Historians scold ghost hunters

FRED MUSANTE, Editor November 22, 2006

If something's strange in your historic district, who're you going to call?

A group of homegrown ghost hunters have run afoul of the Stratford Historical Society over the accuracy of claims the group made during a series of "ghost tours" last month.

The SGRA even claimed that the Judson House, which the society operates as a museum and its headquarters, is haunted. Stratford Historical Society Curator Carol W. Lovell scoffed at the assertion as completely unfounded.

"It is regrettable that, after 80 years of effort on the part of Historical Society volunteers, the two weekend 'ghost tours' have left misunderstanding and misinterpretation in the minds of our community," Lovell wrote in a terse letter to news media organizations. Several other members of the society's governing board co-signed it.

Jon Nowinski, SGRA director, seemed taken aback by the society's reaction and said he is writing a letter to reply.

He and three other SGRA members conducted the tours on Oct. 20, 21, 27 and 28 in the late afternoon and early evening, and charged $2 per person.

A Westport resident who was one of the tour guides, Nowinski denied that he and the other tour guides said some of the things the society was angry about.

He added the tour guides all started with a cautionary disclaimer that the stories they would tell should not be taken as historical fact.

"Some of the things they said we said were simply not said at all," he said.

The SGRA is a self-styled "paranormal investigation agency" that delves into suspected ghosts, UFOs, government conspiracies and strange animals like Bigfoot, and runs a paranormal conference each June in Stratford.

Lovell said the Historical Society was "upset" over most of the tour information, but most of all about the SGRA's reports of "mysterious happenings" at the society's library.

A member of the society's board and two families who have society memberships took the tour out of curiosity and reported the historical inaccuracies to the society.

She said the SGRA told tour participants that there were reports of books re-shelving themselves and other weird events at the society's headquarters, though no society staff member had ever heard of them.

Lovell said visitors who use the society's archives are never left alone, so it is "highly unlikely" that anyone experienced a mysterious happening without the staff being aware of it.

"Nothing has ever happened," she said. "No one ever said anything has happened."

Some of the claims focused on Christ Episcopal Church and its graveyard on Academy Hill across the street from the Judson House. Lovell said those claims were false as well.

For example, the graveyard has been divided into grids so the church can perform research for its tercentennial celebration next year. Lovell said the SGRA claimed the state archeologist was conducting an investigation there and soon the state will shoot pellets into the ground to count the burial sites, neither of which is true.

The SGRA also reportedly stated that 500 British soldiers occupied Academy Hill in the Revolutionary War, and some used the golden rooster on the Episcopal church's steeple for target practice.

Lovell said no British soldiers set foot in Stratford during the Revolutionary War, unless you count Loyalist militia raiders who landed by boat in Lordship and stole some sheep.

However, British soldiers camped on Academy Hill during the French and Indian War two decades earlier and shot at the rooster, she said.

Another claim made during the ghost tours was that the pirate Capt. Kidd visited Stratford, something Lovell said is purely legend.

She complained that the SGRA started its stories with a "germ of truth" and spun "an encyclopedia" around it.

Nowinski countered that the SGRA has received e-mails from people who said when they did research in the Stratford Historical Society's archives "they felt like someone was standing over them."

He admitted he never experienced it himself and said the SGRA never reveals the identities of people who report paranormal experiences to it.

Stratford, in fact, is full of ghosts, Nowinski said, and many residents are willing to report supernatural encounters. "I don't think the town is more active [than other communities]," he said.

The reports the SGRA receive involve apparitions, noises, lights and strange feelings - "what you would think is your typical ghost experience," he said.

Nowinski insisted he approached the society three times - by e-mail, in person and by phone - requesting its help with fact-checking, but Lovell didn't get back to him until the day before the first tours, and by then it was too late.

Lovell said no historical society member could recall SGRA's request for fact-checking assistance.

She said she knows several people with psychic abilities, "so I'm not dissing this group."

But when it comes to history, she draws the line. "When you're talking about history," she said, "you should be historically accurate.