suite that the Blennerhasse had had to offer. Now it was officially added to the U.S. national Register of Historic Places in 1982, and it has survived many famous feats. Fires, floods, renovation, and most importantly, what we're here for today. Hauntings.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

So let's start with what is said to be the most haunted room in the entire hotel.

[Elena]

This is the.

[Ash]

I think it's called the Cultnecker Suite, or Room 409. The Blennerhassett website alleges that this room is not just the most haunted hotel room that they have to offer, but they say it is considered the most haunted hotel room in the entire state of West Virginia.

[Elena]

Damn right.

[Ash]

Now, originally, this part of the hotel, the hotel was actually a separate building, which was the Kaltnecker building, built in 1889 by John Coltnecker of course. Of course. The first floor back then was used as a saloon originally.

[Elena]

Oh, yeah, it was.

[Ash]

And then it became a popular restaurant years later.

[Elena]

It wasn't until such a saloon. I fucking love a saloon. Oh, who doesn't love a swinging door?

[Ash]

Let's go.

[Elena]

Let's go.

[Ash]

Now. It wasn't until the 1985. 1986 major renovation that the buildings ended up merging. Now the suite is the only two story suite in the entire hotel. And it, it's marketed as being able to sleep 10 guests. Oh, so like paranormal investigation.

[Elena]

I mean, looks pretty good to me. You wanna. Yeah.

[Ash]

If you did investigate this hotel, this suite is one of the places that you would be most likely to come face to face with the man in the bowler hat.

[Elena]

Oh, let's go.

[Ash]

People describe seeing him as a completely solid figure. They will wake up in the middle of the night and see this man standing in their room. Completely solid figure, nicely dressed in early 20th century attire. And of course, a bowler hat. Of course, he mostly appears to people in the upstairs bedroom of the suite. And then he just vanishes like he was never there in the first place.

[Elena]

I kind of love that.

[Ash]

He's just like, hello, goodbye.

[Elena]

He's like, hello, do you like my outfit? Bye.

[Ash]

Do you like my hat?

[Elena]

That or no.

[Ash]

Now, most people say he's pretty harmless and like they, they just see him and then he's gone.

[Elena]

Cool.

[Ash]

But one woman, not so cool did report that she woke up in the middle of the night, saw the man, and that he held her down by her neck in bed and she was unable to move.

[Elena]

That's rude. Some would say that is not as cool as. Do you like my outfit?

[Ash]

Some people would say that's paranormal assault.

[Elena]

Yeah, I would say so.

[Ash]

I don't know what you do about it, but. But up. Now, no one's quite sure who exactly this man is, but because the hotel attracted businessmen during the oil boom in the late 1800s, people are like, he's probably just some kind of businessman. Like he's stuck there. But some people also think he could be Colonel William Chancellor, who's the hotel's builder. But he, the William Chancellor is more often accompanied by the smell or the sight of cigar smoke. Oh, people will just smell it, not see anything. But people have seen like little cigar smoke, like plumes. Yeah.

[Elena]

Oh, my God, that's cool.

[Ash]

And he's more often seen on the third floor mezzanine. So like, while he could be the man in the bowler hat. Yeah, I'm not so sure.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Employees and guests have seen legit smoke rings coming out of his portrait, which hangs in the lobby.

[Elena]

Oh my God, I love that so much.

[Ash]

Like, imagine just sitting in the lobby and then you're just like. You just see a man. Blows. But he's a portrait. Now, during renovations, that portrait was apparently moved. And when the hotel reopened to get guests, one man had a crazy interaction. He was getting ready to climb into bed, and as he sat down, he felt an impression on the other side of the bed. But he was by himself, he thought. And he looked over and he said he saw an older man sitting next to him who just looked at him and said, I was here first. I love that a lot. What? And he thought that it was William Chancellor.

[Elena]

I love that.

