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[uneasy music]

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- I basically got involved with the paranormal

because I grew up in haunted houses.

My parents had a knack for picking them out.

Doors slamming, lights turning on and off,

things moving, it was just always,

always a part of my life.

My great-grandmother, their roots are from Ireland,

but eventually the moved to Centralia,

and that's the side of the family

that really has these experiences.

It was very normal,

"Oh, so-and-so has a ghost in that house."

Centralia is a coal mining town

in the middle of Pennsylvania,

and in about 1962, there was a fire

that wasn't put out correctly,

and it did inspire elements in the movie "Silent Hill,"

but that's not the only true story that inspired movies.

There's other ones like "Amityville Horror,"

"Poltergeist," and "The Mothman Prophecies."

They've all hit the big screen,

and they were all based on true stories.

So I'm gonna take a couple of my friends with me

on a little road trip,

and we're actually gonna go meet

the real people behind the movies.

[funky, edgy music]

♪ ♪

♪ Oh ♪ [echoing]

♪ Don't back down ♪

♪ Don't back down ♪

♪ Don't back down ♪

♪ Oh ♪

[echoing]

- Every now and again

I kinda see hints of,

"Are we actually in danger if we do this?"

and the truth of the matter is there is crazy stories

out there where things do follow people home,

and they do mess up people's lives,

and people are physically attacked,

and I can't promise them

that none of that would happen to them if they do this.

- Can they physically hurt you? - Demons?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

[uneasy music]

"Amityville Horror" is based off of

Jay Anson's bestselling novel.

It basically follows the Lutz family,

who moved into this house where six murders occurred.

After 28 days of living there, they had to take off

because of all the paranormal activity

that they were experiencing.

- "The Amityville Horror."

It's probably the most iconic horror movie

in history.

It's the model of how to create a good horror movie.

- "The Amityville Horror"

is something that truly inspired me

to not only become a fan of horror and horror fiction

but also to become a writer of horror fiction,

and I've been guilty of taking the drive down Ocean Avenue

and looking at the house

and using that as inspiration for the house in my novel,

"Dead Souls."

- One of the parts that is burned into my memory

from "the Amityville"

is those two little windows in the house,

and, you know, every time I, even to this day,

drive by a house that has them, I just--I keep going.

- "Amityville Horror," for me,

I think they really captured feelings

you would feel being in that situation,

having this new family, a beautiful house

in a beautiful, quiet little neighborhood,

and then all of a sudden all hell breaks loose--literally.

- All of the themes, the horror themes

that come out of that movie have become almost cliche...

[all yelling, screaming]

Right up to the very end

where they all bolt out of the house at the end

before, I don't know, the house eats them, I suppose.

I mean, you see this

in every single horror depiction ever since.

You know, run out of the house in the middle of the night,

like, pulling an Amityville, I guess.

The question, of course, is

does it have any relationship whatsoever

to the events that happened at that house?

- Today we're actually going to meet with one of the boys

who grew up in the house during the actual haunting.

- Up until this point, you've not heard

what really happened in that house

or what happened after.

It wasn't just because of the murders

that had taken place in that house.

With what George was doing--

that's what triggered the events.

That's why it followed us.

That's why nobody else has had a problem in that house since.

The house was gonna be a giant new playground.

What it turned into was quite different.

- A lot of people believe that Amityville was a demonic case.

The Lutzes move in.

They have the 28 days of paranormal activity

that forces them to leave their brand-new house.

What caused something to happen to them to leave?

It's kind of what we call a perfect storm--

the right family,

the right time, the right conditions,

and that's what led to their house being haunted.

[eerie music]

- My first thought was I was just excited

to see the actual house,

and as we started to get closer, I started to think,

"We're gonna be right in front of that place."

I started to get a little nervous.

[eerie music]

- Up top there, that was my bedroom.

- Kind of weird and shocking to finally be here

and to finally see the house. The house looks so different.

I don't know. I'm kinda taken back a little bit to be here

because it's such a beautiful town, you know,

and when you read about it, when you see the movie,

I mean, they make it look so creepy.

I mean, you would never guess that, you know,

30, 60 years ago

this family had to leave in the middle of the night,

you know, because they were hearing knocks and bangs,

and they were having ghost problems.

You would never guess that something like that would have

rocked this community to make it national news.

- Changing my name, that was my form--

my own form of witness protection.

For my whole life--

this story's been out for 35 years.

It's been told, retold.

This story's never gonna go away.

It's a part of American history.

It'll probably out-survive me.

You know, a lot of people contest a lot of--about

whether or not anything happened in that house.

- Mm-hmm. - And I can tell you assuredly

that yes, things did happen.

They're not the way that they were spoken of publicly.

When I read Jay Anson's book, it had--

it had portrayed my stepfather

as though he was a victim of this house

and a hero to our family.

Yet the real difference was that they had omitted

that George was involved in the occult,

calling up these spirits.

The fact that it was in that house

is what created the storm.

- His stepfather was dabbling in the occult very heavily,

much more than's been,

you know, let known to the public,

and Christopher strongly believes

that's why all these things happened,

that it wasn't only his stepfather dabbling in things

he shouldn't have been dabbling in,

but he did it in a house that just had six murders.

- Today police combed the DeFeo's

handsome three-story house for clues

while divers explored the backyard swimming pool

for the still-unfound murder weapon.

Few people in the neighborhood knew the family well,

but those who did described them as close-knit.

- They were just very sweet, very religious people,

very family-minded people,

and that's about all I could say, very good, very generous,

this type, you know, very close with their children.

- There's one element in the usual mass murder story

which seems to be missing from this case--

no feeling of a mass murderer on the loose.

People we talked to seemed to feel

that whatever was the motive for this crime,

it had something to do with the family.

It's not something that's going to return

to bother anyone else.

In Amityville, Long Island, Phil Barno, NewsCenter 4.

- My parents had a priest come in to bless the home.

He'd gone up into what we called our sewing room,

and that room was the, uh,

the room of the younger boys

of the DeFeo family

who had both been murdered in that room.

It was the oldest son. Shot his mother,

shot his father, shot his two little brothers

and then two younger sisters, all of them in their beds.

Nobody heard the shots.

[camera lens snaps]

[heavy music]

When we were first buying the house,

we were down in the basement with the real estate agent,

and it was my brother, my sister,

myself, my mom, and my stepdad,

and the real estate agent was there.

And I remember asking,

"Is this where they hid the bodies?"

- I grew up on Long Island,

actually not too far from Amityville,

and I remember as a 12-year-old boy

delivering the "New York Daily News."

I was a newspaper boy.

And I saw the headlines of the DeFeo murder.

I'll never forget that.

It was chilling and very disturbing.

- This morning DeFeo appeared for arraignment

at the First District Court in Hauppauge,

where he was ordered held without bail.

As is standard practice in a multiple murder case,

he was arraigned in only one of the killings,

that of his 12-year-old brother Mark.

The court agreed to let a physician treat DeFeo

for injuries to his face, but it refused to allow

a psychiatric examination for him.

- I don't think he presently understands

the nature of the proceedings, and I don't think

he can therefore properly assist in his defense.

- Simon says he'll continue trying to get

the psychiatric examination for his client,

and he has not ruled out the possibility

that he may enter a plea of insanity.

- The Lutzes brought a priest in to bless the house

because of all the stuff that happened there beforehand

with the murders and everything,

and the priest's report said he did hear a voice yell,

"Get out."

- To come home from school, and they said, "We're leaving."

Towards the end, there was no question

how terrified they were.

- So the original "Amityville Horror" movie in 1979,

compare and contrast, you know?

I mean, what was real? What wasn't?

- Well, there's a lot that was absolutely fictionalized.

There was no bleeding walls.

