Ghost Hunters Bobby Mackey Investigation

Ghost Hunters: Bobby Mackey’s Rant

I've been trying to review Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International for technically over a year, but I wasn't able to produce anything in a form of a review until a few months ago. It wasn't until I started trying to organize the review that I realized I had no idea how the hell I'm going to tackle the obstacle of reviewing Ghost Hunters and Ghost hunters International. I have both good and bad things to say about the shows, but all the good stuff sits in the beginning seasons and sadly as the shows progressed they got really shitty.

One of the points I wanted to touch on was the Bobby Mackey episode. If you live under a rock or don't like the paranormal then you probably don't know about Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder, Kentucky. This place is notorious for having extreme amounts of paranormal activity as well as demonic activity. Yes, demonic activity. ‘Legend' has it that there was a lady named Pearl Bryan. She had a boyfriend named Scott Jackson. He had a friend named Alonzo Walling. Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling killed Pearl because she refused to abort her baby that Scott would have fathered. 

He and his friend were 'rumored occultist or Satanists' and they murdered her by cutting her head off and throwing it down a well then disposing of the body somewhere else. However it is also possible that these two were completely insane, but they could have worshiped Satan. Here's some food for thought, when they were hung on the gallows Alonzo said something to the effect of, "we will haunt the place involved with the crime."

With that story out of the way, it's time to go into the other causes of the paranormal activity as well as more history of Bobby Mackey's Music World. It started out as one of the largest packinghouses in the region in the 1850's. A well was built in the basement for the blood and whatnot to drain out of the building and into wherever it drained into (The licking River most likely), the well would be later known as the gateway to hell. (It is also the only original part of the building that remains.) The slaughterhouse closed down forty years later and everyone assumed the building had been abandoned. If you pay attention to stereotypes, what certain group of people hang around abandoned buildings? Occultists and generally really creepy people up to no good. 

It's rumored that a small satanic group held their rituals in the abandoned slaughterhouse and they managed to remain a secret until their exposed in 1896 because of the Pearl Bryan's murderer. Scott and Alonzo tried to give her an abortion with the use of dental tools, but as the name implies those objects were meant for dental use only and as far as records go they are not doctors. The abortion was botched, Pearl Bryan ended up almost bleeding out, but survived for a bit. They could have sought professional medical attention, but they decided to chop off her head and toss it down the well. The next logical solution was to throw her body about two hundred feet away from the Alexandria Turnpike... The turnpike is less than two miles away from the slaughterhouse, the building that would later become Bobby Mackey's music world. 

Supposedly, Jackson came up with the idea to cut up his girlfriend and then keep her head because her blond hair was later found in his room. They never found her head, but her headless body was discovered. That's where the satanic ritual legend comes into place. Both men refused to reveal where her head was located (and were the last men to be publicly hanged in Campbell County.) Another legend explaining why Jackson refused to reveal the location of her head was that he was afraid of suffering from 'Satan’s wrath' and Walling threatened to come back after his death and haunt the area.

The building would sit completely silent until prohibition in the 1920's. The place was turned into a speakeasy and gambling joint. Obviously, you have your gangs visiting through places like that and all kinds of misfortunes happening, meaning more murders, but the bodies were dumped in other places to keep the attention away from the illegal gambling and liquor operation.

After Prohibition, a man named E.A. 'Buck' Brady purchased the building in 1933 and turned it into a thriving tavern and casino called the Primrose. He enjoyed a few years of success until a syndicate of mobsters from Cincinnati caught wind of the tavern and wanted a slice of the fortune. Brady refused their 'partnership' and bids to buy him out of the Primrose and most likely as a result vandalizing occurred and customers were being jumped and beaten in the parking lot. The violence escalated until Brady got caught up in a shooting in August of 1946. He was charged with the attempted murder of Albert "Red" Masterson but was released sometime later. Despite being released without having to serve little to no jail time, he sold the Primrose to gangsters and swore it would never thrive as a casino again. He committed suicide in 1965.

The next owner turned the building into a club called "The Latin Quarter." The owner had a daughter named Johanna. He was a very protective father and did not approve of his daughter's eventual relationship with one of the singers at the club. This may have led to his demise because after heated arguments, he had his mobster friends murder the singer. Johanna became so depressed and distraught over the death that she tried to kill her father and then committed suicide. She also happened to be five months pregnant. 

Is that an awkward pattern of coincidences? Probably not because when it was a part of the Hard Rock Cafe chain, they went out of business due to a number of violent murders. 

Finally, the arrival of Bobby Mackey and his wife Janet in 1978. They purchased the building and he turned it into a nightclub where he performed there, which worked out because he was already a popular country singer in Kentucky. What does this all have to do with the previous violence and suicide mentioned before?