[Ash]

Now, once the portrait was returned to the lobby, things seem to settle down a bit. But people checking out will recognize, like, they'll walk by the portrait and they'll be like, I saw that guy smoking a cigar in the hallway.

[Elena]

And you're like, yeah, you did.

[Ash]

And they're like, yeah, you did.

[Elena]

Yeah, you did.

[Ash]

But he's dead. And they most often report seeing him in a three piece gray suit.

[Elena]

Ooh, I like that.

[Ash]

So it's snazzy. Yeah. If you go to the Blenner Houset and you see a man walking down the hallway in a nice suit smoking a cigar, he's a ghost.

[Elena]

He's a ghost. And he was there first.

[Ash]

And he was there first. That's important to remember. Something else that happens in suite 409, just going back there for a second, is that guests will wake up in the middle of the night and hear furniture being moved around the room.

[Elena]

Oh, shit.

[Ash]

And they also will wake up to the sounds of a massive party. Like, it sounds like there's a party either in the room or like right next door.

[Elena]

Like Great Gatsby style parties.

[Ash]

Yes. Like 20s party. Now, one guest told WBOY News that he stayed in the room right next door 407, which apparently you can book 409 and 407 together and like you could open up a door and connect them. He was just in 407 and he actually booked it because he wanted like a quieter stay. But he woke up in the middle of the night and it sounded like people were having a huge party. So he was checking out the next morning and he told the front desk, like, what the hell was going on?

[Elena]

It's like, I booked that room.

[Ash]

Yeah, I booked that room for quiet it. And they were like, you were the only guest on that floor. Oh, yeah.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

That would me up.

[Elena]

Yeah. That would especially. Honestly hear I'm the only guest on that whole floor. I'd be like, what?

[Ash]

Yeah, I would hate that.

[Elena]

That would stress me out anyways. I'd be like, oh, my God.

[Ash]

I would hate that a lot. I mean, good to tell somebody upon checking out. Not checking.

[Elena]

Yeah, definitely.

[Ash]

The elevators, which were a huge deal in the. They never seem to open to the correct floor, though.

[Elena]

Sure.

[Ash]

A lot of times they open to the second floor, which is where guests most often report seeing what any good location has that is haunted. Oh, abroad. A woman in white.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

You're so close. Guests report seeing her dressed in all white clothing from the 20s or maybe the 30s. And they say she also wears a white cap pulled down to almost cover her eyes.

[Elena]

Ooh, mysterious.

[Ash]

Yeah, she is. And she's a beauty. A man once saw her and he thought. Thought that she was, like, alive, and he asked her to hold the elevator door for him, and she did. But then when he stepped on the elevator, there was nobody there.

[Elena]

Oh, damn.

[Ash]

He was like, no. That woman literally just held the door for me.

[Elena]

That would me right up.

[Ash]

But what he did experience was a, like, overwhelming smell of lavender perfume as soon as he got into the elevator. And a lot of people associate lavender perfume with sightings of her.

[Elena]

Oh, yeah. I like that. Right? What a soothing scent. Yeah.

[Ash]

I love lavender.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Employees who work in the kitchen are said to be visited by a little newspaper boy.

[Elena]

Oh, my God.

[Ash]

He used to work at the old newspaper stand in the back. And he will pull on their clothing, and when they turn around, they literally see an apparition of him with his, like, little news cap in his messenger bag. I was like, that's an experience that I'd like to have.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Now, there's a little bit of debate about who this next ghost is. Some people think that he's a sea captain.

[Elena]

Oh.

[Ash]

And others claim that he looks exactly like Harmon Blennerhassett.

[Elena]

Oh, damn.

[Ash]

Either way, the ghost is most often seen in the mirrors of the bar and the restaurant on the main lobby. He's just living, but always in the mirror.

[Elena]

Okay.

[Ash]

According to Haunted Parkersburg Tours, this is weird because the mirrors were fashioned from windows and doors from an old apartment building that was torn down in New York City.

[Elena]

Oh, interesting.