They took things that were legitimate and overblew them.

- I was kinda sad to find out that the bleeding walls

in the Amityville movie--

that was just Hollywood,

and I can't blame them, you know?

They gotta sell the tickets, so it makes for great theater.

- Christopher claims there was activity,

but it was on a much lower scale.

- For instance, when the priest was in the room

to bless that room, there were flies present.

Not the hundreds that they show,

but yes, there was--there was an unusual amount of flies

in the house for wintertime.

- But he wasn't being, like, attacked or swarmed?

- No.

Look, I was just a little kid when we lived there.

I had no say in how the book was written,

and then for that movie to be developed the way that it was,

or the other ones that followed.

What really happened there is much different.

What I witnessed in that house still sticks with me today.

[eerie music]

[off-key notes]

[haunting music]

To see something materialize at your bed

that appears like a man that's as definite as a shadow

but not against the wall--

for a seven-year-old kid to have to go through that,

I was petrified. I couldn't move.

I was just, like, thinking, "This thing's coming after me"

and I wanted to scream for my mother,

yet I knew she couldn't

be there before this thing could get to me.

- I can just picture it right now,

him sitting up in bed as a seven-year-old kid--

absolutely terrifying.

- Going back to the movie, you know, a big tie-in,

it was a, you know, Native American burial grounds.

Any truth to it?

- I can't verify for you whether or not

that home is built directly on the Indian burial ground.

- Mm-hmm. - But history records do record

that white men... - Mm-hmm.

- Mass-murdered many Indians in this area.

- What you had there is a fairly small population,

a very peaceful woodland society of Native Americans

who run into greedy Europeans with guns.

There was at least one man, Captain John Underhill,

who was recruited in the 17th century to go out,

and he had done such a great job

in the Pequot Wars up in New England,

wiping out thousands of Indians there,

they said, "Well, come on down to Long Island."

And he proceeded to kill at least 100, probably more,

Native Americans living in Long Island.

Horrific, horrific tragedies

that were taking place at that time.

- So you think that maybe there's a tie

in between the land,

between all these hauntings here on Long Island?

- Something's making something go on.

There's many stories on Long Island of--

even in 1958,

the Herrmann case not far from here.

- How far?

- Probably about five minutes away.

- Small pieces of furniture

started flying around the house.

- Got actually really scary.

- It definitely solidified that you were a believer

in the events that were happening

in the Herrmann house? - Yes, it did.

- A local university uncovered Native American bones

that they do believe are a part of

some of the phenomenon happening around here.

- So this doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

- This is freaky.

- The Indian burial grounds here are causing the activity?

- Yeah, yeah.

- It'll be like that scene in "Poltergeist."

We're swimming among dead Indian bodies.

- Oh, stop.

- You think we're standing on bodies?

- I don't know. It's kinda--it's kinda creepy.

[dramatic musical sting]

- So you think that maybe there's a tie, then,

between the land,

between all these hauntings here on Long Island?

- There's many stories on Long Island.

Even in 1958, the Herrmann case not far from here.

- How far?

- Probably about five minutes away.

[uneasy music]

- Finding out Amityville and the Herrmann story

were within 10, 15 minutes of each other,

it really kind of drove it home to me

that it maybe wasn't just each individual house,

and maybe the entire area was...

was kinda dark.

- "Poltergeist" the movie was released in 1982

and was a huge box office success.

A lot of people believe

that "Poltergeist" is actually based off of

the Herrmann case in 1958 on Long Island.

- Seaford, Long Island, the Herrmann family

starts experiencing some truly inexplicable and bizarre

and frightening activity in their house.

[dark music]

- Everything was very normal

until that day in February, 1958.

My parents tried to keep our life as normal as possible

when you have flying objects in your house.

Small pieces of furniture

started flying around the house--

figurines, lamps, my brother's globe.

Finally my father said, "Enough of this,"

and he said, "I'm calling the police."

And that's why it became a police case.

- Mm-hmm. - Perhaps maybe

unlike the other cases, ours was a police case.

- No crime had been committed.

What was happening gave no sign of being a threat

to the physical wellbeing of the Herrmann family.

Was this a legitimate matter for the police?

The decision was yes, and so on Tuesday,

February 11th, Sergeant Joseph Tozzi

was assigned to full-time duty on the case,

and here is Sergeant Tozzi.

Joe, suppose you outline for us your exact procedure

just as soon as you were assigned to the case.

- First, of course, I met with the Herrmann family

and had a number of talks with them.

I worked out the position of every member of the family

at the time of every incident.

Then I took a sampling of the bottles that were involved,

sent them to the police laboratory for analysis.

- And their report? - Negative.

- All of a sudden, you'd hear this very strange,

loud noise like a popping bottle sound,

and it was, "Well, what is that?"

So you go running towards the noise.

You look around for one second,

and you see that things

are not where they were supposed to be,

and then you would eventually find a bottle

that was maybe 12 feet away from where it was.

You went to the bottle,

and all the contents inside of it

were completely gone and evaporated,

and the bottle was very hot to the touch.

- In the following month,

there were a number of other incidents.

Tables moved. Lamps fell over.

Pictures turned off-balance.

A phonograph smashed across a room.

Figurines hopped from their places.

And there were strange noises in the house.

The Herrmanns live in this modest green-trimmed

ranch house in Seaford, Long Island.

- Just about everything that wasn't nailed down

decided it wanted to fly all around.

- The phonograph flew from this table across the room,

hit the shadow box,

and made a dent here, and of course,

my brother and I miss playing this phonograph very much,

and it landed on the floor and broke.

There was a very large bookcase

that pr--weighed a couple of hundred pounds,

and it lifted up into the air and flew across the basement,

probably about 6 feet, before it fell down

to the cement floor of the basement.

- Is this the bookcase, Mrs. Herrmann?

- That's right, Mr. Murrow,

and as you can see, it's quite a heavy piece of furniture.

This made the loudest crash.

I thought the whole house caved in.

- With the Herrmann case, we're talking 1958,

conservative Long Island,

so here you have this family saying, you know,

"Our bookshelves are moving,

and things are flying across the room."

People are gonna raise an eyebrow at that

and say it's gotta be somebody faking it, right?

- This is Jim Jr. - Evening, Jimmy. How are you?

- Good evening, Mr. Murrow.

- Look, just what happened here in your room, anyway?

- Well, one of the things that happened in my room,

Mr. Murrow, was this globe.

It flew off the top of this bookcase

and right through my door and into the living room

and crashed onto the living room floor.

- The big turning point in this case

was a writer from "Newsday," David Kahn,

actually came to Long Island, stayed in the house,

because he was a skeptic and didn't believe it,

and he actually experienced the activity

that they were claiming to have happen.

- There was a lot of suspicion that the kid was doing it

or that there was some hanky-panky going on,

and I wanted to see what the actual situation was,

and they invited me over. That was the night

I was positioning myself in the living room

facing Jim Herrmann's room, the boy's room,

and out from that room flew a globe of the world.

- My brother and I went to our regular routine, went to bed.

So did my parents.

Mr. Kahn sat up in the living room

waiting to catch an event.

[quiet music]

[squeak]

Very late into the evening,

a globe that my brother had in his bedroom

came flying from my brother's bedroom

before it landed on the floor in the living room.

- I immediately dashed into the room

to see whether I could catch Jim Herrmann doing it.

He was in his bed with the covers pulled up.

- After that incident,

the stories that he wrote for "Newsday,"

you know, he was--he was

a believer of our events and not skeptical.

- It definitely solidified that you were a believer

in the events

that were happening in the Herrmann house?

- Yes, it did.

[heavy music]

- Lucille, how did you feel about the strange things

that were happening at your house?

- It was pretty scary. I didn't like it.

