Becky Ray, a paranormal investigator with the group Paranormal Activity Investigators, the Kansas City area representative for the American Ghost Society, and a co-host of the Internet radio program The Darker Side of the Moon, spoke at our meeting on Wednesday, June 11, 2008, about Ghost Stories and Urban Legends of Kansas City.
Becky explained that the term paranormal means beyond or outside the normal and covers anything that is unexplained. Her group visits sites, documents what goes on there, and tries to find out why things are happening. They first investigate whether odd occurrences have normal, natural causes, such as power surges or even mice in the attic. Ninety percent of their research takes place in the library as they track down the history of a reportedly haunted site, including the people who lived or visited there in the past, anyone died there, and whether tragic events ever happened there.
One of the problems paranormal investigators run into in this area is that Kansas City residents and business owners often do not want to talk about possible hauntings in their homes or businesses. They do not want negative publicity or the trespassing and vandalism that often occur at sites widely believed to be haunted.
One exception is Kansas City’s Union Station. Many people, including employees, have reported seeing and/or hearing ghostly activity in the station. In 1933, prisoner Frank Nash was killed in the infamous Union Station Massacre, his head nearly severed from his body by the gunfire. In years since, people have reported seeing a ghostly man sitting on a bench overlooking the grand hall—missing his head. Workers have heard mysterious foosteps and voices after hours when the station is deserted. They have reported faucets turning off and on in bathrooms when no one is there. The tunnels under station were used as temporary morgue for fallen soldiers during WWI. In those tunnels today, people report hearing voices and seeing a mysterious porter in an old-fashioned uniform. Other ghostly sightings include a blonde woman in black 1930s apparel walking up and down the stairs to what used to be the women’s washroom and a man’s face staring out of an upstairs office window when no one is in the office.
Other sites Becky’s group has investigated include the John Wornall House in Brookside, at the site of the Civil War Battle of Westport, and the historic 1859 Jackson County Jail in Independence. These two sites offer haunted tours at various times of the year.
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