[Ash]

So it'd be weird if it was is blunter asset.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Like, maybe it's more likely to be a sea captain.

[Elena]

A salty sea captain from New York City. Yeah.

[Ash]

Now, one place in the hotel that you Would assume would be quite peaceful, but is actually the complete opposite. Is the library, I would assume that. Which I love that they have a library.

[Elena]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Ash]

I don't know that I've been to a hotel with one.

[Elena]

I know.

[Ash]

Apparently, guests will just be chilling in library and they will suddenly hear the appalling sound of a woman screaming bloody murder.

[Elena]

Whoa.

[Ash]

Out of nowhere. Now, interestingly, there is a window in the corner of the library that used to be the door to the First national bank of Parkersburg. And years and years and years ago, there was a terrible accident where a tractor trailer lost control and crashed into that doorway.

[Elena]

Oh, shit.

[Ash]

And killed a woman.

[Elena]

Oh, wow.

[Ash]

So people think that it's like some kind of residual haunting from her being struck.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Also in the library, people report seeing books being thrown from the shelves, chairs being knocked over out of nowhere. Lots of people get touched in the library. A lot of people feel like tapping on their shoulder. And then this one is just fucking weird. People will be sitting there just like chatting or reading, and all of a sudden they'll look at an ottoman, like, near them, and they'll see the fabric getting pulled up on the ottoman, but nobody's pulling it up.

[Elena]

What?

[Ash]

Isn't that fucking weird?

[Elena]

That's so weird and neat. It is super.

[Ash]

I don't think I've ever heard that in a haunting.

[Elena]

I've never heard that. No.

[Ash]

And I, like, I would just be still like, what the fuck is going on?

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Now, if you want to stop at the Starbucks nearby to get a jolt of caffeine after that horrifying interaction, just know that ghosts might be lurking in line. Oh, they're pretty chill during the daytime hours. But at exactly 4am staff have heard a series of three knocks on the door beside the Starbucks box. And when they open it up, no one is there.

[Elena]

Why are they knocking on the door so early?

[Ash]

Like, are you open?

[Elena]

They're like, do you have the coffee brewed, please?

[Ash]

I need espresso.

[Elena]

I mean, I get it.

[Ash]

But then maybe they're just like, oh, sorry, it's too early.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Now, also, what would a haunted hotel be without ghostly children?

[Elena]

Oh, yeah.

[Ash]

Guests hear giggling children all over this place.

[Elena]

Damn.

[Ash]

But the maids tidying up the hotel room seem to be the most familiar. They will be trying to put the toilet paper back on the holder, but the dispensers will just be spinning non stop. And they like, can't get the toilet paper.

[Elena]

Oh, my God.

[Ash]

And they'll hear kids laughing while it happens.

[Elena]

I was gonna say that's such a little kid thing to do. Yeah.

[Ash]

They've also seen children's footprints walking across comforters. Yep. During the holidays, it apparently sounds like the kids were singing along with Jingle Bells as it played over the hotel speaker.

[Elena]

Okay, that literally just gave me all the chills. I don't like that.

[Ash]

Here's the thing. This is a terrible fact about me, but it is a fact nonetheless. I fucking hate the sound of children singing.

[Elena]

You do?

[Ash]

Yeah, I just hate it.

[Elena]

It's spooky as hell.

[Ash]

That went. Jingle Bells.

[Elena]

Disembodied children's voices singing Jingle Bells. A whole bunch of that is honestly the scariest one to me.

[Ash]

I'd be like, can I get an early checkout?

[Elena]

Thanks. Yeah, that would fuck me up.

[Ash]

Now, here's the other weird thing with the kids. Women in particular will just, like, have this great night's sleep, and then they will wake up to the feeling of being kissed on their faces. And they say it feels like a child's kiss. Don't kiss me.

[Elena]

That's really cute, though.

[Ash]

Don't kiss me.

[Elena]

What if it's, like, a little kid, though, and they think you're his. Their mom.

[Ash]

I'm not your mom.