- We opened our house to every qualified investigator

who was interested-- scientists, engineers,

those who might come up with a legitimate answer.

- They had paranormal investigators come over

from Duke University

to observe all the activity going on in the house.

- The Duke team, like everyone else

who came to investigate this,

came away with the idea that, yes,

this was a legitimate phenomenon.

This was not a hoax.

A nd they hypothesized

that a lot of this was revolving around the son,

who was, I think, 14 years old at the time, James Jr.

The idea was floated out there--

and I think this has become a very common idea

in paranormal research now--

is that adolescents, primarily girls, but also boys,

seem to be a magnet for entities.

- It's very literally this person that's giving off

all of this energy,

and they're causing the activity around them.

- Science has been taking a long, hard second look

at many of these unusual occurrences.

In 1930, this work took a giant step forward

with the establishment at Duke University

of its now-famous parapsychology laboratory.

Tonight we have with us Dr. J. Gaither Pratt,

assistant director of the laboratory,

who spent ten days at the Herrmann house

on Long Island investigating the case.

Dr. Pratt, what brought you to Seaford?

- The typical poltergeist case

centers around some youngster in the turbulent teens.

Certainly it is always associated

with some living person.

The Seaford case may have great significance for our research.

If we could not explain these incidents

in ordinary psychological terms,

such as hallucinations or pranks,

then the possibility remain

that they might be parapsychological.

- There was a time toward the end of this--

and it only lasted just over a month--

that it got actually really scary.

- We left the house only one night

in the total six weeks of the event,

and that was when Detective Joseph Tozzi was there with us.

It was a very volatile night.

Things were moving and flying all around the house,

probably almost about every 30 seconds.

- My father was a no-nonsense detective.

Even on his deathbed, the case was still--

was still eating at him because,

like I said in the beginning,

he was a cop and nah, you know, there's no ghosts,

and then at the end

he just hated that the case was never solved

and he couldn't solve it,

and I think he became a believer.

- Well, so far as you're concerned,

then, a complete mystery?

- I can offer no acceptable explanation.

I'm afraid that's true of the entire case.

The file is still open.

I was on the case during the entire series of disturbances.

For that matter, I'm still on the case.

We don't feel we're any nearer to a solution now

than when we started.

So far as the police are concerned,

we must list this case as unsolved.

- Thank you very much, Sergeant Tozzi.

- There really hasn't been a good understanding

as to why it started and why it ended.

- It's still an open case

on the Seaford Police Department books.

They never closed the case, 'cause it was never solved.

- You've got very credible people, journalists,

professional journalists, police,

who attested to these very bizarre things happening.

- It was really, really amazing to meet Lucille

'cause she's the actual family member

who inspired the "poltergeist" phenomena.

- This was the case, incidentally,

where the word 'poltergeist'

made its way into popular lingo.

I mean, everyone really knew about this.

It was very widely publicized at the time.

- There's a lot of controversy

as to what "Poltergeist" the movie

is actually based off of,

but you can see elements of the real-life case

in the movie, such as furniture stacking...

[tense music]

- [gasps] [bottle thumps on floor]

- Paranormal researchers coming and trying to figure out

what's really happening in the house--

very similar to Lucille's case.

- How long have you been investigating haunted houses?

- Well, Mrs. Freeling-- - Diane.

- Diane, the determination

as to whether your home is haunted

is not very easy.

I--what I meant to say was it might very well

be a poltergeist intrusion instead of a classic haunting.

- There was a lamp in the real house

that moved over to the other side of the room,

turn on, turn off and on.

In the movie you can see clearly

as everything's whirling around

and the paranormal investigators come in,

it kinda comes by.

Light bulb screws in, turns on, you know,

so that's definitely a nod to the real story.

- In the "Poltergeist" movie,

when stuff is getting sucked out of the bedroom,

very prominent in the shot's a big globe.

- When all the things are getting sucked

into the vortex of the closet,

there's a big world globe that comes rolling in.

- There are some definite ties

that even if Spielberg doesn't really say

he takes the story directly from the Herrmanns,

you can kinda make that leap.

- And then, of course, there's things

that didn't really happen in real life,

like the tree coming and taking the boy away.

[tree roaring]

[both screaming]

The little girl getting sucked into the closet...

- Aah!

Mom, Dad--

aah!

- Communicating through the TV.

Obviously that never happened in the Herrmann case.

- The Herrmanns' house did not get sucked into a vortex.

We saw the house, you know?

Yeah, we could see it.

[crashing, tearing, splintering sounds]

- I think my favorite scene in "Poltergeist"

is when the paranormal investigator's in the bathroom,

and his face is melting off,

and it's just dripping into the sink,

and he's just pulling flesh off of his face,

and you see his--you see his skull and everything.

That part really stuck with me.

That--I have dreams about that sometimes.

Yeah, I was--I was kinda sad to find out that didn't occur.

- Things flew around the house,

and that much we can say they have in common for sure.

[dramatic musical sting]

- All over Long Island

there are just Native Americans that were slaughtered.

That's what the--Dan Martinez was telling us.

- Dan was telling us about this Indian burial ground

that had a lot of paranormal activity

and a lot of reports of some creepy stuff going on.

- He's been here, and he's had stuff happen.

- Look at this. This is huge.

- There's like a whole tribe of Indians buried here.

- Let's go step on the mound in the Indian burial ground.

Nothing bad could come out of that.

- There's an actual "Poltergeist" curse

where a bunch of people

that were actually in the film died prematurely.

- Oh, yeah, oh, you mean the actual movie?

- Do you know why they say

there's a curse around the film?

It also has to do with bones.

[dramatic musical sting]

[dramatic musical sting]

[eerie, off-key notes]

- So the guys went off to talk to Dan Martinez

so we could get a better feel

for where the supercharged places are on the island

so we could explore them.

- A lot of people said that things were occurring

because of Indian burial grounds, like, sacred grounds.

- Recently a local university uncovered Native American bones

that they do believe are a part of some of the phenomenon

happening around here.

- His biggest kinda revelation to us

was that the entire island

has all kinds of paranormal activity,

due mostly to Indian burial grounds

scattered all over the place.

- The guys came back saying that there is actually,

you know, an Indian burial ground

that's not too far from where we were.

- Dan was telling us about this Indian burial ground

that had a lot of paranormal activity

and a lot of reports of some creepy stuff going on.

So that's--that's where we decided we were gonna go.

- This is creepy. So what do you look for

when you're looking for Indian burial grounds?

- Maybe kind of unmarked graves, little mounds.

All over Long Island

there are just Native Americans that were slaughtered.

That's what the--Dan Martinez was telling us.

- He's, like, a firm believer that

the Indian burial grounds here are causing activity?

- He said that they've definitely looked into it

and that sort of thing,

and that's why he's like, "Yeah, this is--this is a place

with intensity, high--high activity."

- He's been here? - Yeah, yeah.

- And he's had stuff happen? - Yeah.

It makes me think that--you know,

what's underneath?

- You think we're standing on bodies?

- I don't know.

It's kinda--it's kinda creepy. It freaks me out.

- All right, hand. - Here. Oh.

- Hand. - Hand.

Yeah, I was just freaked out

to be walking on top of an Indian burial ground

which a lot of people say

is a cause for a lot of paranormal activity

all over that place.

Whenever we saw a mound, we, you know,

the first thing we thought was,

"Oh, maybe there are Indian bones in there."

Let's go step on the--on the mound

in the Indian burial ground.

Nothing bad could come out of that.

Look at this. Look at this.

- Ooh, those are serious mounds.

- Let's go check it out.

- No, not--you go ahead. You are just so chivalrous.

- All right, hold on. Just hold on.

- Go ahead.

- Manners don't stop being important in the woods.

Charity was scared.