They hired a man by the name of Carl Lawson.  He was the first employee Bobby hired and his job was the caretaker and handy man at the club. He kept to himself and lived alone in the apartment above the nightclub. Can you guess what happens to him?

If you guessed suicide, you're wrong. If you think he killed someone else, you're still wrong; Carl ends up possessed by demonic forces, if not demonic then definitely negative. Of course nobody believed the loner caretaker when he reported seeing strange things and hearing bizarre noises and voices for months. Soon other people experience frightening activity as well. The only comforting thing that happened was communicating with Johanna, at least it's rumored she leaves the scent of roses when she's around.

He received an exorcism, it got the demons out of him, but the place is still haunted out the ass. He quit and didn't return to the nightclub until Ghost Adventures went there as the start of their first season (I reviewed that episode for Halloween.)

Where's the link with Bobby's wife, Johanna, and Pearl Bryan? Bobby Mackey's wife had an experience when she was five months pregnant, she was in the basement sometime after Carl sprinkled the holy water around the gateway to hell. The holy water royally pissed off the resident evil energy. Bobbby's wife was picked up by the waist and thrown down to the ground. When she got up to run back up to the main floor a voice screamed at her to 'get out' multiple times.

There you have it three different women, all of them were five months pregnant, two of them died horrible deaths however, Bobby Mackey's wife Janet is still alive and well. They were all five months pregnant. Everyone who goes there experiences paranormal activity, it's gotten so bad that someone tried to sue Bobby but the case was later dismissed. As a result there is a sign on the building in big bold letters stating that Bobby and his employees are not responsible for any paranormal activity experienced while at the establishment.

The shows focusing on Bobby Mackey's, I mentioned in the Halloween review, Jerry Springer did an interview with Bobby and Janet, the Discovery Channel show A Haunting covered Carl's possession and the paranormal experiences Janet and Bobby encountered. Ghost Adventures went to Bobby Mackey's multiple times and got what has to be the best evidence of any paranormal show I have ever seen in my entire life. Unfortunately I am not here to gush over how great those shows are, or how amazing evidence of something dark and sinister lurks in the depth of the basement. I am here to bitch about Ghost Hunter's inconsiderate, dream crushing episode they did on Bobby Mackey's Music world.

I got into Ghost Hunters around my first year of high school, so sometime during 2009. Actually I remember running a marathon of the at the end of the Welcome Home party for my brother who returned from Kuwait (it was that awkward down time where it's like three other people and all the food is gone the sun is setting and all you want to do is sleep. Since the summer of 2009, I have followed Ghost Hunters and become a bigger fan of the paranormal. Before that I watched a fun show called A Haunting, so I was fairly acquainted with the insanity that lurks in the basement of Bobby Mackey's Music World. They introduced me to Eastern State Penitentiary, one of the haunted prisons I had on my bucket list of places. It was on my list because I got to go there on a trip last year. I always wondered when TAPS would head over to Wilder and tackle the intimidating force of the nightclub. I'd wait and follow episode after episode, but no news of Bobby Mackey's, until one day, on twitter I saw a tweet from Adam Berry he was having a livestream, and I went there because I've always wanted to talk to a TAPS investigator. Lucky enough, the chat wasn't too crowded and he saw one of my questions, I asked if TAPS planned on investigating Bobby Mackey's music world. He said the episode would be out soon, it was on their second half of the season after their 'mid-season break' that's become so damn popular not just with GH, but with a lot of shows, but I digress. Upon hearing the news, they were heading to Bobby Mackey's, my heart damn near exploded out of my chest with excitement. It's a dream come true, the first paranormal team I've grown to love on TV is finally heading over to Kentucky to investigate a place I've put on my bucket list(It has since been removed.) One of the most negatively haunted places probably in America; it has to make a good episode considering season seven was the season where GH was starting to suck.

Boy was I unprepared for the immense disappointment and the rage that filled me after watching this episode. I was losing faith in TAPS to produce some good evidence instead of jump scares and side interviews explaining every little bump and creek heard inside a building, this episodes was supposed to be the episode that restored my faith in TAPS not completely destroy it.

What destroyed my faith in TAPS?

Let's start with how the fact that it wasn't a single place investigation. Bobby Mackey's takes a while to investigate and the nightclub doesn't get the first half of the episode, some other distillery that nobody cares about got a majority of the screen time. According to Jason, "The minute we walked in there we got a lot of activity" and it was happens almost throughout the entire episodes is TAPS telling us what's going on. You can't hear a damn thing they're talking about, we heard people talking my ass. I also love how claims of footsteps are heard and yet the audience never hears it. If you did hear them then TAPS your camera audio sucks and you need to get better cameras. Of course the stupid place before Bobby Mackey's can get the paranormal seal of approval from TAPS. Nothing of importance happens other than the one incident where a guy was saved by the spirit of Colonel Blanton or whatever the hell his name was, I don't remember and nor do I care for it.