[Elena]

Because that's really sad is the case. Like, just, like, giving your mom a kiss. Kiss.

[Ash]

A mama kiss. I don't want a mama kiss.

[Elena]

I mean, I don't want a ghost child mama kiss.

[Ash]

I just want to wake up to my alarm.

[Elena]

I. Okay. The children thing is. Is a little unsettling.

[Ash]

Children think is the most unsettling.

[Elena]

Here I am like, this man in a bowler hat is just, like, materializing in your room sometimes choking you, and I'm like, the kids thing is a little unsettling. I hate that.

[Ash]

The kids are singing holiday music.

[Elena]

Hate that.

[Ash]

Like, where's the bowler guy?

[Elena]

The kids are giving me a kiss and singing holiday music. Hate that.

[Ash]

Please get out of here. Now. Finally, to end on my personal favorite paranormal report, here, the ballrooms are said to be the most haunted rooms at Blennerhassett, outside of room 409.

[Elena]

Good.

[Ash]

There are weddings, obviously, and, like, different events held in the ballroom all the time. And setting up for these events is always wild because, like, the staff will be setting, like, place settings and stuff. And if they turn around for a second, everything is completely rearranged.

[Elena]

Oh, shit.

[Ash]

And, yeah, and they'll, like, misplace things and look for them in a certain spot over and over and then look back in that spot after checking several others. And it will be in the first Place they looked, but this is my favorite thing on the planet. According to Haunted Parkersburg Doors, once when the employees were readying a room, a microphone was set up. That's when a cracking woman's voice came across the microphone saying, howdy, fellas. She just said, I'm ready for a good time. I love that woman. I love her a lot.

[Elena]

That's what you should do with your afterlife. You should jump onto microphones and be like, howdy, fellas.

[Ash]

People think that she might be a local madam, like, just, like, messing around with people.

[Elena]

She better be.

[Ash]

I was obsessed with that one. That's hilarious. But this is, like, a fully functioning, like, gorgeous hotel. They have spa and ship it.

[Elena]

I want to go.

[Ash]

I want to go, too. This is the thing. We'll go and check out your. Yeah.

[Elena]

Spot.

[Ash]

Cabin 13.

[Elena]

My horrific spot.

[Ash]

Yeah, we'll do a haunted investigation there, and then we'll stay at the hotel where things are chiller and funnier. And we'll just hope that children don't kiss us.

[Elena]

Yeah. I could do without the man in the bowler hat.

[Ash]

I'd be fine to see him as long as he didn't choke me.

[Elena]

Yeah. I don't want him to come anywhere near me.

[Ash]

Yeah. Please don't touch me. Please don't. But, like, you can show yourself.

[Elena]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ash]

So that is the Blenner Hasset Hotel.

[Elena]

And that was a good one.

[Ash]

Your scary ass case.

[Elena]

Yeah, mine is real scary, but that's. That is haunted as hell. It is haunted as hell, and I love it.

[Ash]

I love that Aaron Burser made an appearance.

[Elena]

Aaron Burser. He's always. He's always showing up.

[Ash]

He is. People are going to be like, you know his name is Aaron Burr, right? Not bursar. We know it's Aaron Burr, sir, comma,

[Elena]

you know what channels then.

[Ash]

Yeah, of course.

[Elena]

So you got to.

[Ash]

All right, well, thank you so much for listening to our haunted tales.

[Elena]

We've been wanting to do one for a while.

[Ash]

I know it scratched the itch partially, but I think I'd like to do more.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Let's do another haunted episode.

[Elena]

Yeah, we gotta do one soon.

[Ash]

Party. And in the meantime, we hope you keep listening, and we hope you keep it weird. But it's aware that you don't paranormally investigate these places because you would be missing out big time. And not so weird that in your afterlife you don't just yell, howdy, fellas.

[Elena]

I love it so much. I love it.

[Ash]

I love it. I love.

[Elena]

Sam sat.

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