She was terrified to be walking around this burial ground,

so I just wanted to make sure she knew she was in good hands.

Complete lie, but if she felt better, then I felt better.

This is freaky. Look at this. This is huge.

- There's like a whole tribe of Indians buried here.

I hope we don't fall into a grave.

- It'll be like that scene in "Poltergeist."

We're swimming among dead Indian bodies.

- Oh, stop. This doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

- I mean, look at this thing.

I don't know if I wanna walk on the mound.

- Going to Indian burial grounds

is always an iffy thing to do.

I just think it's asking for trouble.

There was apparently a man that was hired,

basically as a hit man

to take out like 100 Native Americans.

- What? - There's an actual

"Poltergeist" curse where a bunch of people

that were actually in the film died prematurely.

- Oh, yeah, oh, you mean the actual movie.

- Do you know why they--they say

there's a curse around the film?

It also has to do with bones.

Like, in that scene where the mom falls into the pool,

and it's raining, and the mud's falling into the pool,

and then all the bodies start coming out of the soil--

those were real bodies.

It was more expensive to buy fake bodies

than to use real cadaver bones,

and so that's why everybody says

that the film was actually cursed.

- So do you wanna see

if we can find Charity and John?

- Yeah, we should probably head back

and just team up, make sure no one's lost.

So it's back this way. - Okay.

- Up this little hill right here.

- What--what person dies and says,

"I'd like to dedicate my body to--"

- Hey, where you going? - "To art and movies?"

So Charity's just laying out

all these details about this curse,

and pretty much it's because they used real bones,

real skeletons at the end of the movie in the pool

where all the bodies are coming up.

Those are real people, or they once were, anyway.

So she's telling me this story,

and we're out in the middle of nowhere

standing on this mound in an Indian burial ground.

I mean, that was enough for me.

I was ready to go.

Suddenly, packing onto the RV

and heading to Point Pleasant, West Virginia,

hunting for Mothman didn't seem like such a bad idea.

- I have talked to people, a lot of people who've seen,

you know, whatever this thing was, you know?

And they weren't real thrilled about it.

- Witnesses of the Mothman figure

did come away with this feeling

that he was not fun to play with,

that Mothman was dangerous.

- We were about halfway down this road

when my brother noticed it running

or flying beside the car.

- It came over top of the car.

They realized that, you know,

this thing had a 12-foot wingspan.

- All I seen was eyes going--

great big at the front and going to a point.

- When you first arrive in Point Pleasant,

it's very scary to think,

"What if one day he comes back?"

[uneasy music]

The TNT factory was over here,

and they were coming the opposite direction,

and they spotted him over there.

- Perfect.

- What's the worst-case scenario

that could happen out here?

- Well, Mothman swoops in and takes us off and kills us.

- Be quiet.

[dark, uneasy music]

- Oh, crap. Something over there.

Oh-- - Oh.

- Ooh! - What was that?

[dramatic musical sting]

[heavy music]

♪ ♪

- Living on the RV,

you don't really have to brush your teeth.

You just have to hold your toothbrush,

and the highway and the rocking from the RV

will brush the teeth for you.

It's kinda like a dentist you don't have to pay for.

[eerie music]

- "The Mothman Prophecies" was released in 2002

and is actually based off of John Keel's book

of the same name, "The Mothman Prophecies."

- John Keel went to Point Pleasant

because there were a whole lot of UFO sightings

going on there at the time.

And in fact, 1966 was a major year of UFO activity

in the entire United States,

and Point Pleasant was a major scene of activity as well.

[eerie, off-key notes]

And it's when Keel is there

that he learns of these really strange sightings

that people are having...

Of this creature.

- "The Mothman Prophecies"

was a great psychological thriller.

I mean, that definitely got into my head,

and that was--that was preying pretty hard on me

as we were pulling into West Virginia.

- Chris did seem a little uneasy about Mothman,

and I never really sat down and talked with him about it,

but my guess would be because nobody knows what it is.

Is it an alien?

Is it an interdimensional being?

Is it a species that we have yet to identify?

Did it cause the Silver Bridge collapse?

Is this thing bringing doom wherever it goes,

or is it a warning sign that something bad's gonna happen?

There's all these elements of mystery

and unknowns surrounding Mothman.

When you first arrive in Point Pleasant,

it's very scary to think,

"What if one day he comes back?"

- Point Pleasant kinda reminds me of a town

that I grew up in,

but at the same time,

this looked like the town from the movie.

[heavy, eerie music]

♪ ♪

- It does look a lot like the movie,

and it kinda brings you right into the 1960s

when everything was going on with Mothman

and when the Silver Bridge collapsed.

We're about to meet with Jeff Wamsley,

who is the curator of the Mothman Museum.

- November 15, 1966,

there were two young couples riding around the TNT area,

and that was a military installation

during World War II.

About 11:00 at night

they were getting ready to come back into town.

As they were driving by this north power plant,

they came up on what they thought

was just a man standing in the road.

As they got closer, Linda Scarberry, you know,

one of the people in the car,

saw two red eyes about the size of baseballs, 2 inches apart.

It came over top of the car. They realized that, you know,

this thing had a 12-foot wingspan.

They first met with the sheriff's department.

I have three of the four original

handwritten depositions.

It all tells the story.

There was a local newspaper reporter named Mary Hyre.

- Mm-hmm. - She broke the story.

She wrote about all this in the local newspapers.

Everybody read the newspaper. What she put in her articles,

you know, people would read it on a daily basis.

She joined forces with John Keel.

They tried to solve the mystery.

She had a lot of strange things, you know,

Mothman sightings, the UFO sightings.

Then you had these men in black

intimidating the witnesses.

You know, the bridge collapsed. 46 people perished.

It all happened within, you know, a year and a half

of the original sightings and stuff.

I was only six years old, you know, when that happened,

but, you know, I distinctly remember hearing it,

you know, almost 5 miles away.

- Physically, you heard the bridge collapse?

- Yeah, yeah. It sounded like a sonic boom.

- How accurate is the movie, really?

- Well, the movie was more of a mental-type thriller,

and it was loosely based on John Keel's book,

"The Mothman Prophecies."

He came here when all this was happening,

documented everything,

and in 1975 released this book about,

you know, all the activity here in Point Pleasant,

and in the movie I think, you know,

Richard Gere's character has a--

you know, a loss of time.

And now, John Keel personally told me of a few experiences

that--you know, that he had.

- Richard Gere gets in his car and just drives

'cause he can't sleep, and his car breaks down.

He knocks on a door.

The door opens,

and there's a guy with a gun pointed right in his face.

I thought the movie was over.

I was like, "That was the shortest movie ever made.

Richard Gere's about to get shot in the face."

- Laura Linney was the town sheriff.

There was never a woman sheriff in Point Pleasant.

- Things have just been a little strange

around here lately.

- The man who they found dead, you know, by the tree,

Will Patton, he actually came here to Point Pleasant

for that movie, filmed and researched the town.

- Huh. - I had a chance

to meet him and stuff,

but nobody was ever physically harmed or killed.

The movie did well, I mean, and it--it brought the name

and the story pretty much through the floodgates.

I mean, it--it changed the town here

because, you know, I think they mentioned

the name "Point Pleasant" 12, 14 times in the movie.

- Do you think Laura Linney's character

was based on the newspaper writer

that was so significant in the case?

- I think so, yeah, loosely, it was based on Mary Hyre,

because John Keel and Mary Hyre,

Richard Gere and Laura Linney, you know,

they were kind of a team trying to figure this out.

[suspenseful music]

Richard Gere's character, I think,

was kind of a combination of John Keel,

and then there was the older guy in the movie,

Alexander Leek,

which is actually Keel spelled backwards.

- Alexander Leek?