Moving on from that one place I don't care for to the second half of the episode featuring Bobby Mackey's. I really hate rewatching this section, it brings back all the disappointment and rage I felt while watching it the first time.

The first thing they did wrong happens before they get to the place. They are still in the car discussing the case. Remember all that history I told you about before. The three pages of it (according to Open Office, it'll change once I put it in Microsoft because they're weird like that) yeah they decide to shit all over that and not even mention Carl, the poor man who was possessed and his exorcism IS ON YOUTUBE! Hell the Ghost Adventures crew watched it before they investigated Bobby Mackey's the first time they went there.

Rage inducing quote 1: "This place has been investigated by other people and they didn't get the facts right as far as we know...” Grant Wilson.

As far as you know, the facts are wrong.

Really, Grant. Really, you are going to sit there and say the facts are wrong when all you have to do is simply Google Bobby Mackey's Music World and you will get all the facts you need! Are you suggesting that everything I just found is wrong when a good chunk of it came from the nightclub’s website? There are actual news articles suggesting Pearl Bryan's boyfriend, Scott Jackson, was an occultist. Not that the people writing the stories are one-hundred percent truthful, but if it was a lie he would have denied it from the start and revealed where her head was located. The man kept her hair in a jar in his house if that doesn't scream Scott's messed up and dealing with things of 'satanic' nature than I don't know what his definition of a satanic ritual or occultist is.

Range inducing quote 2:

"No they haven't, it's been blown all out of proportion" Jason Hawes.

So you're going to deny the video evidence of a man being exercised, the fact that negative energy was left behind from the violent history of the building, and there are demonic forces at work when Aaron from Ghost Adventures has stated numerous times that after investigating Bobby Mackey's something followed him home and ruined his marriage. Something tormented his wife while he was away and tormented them both while he was at home. Now I'm not saying that was the sole reason as to why he divorced, but Aaron stated he was around eighty percent sure that was what lead to their divorce. Jason, you're really going to sit there and tell the man what he experienced was 'blown out proportion' and what about that guy who tried suing Bobby Mackey for being attacked in a bathroom by an apparition of a guy in a cowboy hat are you going to tell the courts they made it all up?

Oh and then Amy comes in and then continues to take a shit all over the history, Carl doesn't exist and they use the five month thing, they also forgot to mention they couldn't find her head and her body was left two miles outside of the building. Not inside of the building, it was outside next to the freeway. Her body was found next to the freeway without a head. Why did they not mention that? The simple answer is that they have sunk to a new level of low.

This is all I have to say about the interview section of the investigation, where the hell are Bobby, Janet, and Carl? Why did the tour guide ignorantly exclude the demonic activity in the basement? Did I forget to mention there's a sign that warns you about the paranormal activity, you can't hold Bobby or his staff responsible for anything that happens while there. They don't control the ghosts and you shouldn't expect them to either, that's not exactly what the sign says...

Here's the actual sign and the clip from Ghost Adventures, the sign that Ghost Hunters completely ignored...

Yes, Zak I agree with you that is an exciting thing to see,

Unfortunately, that sign has either been removed,

Or TAPS just didn't care to notice it.

Normal people wouldn't put that sign on a building if there were a few scorned women (who were murdered or killed themselves) walking around. The human entities that weren't evil in life aren't that harmful! You would think a paranormal team would know that but nope, not this team. TAPS officially doesn't care about the paranormal, for helping people, or discovering any form of truth. They are run by a company lost to the temptation of cold hard cash and popularity. The only (known and identified) harmful human entities that are in Bobby Mackey's are the two killers located there.The rest are demons. Because that well is reportedly and most definitely a portal.

Rage inducing thing 1: In Ghost Hunters Wanda said Bobby Mackey's wife didn't know what pushed her, but she thought it was Johanna. Bobby Mackey tells Zak a completely different story. They also don't acknowledge the fact that Scott and Alonzo are still haunting the place as if it didn't even happen.

Did anyone notice that Zak Bagans and his two teammates were able to interview Bobby Mackey in the first episode of their first season, but Ghost Hunters couldn't get him on the show. What does that say about them? I don't know. I'm going to flip flop between Ghost Adventures because it's the only thing keeping me sane.

Wanda, here's what I think about that entity you call George, I think you are full of shit. That's probably an unidentified murder victim,  Scott, or Alonzo. Stop acting like you are clueless to the past and tell the truth.If you did but the editors cut it out and kept the bullshit, they need to be fired. It would make sense that it was probably the demon that possessed Carl.

The tour guide is name is Wanda Kay. I would like to point out to Wanda that there's no physical proof of what he did or didn't say to Pearl. How do you know he said he had no intentions of marrying her? I mean that was most likely why he tried to abort the baby, but still who are you to spread around hearsay? You also forgot the part that his friend helped kill her; you forgot a lot of information.