- Who the hell are you? - I'm John Klein.

I called you last week.

- Where are they seeing it?

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

- He's getting, you know, these weird, strange phone calls.

Is that something that happened to John Keel while he was here?

- It is, yeah. - Really?

- Yeah, he--he was very-- I wouldn't say paranoid,

but he was aware of his surroundings.

As a matter of fact, I used to talk to him on the phone,

and when I would call him, he was very..."Who is this?"

I would say who I was. "Oh, okay, yeah."

[phone rings]

- Hello?

[echoing]

- Keel got phone calls and communications

from this Indrid Cold character.

Now, this is something that the movie

took slight liberties with, but I mean, fundamentally,

there was this mysterious individual

who communicated with Keel

who seemed to have a lot of knowledge

about what was going on, very mysterious.

That freaked Keel out a little bit.

[garbled sounds]

- Laura Linney's character has this, you know,

dream about falling in the water

before the bridge collapse. Is that true?

- Mary Hyre herself, you know, had--had told John Keel

that she had a dream of Christmas presents

floating in the water and stuff,

which would have represented the bridge collapse

at Christmastime.

"The Mothman Prophecies" kinda portrayed

that Silver Bridge collapse

as--as a direct result of this Mothman

or warning everybody of, you know, doom and disaster.

- One day I started hearing voices.

The voices became messages.

Before long I was fully convinced

that I was receiving predictions of disaster

from outside intelligences.

- But you were, weren't you?

- John, I had tapes of their voices.

I knew a building was going to blow up,

and I tried to prevent it, but...no one listened.

- Keel stated that there were these predictions

or prophecies that were made mysteriously to him

that portended something bad was going to happen.

He thought some big explosion was going to take place.

He didn't know that it was going to be a bridge

that was gonna go.

- Cancel--cancel the tour. Cancel it.

Make them shut down the plant now.

The plant's gonna blow up.

- State police? Where are the cops?

What are--what are they doing?

- They--they don't know. - Governor McCallum–

- What? - They don't know yet.

- Have you received a bomb threat?

- Look, I didn't say anything about a bomb.

It's a source, I have a s--I know this sounds--

- You're messing up here, John.

[tense music]

Get me Cyrus Bills at "The Post."

- I think "Mothman" actually does a really good job

of explaining

a lot of the real facts that happened in real life,

but there's a lot of little things that, you know,

they changed for the movie, such as, you know, the year.

In real life it happened from 1966 to 1967.

In the movie it's a modern-day film.

Richard Gere's character is based off of John Keel.

John Keel never worked for "The Washington Post,"

although he was a journalist at the time.

There's this one part of the movie

where Richard Gere goes back to the spot

where he and his wife had their car accident,

and he's kind of obsessively looking,

"What did my wife see? What happened?"

And he's out of his car, he's on the street,

and something kind of catches his eye,

and it's these construction...

I don't know what they are, tubes or whatever,

and they have red reflectors on top of them,

and that's what he's, like, looking at.

And I thought that was really cool,

because one of the original witnesses said

that when she saw Mothman,

his eyes looked like reflectors.

That's how red and that's how bright they were.

- I have talked to people,

a lot of people who've seen, you know,

whatever this thing was, you know?

And they weren't real thrilled about it.

I think the question just kind of remained as,

you know, "What was it?"

You know, "Why did we have to see it?

Why did it come towards us?" you know?

- Witnesses of the Mothman figure

did come away with this feeling

that he was not fun to play with.

The Mothman was dangerous,

and the Mothman did strike terror

into the hearts of these witnesses.

That much is true.

- This is the spot where you saw Mothman?

- Yes, we had just turned on the drive

up here from the main road,

and we were about halfway down this road

when my brother noticed

it running or flying beside the car.

All I seen was eyes going-- great big at the front

and going to a point.

- John Keel always thought that Point Pleasant,

that it was a window

to all--all this abnormal activity.

- You mean a portal? - That's what he claimed, yeah.

- Did he ever mention where he thought,

you know, the portal might have been?

- In the TNT area.

- We're standing where the Mothman

was first reported seen.

It's pretty freaky.

- What if Mothman comes back?

- That's great.

[uneasy music]

- Listen. - Did you guys hear that?

It was like a growl.

[dramatic musical sting]

- This is the spot where you saw Mothman?

- Yes, we had just turned on the drive up here

from the main road,

and we were about halfway down this road

when my brother noticed

it running or flying beside the car,

and when we stopped, it jumped on the hood of our car.

It sat there and looked at him and then me and then him and me

and then turned and stood up

and jumped down off the car and ran a few feet

and then jumped up on that big factory building.

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

I would say about halfway down that road.

My brother said, "Well, don't look,"

so I turned to see it.

It was right by the window.

My brother saw the drive where it took you up in there

to where the old factory used to run.

When he stopped like that,

it jumped up on the hood of our car

and just kinda squatted and just looked at him

and then at me and then him and me,

and then it jumped off the car.

It just ran right by us.

It jumped up to the top,

and it kinda just sat there just watching us,

unfolded the biggest set of wings

that--only thing I can say is an angel's wings

'cause it was big wings, enough to carry a full human.

I think to this day they got it

and zipped it and shut it up.

- We're here at the spot

where the--where the Silver Bridge collapsed.

- December 15, 1966,

the--it was around 5:00 at the bridge in Ohio,

so it was bumper to bumper with people shopping.

It was a night I don't think any of us will ever forget.

A piece of the bridge that held up the suspension wires

faltered and broke and gave way,

and the bridge tilted

and dumped about half the cars off of it immediately,

and then it tilted the other direction

and dropped the other half of the cars in the river.

And then it fell on top of all the people in the river.

A lot of people thought one of our plants exploded.

It was such a boom when that piece gave way.

My mother was right at the foot of the bridge.

She told me she saw cars and Christmas gifts

floating in the river.

In the movie, it shows people trying to

get out of their cars,

and there was no chance to even react.

The bridge went down immediately.

They couldn't even get the doors open to get out,

and of course, when they went in the river anyway,

it was hypothermia immediately.

- Get off! Get off the bridge! Get off!

[dramatic music]

- Oh, my God!

- Only one person who landed on the bank

and one fellow who went into the edge of the river survived.

[dark music]

The mayor at the time, his parents was on the bridge,

and of course, we know everybody here.

A little girl in my third grade class went down

with her entire family. They never found her either.

- Never found her? - No. Some of them were...

were never...never... - Never.

- Never found.

- In the film, they lost the-- it said 36 people.

Well, they actually lost more people.

They lost, I believe, 46 people.

- Dredging operations continue in the aftermath

of the tragic collapse of Silver Bridge,

which spilled over 50 vehicles

into the rushing waters of the Ohio River.

The collapse came

at the height of the evening rush hour

while traffic on the span was lined up bumper to bumper.

[somber music]

The quarter-mile-long suspension bridge

suddenly plunged 100 feet into the water

with a tremendous roar.

No reason for the collapse has yet been found.

[dramatic chords]

16 bodies are recovered,

while 44 persons are still reported missing.

Police officials estimate that the death toll

may go as high as 80.

Fire, police, and civil defense officials

work round the clock in the search for victims.

Authorities believe that many of the submerged vehicles

containing bodies were swept far downstream

in the river's 60-foot-deep main channel

or have been buried in the riverbed.

An incredible disaster which shocks the nation

and touches hundreds of families with tragedy.

[eerie, off-key notes]

♪ ♪

- We have the Silver Bridge collapse,

which, you know, kinda spawns these theories of is Mothman

this--you know, does Mothman bring danger to a town,

or is it trying to warn of danger,

or is it there to observe when horrible things happen?

With that many people seeing this thing

and having the same description,

I don't think it's possible for them to all make it up.

[suspenseful music]

- What we've got right here is some of the--the props,

the police uniforms used in the motion picture,

"The Mothman Prophecies."

These are--these are modeled

after the actual Point Pleasant City Police uniforms.

As a matter of fact, some of the city police from here

went up there and were extras in the movie.

John Keel always thought that Point Pleasant,

it was a window to all-- all this abnormal activity.

- You mean a portal? - That's what he claimed, yeah.

- Did he ever mention where he thought,

you know, the portal might have been?

- In the TNT area. You know,

there's areas up there where you can go.

There's no birds chirping.

There's no sounds of insects at all.

It's just dead silence.

He would go up there in the... the 3:00, 4:00 in the morning.

- Is that safe, though? - Well, you know, probably not.

- So I am standing at the genesis of Mothman

in Point Pleasant-- it's right behind me.

There's the pool where Mothman was seen.

The TNT factory was over here.

They were coming the opposite direction,

and that's when they spotted him over there.

You know, Jeff had mentioned that, okay, how tonight

is really, really clear.

It's kinda crisp in the air. There's lots of stars.

He said when he spoke to Linda,

that that's the kind of night it was when they saw Mothman.

- Perfect. - So the igloos here,

they're part of the TNT factory, okay?

And during World War II

they were used as storage facilities for TNT, right?

There's, like, tons of them out there.

From what I understand,

a year and a half ago, one of them exploded.

- Oh.

- So. - Nice.

- That's great. - Exploded?

- Be careful. Be on your toes. - That's crazy.

- What's running through your mind?

Like, what's the worst-case scenario

that could happen out here?

- Mothman swoops in and takes us off and kills us.

I mean, we--what else--what could be worse than that?

- Chris, you stoked? - Yeah, man.

Little--little less stoked.

- You know what scares me out here?

Like, if somebody's doing something bad,

they're probably hanging out in the woods.

- Why you gotta bring this up?

- I did bad stuff in the woods, so yeah.

- You did? - Makes sense.

- What kind of bad stuff in the woods?

- Very little bad, just drinking and fires.

- I heard it down there. - Huh?

- I heard it. - What'd you hear?

- It doesn't sound like wings flapping, does it?

- Be quiet. Shh, shh.

- Oh, crap. There's something over there.

Oh.

- Oh. - Ooh.

- This is starting to not get cool.

Why are we choosing to go on?

- Oh! - Aah!

- Shh, shh, shh.

Be quiet. - Shh, shh.

- Crap. There's something over there.

Oh--ooh. - Ooh...

- What was that? - What was it?

- What was it?

[music intensifies]

- So listen--

- You guys hear that? - What?

- What? - Dude.

I just heard-- it was like a growl.

- This is starting to not get cool.

Why are we choosing to go on?

- You guys scared of it?

- Dude, this one definitely makes me nervous.

- Why? - Oh!

- Aah! - [bleep]. [bleep], [bleep].

[screaming] - Guys, guys.

I don't know.

- Okay, we're okay. - Holy [bleep].

- Okay. - That was [bleep], man.

- Holy crap. [bleep].

- John, you all right, man? - Oh, man.

- I have to go to the bathroom. I'm scared.

- Me too.

- I think it just--

- [bleep], that scared the [bleep] out of me.

- Let's go. Come on.

- That scared the [bleep] out of me.

- Yeah, I know. - I'm serious.

- I know.

- I swear I heard wings. I'm not saying it's Mothman.

At one point we all turned, and I start running.

I didn't even, like, see anything come out of the woods

but once I saw the camera person running, I took off.

- I don't know if I'll ever get over that scare.

I mean, my chest is still, like, tight and hurting.

That was just so shocking,

and I don't wanna ever feel that kind of fear ever again.

- My rational brain wants to try and explain it,

but I really can't explain it.

It was loud and really close.

It sounded like something huge,

like a huge person jumped out of the sky

and landed on the ground about 4 feet

from where I was standing, and mayhem happened.

Everybody just freaked out and ran.

I'm--I'm grabbing my flashlight, trying to find it.

People are bumping into me, but I can't see anything.

- Chris, poor Chris, they come running at him,

and he looks like a door on a holiday blowout sale.

- I was happy to leave Point Pleasant.

I mean, to me,

leaving and going to Centralia was the right thing to do.

- I'm taking everybody to Centralia,

which has a very personal tie to me.

My family, my grandmother's side is actually from there.

[uneasy notes]

♪ ♪

Centralia is a coal mining town

in the middle of Pennsylvania, and in about 1962

there was a fire that wasn't put out correctly,

and it did inspire elements in the movie "Silent Hill."

The movie came out in 2006,

and it's actually based off of the video game "Silent Hill."

The movie's really interesting.

It just takes you through this whole isolated town

with ash falling from the sky,

and here's this woman

desperately looking for her daughter,

and she is absolutely on her own.

It's very reminiscent of Centralia in many ways.

There's nobody around.

The ash is falling from the sky,

and obviously, Centralia being on fire,

there's a pretty strong connection between those two.

The only building standing in Centralia

is a church at the top of this hill.

Here you have it in the movie.

- The people in Centralia, Pennsylvania are threatened

by a fire burning below their town.

What's burning is coal,

and it's been burning for years.

Today the state offered mobile homes to three families

whose houses are threatened.

More on the fire from Rebecca Sobel.

- Centralia, Pennsylvania, the town has lived

over a burning coal mine for the past 20 years.

That's carbon monoxide coming out of those pipes,

carbon dioxide too.

Pipes puffing the deadly smoke stick up everywhere in town,

a constant reminder of the fire below.

The fire started here on the outskirts of town.

20 years ago

people were dumping trash in an open mine pit.

Someone set the trash on fire.

[organ plays]

Sunday, St. Ignatius Church,

while most of the people in the town go to mass,

Ed Narcavage, an inspector

for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mine Safety,

goes from house to house

checking poisonous smoke levels

coming from the burning mine.

Last week the ground collapsed here under a 12-year-old boy.

He saved himself by grabbing a tree root.

He's okay physically, but--

- I'm scared. I'm afraid to go to school.

I--I always walk near trees and near fences,

so I no--I never go outside anymore and play.

- Staying inside isn't healthy either.

Carbon monoxide levels in these homes

are dangerously high.

- We go to bed at night,

and we just pray we get up in the morning.

- If you were in a high enough concentration

for a number of hours, eventually you would die.

- But people can't be buried in the town cemetery anymore.

The ground's too hot.

The fire hasn't killed anyone here yet,

but it is killing this town.

- Centralia, Pennsylvania is one of the most tragic

and kinda creepy stories in modern America.

This is a coal town, and that was a thriving small town,

couple of thousand people.

In 1962, one of the abandoned coal mines

was used as a landfill,

and as was very common in those days,

people would burn the trash.

Well, in this case, unfortunately,

the fire that was burning was very,

very close to an anthracite coal vein,

and an enormous underground fire took place,

and underneath the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania,

the coal continued to burn and burn and burn,

and it is burning to this day.

The fire would cause sinkholes to appear out of nowhere,

and there was nearly a fatality of a--of

a young 12-year-old boy in the early 1980s,

who was only rescued by his cousin

who happened to be very close by and pulled him right out.

Within 20 years of the start of that fire,

the town had to be evacuated. It had become unlivable.

You go to Centralia now, and it's a ghost town.

- So when we got to Centralia, there was just nothing there.

I mean, this was a town that had saloons and barber shops

and grocery stores, neighbors

and, you know, kids playing in the street,

and now there's nothing there but rubble and smoke.

It's not a happy place.

- Seeing the smoke come out of the ground, for some reason

the first thing I thought of was Hell, you know?

You're taught Heaven is up, Hell is down.