Side Note: Now that I actually remember where the well was located, it flowed into the Licking River, but since it's not in use, it doesn't connect to the river any more. Ghost Adventures Crew saw that as an opportunity to investigate the well. I thought that was different and interesting.

Rage inducing quote 3: When Jason asks Wanda what she wants out of this investigation; she says, "I just want to figure out who's haunting the place."

Wanda are you on drugs? You don't need TAPS to prove a damn thing. You work there and you have customers who will tell you what they've seen and experienced. Oh wait I forgot about TAPS being famous and all...  She just wants the exposure. That's probably why Bobby isn't in the episode and neither is Carl.

Rage moment number 4: "We walked in and noticed there's a high K2 field."

Apparently, everything in Ghost Hunters revolves around their EMF fields measured with the K2 meter; if I remember correctly TAPS stated that not a lot of people are highly sensitive to EMF fields (in whichever season they first mentioned it, probably their first season.) Somewhere along the line they dropped that theory and now every place they investigate has high K2 measurements and never explain why the readings are so high. Deep down inside I think they knew this place was extremely haunted, but they wanted to make a statement by proving everyone wrong. So they wrote off their intense K2 measurements as a random event. They also forgot that K2 readings have to be constant to be considered 'natural.' The area is always like this no matter how high or how low the base number is, the spikes (or drops) are what you have to look for. If the place has a naturally high EMF/K2 reading, normally you look for the source and it's probably some electrical equipment necessary to run the building.

Rage inducing moment number (i lost track): They said they thought Johanna threw Janet Mackey down the stairs. On Ghost Adventures it is stated that Janet identified the figure she saw as Alonzo Waling.

At this point, I don't even want to compare and contrast the investigation because it's evident which show wins. Ghost Adventures wins because they do what Ghost Hunters refuse to do. They have a pair of balls.

I once looked up and idolized TAPS, I wanted to go ghost hunting with them, and I wanted to study the paranormal in hopes of contributing to their show. Now I want nothing to do with them. The only minor thread keeping me interested is anything TAPS related my crush on Steve, but that's almost disappeared since this episode aired. I can't comprehend how TAPS failed so miserably at this place when every other person who visits Bobby Mackey's has some experience in some way shape or form on a large scale. 
I don't judge people when they say, 'yeah I watch a show because (name here) is attractive,' if that's you're reasoning, good for you. I don't care and I'm not going to judge. For me however, I need more than that to keep me interested. And Ghost Hunters has lost everything that was once interesting. They don't even have anything paranormal on the show anymore. And therefore they should not be allowed to be on television under the guise of paranormal television...

Not all paranormal teams will get the same evidence when they investigate a place. 

Bullshit, TAPS went to Trans- Allegheny lunatic asylum at least three different times and they got 'good' evidence each time they went there,  if only it was actually captured on camera and not told through personal stories. Ghost Adventures went there too and got even better evidence than TAPS did. Zak, Nick and Aaron are truly the better Ghost hunting team. Three guys with no camera crew beat out six people known worldwide for ghost hunting. TAPS puts the paranormal field to shame. I hope they end within the next few years because I'm quite sick of their crap. They are lying to the world and it's the same thing GHI does, they're titles and trailers are no different from the fake titles and thumbnails used by YouTube whores. At least when Ghost Adventures goes to a place and it's not as great as it seems, the trailers sort of show it as well.

I think I've covered everything I want to cover right now. This review will change and update itself when I find more bits to rage over because that episode was shit and I wish it never happened. I feel pathetic for even hoping they would try to find something... oh and as proof there's something fucked up going on at Bobby Mackey's Music world, there are more episode of GA where the same damn things happen, only difference they had one hundred fans on the investigation with them. Go watch their return episode here and come tell me TAPS still cares about what they do and helping people in paranormal trouble.

I honestly hope TAPS learns to grow up and go back to their roots or they need to stop working with the paranormal.

~Pugsly~

PS: Mike Haberman I'm sorry to disappoint you, but TAPS turned Bobby Mackey's into a joke... a laughing stock and the people who don't watch any other paranormal shows and have never heard of A Haunting, ate this episode up... Awesome… 

**UPDATE: On June 26th 2014 I edited and updated this. Some point in time Ghost Adventures Aftershocks: Thoughts on Bobby Mackey's episode will be up. As I reviewed this, I realized the whole episode TAPS did is the same as stacking up a bunch of dominoes and knocking them over. So much evidence is against them. And it makes me sick. TAPS has since lost most of it's original members. They have left the show and to me this is a sign of weakness in the show's strength. They will be cancelled soon if they keep losing people like this. I'm glad. Clearly if they couldn't handle seven seasons they won't make it past ten.**