You see the smoke, but you don't--the idea

that a raging fire is going on below your feet,

it just doesn't really click.

- What's happening are the coal fires are burning,

and, you know, the earth just finally gives way and sinks in

and then they just fill it back in with just fill dirt.

It was dangerous to be there.

- You go down and put your hand towards the hole that

that steam was coming out of, it's--it's really hot.

I mean, my hand started, like, getting all red

and a little burned a little bit

just from--just from touching the hole.

- Roger Avery visited the town of Centralia.

That really gave him inspiration for some elements

in the movie "Silent Hill"--

not being able to come into the town on certain roads.

That's very much how Centralia's set up.

- Sorry, sir,

this road is closed. You'll have to turn around.

- I'm looking for my wife. She may have come through here.

She--she drives a Jeep Liberty.

- Sir, this man's wife was driving a Jeep.

- The movie's kinda creepy.

They have these--these, like, human--I don't even know

what they are-- these human monsters.

- [shrieking]

- Aah! Aah! Aah! Help me!

- These humans are very distorted

and kinda grotesque-looking,

and it looks like they've been tortured for years.

There's no danger of being eaten by, you know,

these horrible figures in Centralia,

but you can definitely see

where Avery got his inspiration from.

There's this one part where a siren goes off.

You can almost imagine,

you know, it being, like, an evacuation siren,

which, of course, everybody in Centralia had to evacuate,

and it kind of ties that all together.

Whosever left in the town has to all huddle inside this,

you know, isolated church for protection

from all the monsters.

In Centralia, literally one of the only buildings

that is standing is this huge, beautiful church

at the top of the hill.

- The whole town is a great story in and of itself,

just kind of, like, the surreal imagery

and feeling of what was happening.

The only human presence you can see in the town

are the cemeteries.

In most places people move on.

People die, and what stands are their homes, their stories.

Now it's just their headstones.

- They say the fires have consumed the whole town,

and they are now approaching the cemeteries.

- A lot of stories about people having,

you know, experienced ghosts here.

This one guy saw three miners.

They looked as clear as day to him.

So I wanna check out this one location.

It's an old mine. Apparently it's really, really haunted.

People have had experiences there,

and they hear very distinct footsteps behind them.

I heard it's pretty crazy and active,

so I think we should maybe go check out that.

- Oh. - I can't wait.

- There's other people claiming to hear disembodied

voices of children.

When I was about 10 or 12, somewhere in that age range,

my parents took me and my siblings to Centralia,

and, you know, we didn't have family there anymore.

Everybody had been evacuated,

but I think it was one of those things,

like, you know, get one last look

because this isn't gonna be here in a couple years.

And so they kinda wanted us

to see where some of our family history is from

and what the town looked like,

and I remember there being streets of houses.

I remember there being families,

and I didn't really comprehend what was going on.

Our parents had told us that the town was on fire

and that it would probably never be put out

and all these people had to leave.

There's a fire literally underneath their feet,

and that's very hard to process

when you're a little kid.

I think it's hard to process as an adult.

Centralia looks nothing like I remember,

and that was only, you know, 15 years ago.

- Katrina, her family comes from Centralia,

and so it was start-- you could tell

it was starting to get pretty personal for her.

[haunting singing]

- We're about to meet one of my cousins, named Joe,

so I'm really excited to hear what he has to say

because he knows a lot of history of the town,

and he has also apparently had some ghostly encounters

while he's been in Centralia.

Any ghost stories in Centralia or any, like, weird

paranormal things that happened when you were living there?

- Driving one night on the mountain,

I rounded the turn.

The guy just stood out like this here.

I thought, "Oh, my gosh," and I turned.

I think I hit him. I don't know.

I really didn't know. I said, "I better stop."

I said, "I hope he's all right." Nothing.

- You didn't find anybody? - I wa--couldn't find nothing,

but there was a cemetery to the right of me.

- Oh. - Oh.

- Are you kidding me? - You know?

Even now, thinking about it now,

I get a little excited about it, you know?

- Joe's believable.

He doesn't seem like the kind of guy

who would make stories up just for attention.

He was very truthful, very honest,

or that's--that's the vibe I got from him, anyway.

- My daughter slept down at my mother's place one night,

and she had an experience down there.

She was staying in the one room,

and all of a sudden she comes screaming out of the room.

This is true. My daughter wouldn't go back in that room

as long as she went down there, and she come out screaming,

"There's someone in my room! There's someone in my room!

She has long hair, black, long hair."

- Katrina's cousin Joe,

he told us this story about his daughter

and how she saw

a figure of Katrina's great-great-grandmother.

[dramatic musical sting]

- Well, now, what about the Molly Maguires?

- Centralia was founded by Alexander Ray.

He was going to Mount Carmel one night, and he was murdered.

That's what started this thing with the--the curse.

- There was a priest in the town

named Father McDermott. He was very, very upset

with the things that were going on in Centralia,

and there's stories that say he actually said,

"This town will go up in flames.

This town will cease to exist,"

and that's where this whole element of a curse

comes in for Centralia.

Now, the Molly Maguires, there were three of them

that were hung for the murder of Alexander Ray.

People say they did not do it.

There's people still trying to fight for their innocence.

- In a poor irony, you can say

that these men truly were railroaded.

They were destroyed by a railroad company

every step of the way

and had really no opportunity, no chance for a fair trial.

The owner of the Reading Railroad

didn't really care so much

about the murder of this superintendent so much

as using this case as an opportunity

to destroy the labor movement as it existed at that time,

to destroy the Irish leadership

of the workers in the railroads

and in the coal industry.

It was a bloody, bloodthirsty, really shameful,

disgraceful period of American history in many ways.

These three men were almost certainly innocent,

horrible injustice of this.

You've gone through a trial that is so patently unfair,

and now you've been sentenced to hang.

The noose is around your neck. You're ready to die,

and then comes the moment where you drop,

but instead of the standard drop,

which is 5 inches or more,

in this case, these men dropped 3 inches,

and the difference means that their necks didn't break,

and what that meant is that they writhed on the noose

for ten minutes, strangling to death slowly.

What a horrible, horrible ending to a story

that should never have happened to begin with.

- I'm not surprised this town is haunted.

I mean, people were betrayed.

- Right here is where--I used to live right here.

When I was a kid, this was a playground.

- Once everybody who lived here is gone,

all that's gonna be left are ghost stories.

- People hear disembodied children's voices,

three dead coal miners appearing out of nowhere,

a young girl walking around,

and we're going out to investigate at night.

- So I wanna check out this one location.

It's an old mine.

Apparently it's really, really haunted.

- They've heard lots of voices, seen--seen coal miners

walk in and then just disappear.

- Oh, my gosh.

- I don't feel alone down here at all.

[dramatic musical sting]

- They kinda portray the town as being like

kind of this haunted little town.

I mean, do you think that's a fair assessment of it?

- Yes, yes. - Yeah?

- Yeah, right? It could be, sure.

- You wouldn't go there at night?

- No, I don't think

I'd like to be walking around the town at night, you know?

Because I--I think there are eerie things

about the--about the town, you know?

I would say there'd be a, uh, haunting...

probably going on there yet.

No, I wouldn't feel comfortable.

Let me put it that way. No.

- Hearing Joe talk about this stuff

and that it's not just me,

it ran through my entire family...

all of this kinda blows my mind.

I'm not surprised this town is haunted.

I mean, people were betrayed.

Something people have always told me is that it really,

really upsets them thinking about

people who have passed away sticking around,

and I'm feeling a little emotional about the fact

that my relatives

can still be hanging around Centralia haunting it.

- Think about the town you live in

and all the experiences you have growing up in that town,

and now it's gone, and now there's nothing.

So Katrina had a sense of--she was sad about that.

- This is where Centralia

was first formed right here, actually.

- Right there? - Yeah, that's Reas Hill.

They call it Reas Hill, R-E-A-S.

- That's the guy who was allegedly

killed by the Molly Maguires, right?

- Yes. Right here is where-- I used to live right here.

- Right down there? - Right here, yeah.

When I was a kid, this was a playground.

You can still see remnants there yet,

the steps over there.

This is where I played when I was a kid.

Your great-great-grandmother,

she lived right down the corner there.

- Right down here on this-- - Right there--

see the street starts down there?

- Yeah.

- She was right across the street there.

- Oh, really? - That's where your

grandmother came to visit, was there.

She came back to stay at my mother's.

You don't know how many relations

you had just living in this one section here.

- Oh, it's just--it's...

it's very, very overwhelming to be here.

[soft music]

I think what's, like... what's really upsetting

about being here is just, I guess, kind of, like,

feeling what these people must have felt, you know,

knowing that, like, their homes were gonna be torn down,

their history was gonna be taken away from them,

and...I don't know.

I think that's the scariest part, because even when we die,

I mean, that's what we leave behind.

We leave behind-- and as crazy as it sounds,

but we leave behind that material stuff,

our houses, our furniture, our,

"Oh, that's where Billy and Tom used to play ball," you know?

"That's where we used to have our Sunday

brunch with the family,"

and it's all gone, and it's just--it's so different

from when I was here ten y-- it's so different.

And what scares me is that,

I mean, like, once my family's gone,

once everybody who lived here is gone,

nobody's gonna know about this town,

and all that's gonna be left are ghost stories.

[haunting music]

- Some of the stories that have survived the town's downfall,

people hear disembodied children's voices,

three dead coal miners appearing out of nowhere,

a young girl walking around.

And we're going out to investigate at night.

- So I wanna check out this one location.

It's an old mine. Apparently it's really, really haunted.

People have had experiences there,

and they hear very distinct footsteps behind them.

One guy saw three miners.

They looked as clear as day to him.

I'm sure we'll be fine,

but there's always that little bit of doubt behind you.

Like, what if I really do experience something?

'Cause it doesn't matter how many times

you experience something. It's still scary.

What's really, really creepy about this

and about "Silent Hill"

is just that... a feeling of isolation.

It's especially kinda reminding me of it right now

because I can't see,

like, you know, 4 feet in front of my face.

- It's like I've never been in a mine.

Yeah, just throw him in there by himself.

No big deal. Whatever. Thanks, Katrina.

- Well, they definitely said that they--they've heard

lots of voices,

seen--seen coal miners walk in and then just disappear.

- You know, I can barely see anything.

Awesome.

[water trickling]

If that's some dead miner's tools,

I don't wanna piss him off.

[eerie, uneasy music]

The coal vein that runs through here

is the same one that's burning up Centralia.

- This is the stuff that burns and burns

and burns underneath Centralia,

you know, just completely burning.

- Really? - Yeah.

- Wow, so it's totally connected

to the Centralia fires underground?

- Yeah, man, so... - Wow.

- I don't feel alone down here at all.

- What was that noise?

- Did you hear walking?

- I thought I heard something coming from the ceiling area.

- There's like a--

I can't see for sure, it's like--

- Oh, my gosh. [bleep].

- Man, this is nuts. This is frigging nuts.

- I totally thought someone from the team

was standing next to me,

and of course there was nobody there.

- Maybe we should get back to the other guys, man.

- Let's get out of here.

- I had never been in a mine before.

It was definitely unnerving to be there.

- It's just kind of a sad feeling, being in that place.

- When we were walking down that mine,

we--we definitely heard something, like a footstep.

Charity definitely,

she was--she was definitely freaking out.

I mean, she was breathing so heavy.

We were both just, like--you know,

I was trying to be strong, but it was--it was scary.

- I seriously felt like I was hyperventilating,

and I still do, and I'm still kinda shaken up about it.

- I think Charity was probably, you know, the most freaked out.

You know, when you first start going to these places

and you start hearing these dark,

horrible stories that real-life people have lived through,

it can be kind of jarring.

It was either '46 or '47.

There was this huge plane that crashed right over this hill,

and a lot of people that died on the plane crash,

they were never identified, so what the town did,

they took their bodies and put them here,

and so nobody's ever claimed them.

- Where did the plane crash? - Right over on this hill.

- Oh. - Wow.

- I'll be honest, guys, it doesn't feel right.

- What do you mean? - Well, you know,

walking around in the graveyard.

- My relatives are buried

in one of the four cemeteries that's left in Centralia.

I thought it'd be really cool if we look

for my great-great-grandmother and her husband.

- And we're looking for McGinley?

- McGinley, Kathryn, and her husband's name was Thomas.

- I see McGinley. - Where?

- You do? - Are you ser--are you serious?

- Yeah, right ahead. - Oh, my gosh.

[dramatic musical sting]

- A lot of people died in Centralia,

a lot of coal miners, and there's a lot of death,

and they say hauntings happen around a household,

and I'm not an expert,

but when there's no more houses, like Centralia,

where do these people go? And when the only place

is a cemetery still existing in the town,

you think they would go there,

and that's where we're going tonight.

- My relatives are buried in one of the four cemeteries

that's left in Centralia.

I thought it'd be really cool if we look

for my great-great-grandmother and her husband.

You know, it's kinda the last physical thing of them.

- I'll be honest, guys, it doesn't feel right.

- What do you mean? - Well, you know,

walking around in a graveyard late at night.

Graveyards freak me out in general as it is.

Walking around at nighttime,

I did not feel comfortable at all.

- Looking for McGinley? - McGinley, Kathryn,

and her husband's name was Thomas.

- I did have a feeling, though,

when we first got there

that I was going to find something.

I see McGinley. - Where? Are you serious?

- Yeah, it's right ahead. - Oh, my gosh.

[heavy music]

- I found several of Katrina's family members

in this huge graveyard,

but I didn't wanna be the one to find the headstone

that we were really looking for.

I wanted her to find it, and that's what happened.

- Found it!

I kinda felt like I was kinda led there.

- I kinda started the trail, and she finished it off.

- Thomas died at 42.

He was crushed by a piece of coal.

This is where, you know,

my maternal side comes from, you know?

Everybody was from Centralia. They were coal miners.

They were hard workers,

but there's nothing left of them.

I mean, our remaining roots are right here.

- Mm-hmm. - A headstone.

- Anything you wanna say to them?

- I guess I would just like to think

they're not roaming around Centralia, you know?

That they're where they're supposed to be.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I always kinda feel they can feel that.

You don't have to say it.

- I don't know if it was closure

that she was looking for or what it was,

but standing right there really kind of affected her.

- This is a nice little goodbye to--I don't know,

I guess to them, in a way.

[intense music]

You know, you grow up watching these movies.

People, you know, idolize some of these movies,

and some of them are,

in a weird way, very romantic, you know?

People have this kind of tie to them.

We met the real people,

and it's almost like you're meeting,

you know, this iconic figure, and you get to sit with them

and talk to them and pick their brain.

And I mean, we got, firsthand, the real-life story told to us.

And we got to go to the locations with them,

have them point things out.

You don't get that from the movies,

and I think, you know, for me, that's what I'll hold on to.

- Yeah.

- We just had an incredible week on the road.

We had talked to eyewitnesses that haven't spoken

about their experiences in decades,

and these are some of the most iconic stories

in American horror films,

and we just got a front-row seat to it.

And me personally, and I think for Chris, Charity, and John,

I don't think it's something any of us will forget

anytime soon.

[dynamic music]

- ♪ Oh ♪

♪ Don't back down ♪

♪ Don't back down ♪

♪ Don't back down ♪

♪ Oh ♪