Berkshire Paranormal Group
Butler Goodrich House
Pittsfield, MA

Pre-Investigation

The Berkshire Paranormal Group was contacted by the owner of a spa located on North St. in Pittsfield, MA. She stated to me that the building was built in 1792 by prominant resident of the time, Butler Goodrich. The current owner of the building contacted the BPG asking for an investigation after a series of events happened to her and also to her employees and clients.

A pre-investigation interview was conducted by investigators Josh Mantello and Stephanie Mantello at the Spa with its current owner Raynee. Raynee stated that she had been leasing the property for a just under a year and has recently been experiencing some unexplained phenomena. These phenomena range from mysterious figures, strange bumps and noises and unexplained feelings of fear. Many of the accounts centered on the main staircase in the building which one person related seeing a woman in a dress walking down. Another account was from the front doorway to the building which is at the bottom of the main staircase. The person stated the on a Monday afternoon while walking by the door she saw a man standing outside the window dressed out of place with a large brimmed hat. At first this person expected it to be the mailman but then remember it was a holiday and no mail was to be delivered.
Other stories account that while being on the first floor hearing something slam on the floor above when no one is on that floor. Another account took place in the salon room’s fireplace which had a cabinet door on the right side of it mysteriously open and close on it's own. The massage room on the second floor was also said to be of interest do to the strange feelings people receive once inside and a picture that was taken which contained “orbs”.

A walk through of the building was done and a preliminary EMF sweep was done of the building. A large EMF field ranging about 60 milliguass was found above one of the chairs in the salon. And the massage room had an EMF reading above the baseline which could not be traced back to a natural source.
After the walk through with the client, a date of 9-1-07 was set for an investigation.

A quick look in the history of the building did find a male known as Butler Goodrich in the city of the Pittsfield in the time of the building being built. Goodrich was found to hold the rank of Major and fought in the revolutionary war before moving to Pittsfield and helping found the city.

• A sweep of the entire building found base line reading of .0 to .5 milliguass in every room
• During the course of the investigation abnormal and random spikes of EMF were found to occur in the main stairway of the house.
• 1st occurrence while standing in the stairs - Frank was holding an EMF Cell Sensor that started to read a higher reading and alarmed (a reading higher then 2 milligauss triggers the alarm) while holding still. This lasted approximately 8 seconds and disappeared.
• 2nd occurrence - again Frank was standing in the stairs along with Josh and the Cell Sensor again started to measure a high reading for no reason. At this point a Cell Sensor was placed on the stairs in a fixed position for see if the occurrence would happen without a person being around. A constant reading of 1.0 milliguass was being recorded in the location the Cell Sensor was placed. Most likely due to Christmas lights running up the stairway.
• Over the course of the night this Cell Sensor on the stairs would randomly and without a reason read a higher reading of 2.0 milliguess or higher and alarm. This would almost always happen after someone would walk by the stairs and last for anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds. But not occur every time someone would walk by.
• At approximately 1142 pm with the investigation going slowly we decided to center our attention around this phenomena on the stair case with the appearing and reappearing EMF reading. Please refer to EMF Experiment section of this report for further details.

EMF CONCLUSION:

• In general the EMF fields in the house were normal and consistent with non paranormal activity with the exception of the appearing and then disappearing field near the staircase.
• It is possible that the field in question near the staircase could be caused by a strong radio transmitter in close proximity of the sensor. We did try getting a similar result using both our handheld walkie talkie and a higher powered portable ham radio. Neither triggered the meter to read as high as the readings that were occurring on there own but did cause a change in the EMF reading. This would mean that if a radio transmitter is setting it off, it would have to be very high powered and somewhat close. During a future investigation a frequency counter will be employed by the group to see if a stray signal is being picked up.

• A large quantity of pictures were taken by all investigators present.
• No investigator responded back with any finding of any anomalies found during the investigation.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CONCLUSION: No evidence found.

• Multiple EVP sessions were conducted by 4 team members running for at least 5 minutes each with no result.
• While conducting the EMF experiment on the stairs when "answers" were given via the EMF meters, a short click was heard just prior to or as the EMF reading fluctuated.

Other Audio Evidence:

Not an EVP, but this amazing audio clip captures the sound of Paul's EMF meter flying off a table and crashing to the floor - completely on it's own - immediately after Josh asks the spirit of Butler Goodrich a question: "We're here to understand you...do you want us to help you?" You hear the other team members reacting to the phenomenon. Note - end of audio clip contains profanity: "Holy Sh**"

FLYING EMF AUDIO CLIP



The temperature of the apartment was at 69 degrees at the start of the investigation and climbed regularly throughout the night to a temperature of about 72 degrees. This is most likely contributed to the amount of people in the building moving around.



·Video was captured on 3 different video cameras:

• Sony hi-8
• Wireless IR night vision
• Thermal imaging camera



• All this video was lost before analysis was complete due to a laptop computer crash. The wireless IR did capture the cell sensor on the stairs going off on its own with no anomalies. The Sony Hi-8 showed no anomalies.

VIDEO CONCLUSION:The video did show the cell censor triggering on its own which held creditability to the story but no paranormal anomalies were captured.



SHADOW PEOPLE? While performing an initial sweep of the building with Frank in the area of the Salon and hair washing room I saw a shadow walk across this very small room. This shadow was pronounced enough to startle me and I asked if any one was inside. Frank and I then went into this room to investigate with no other activity found inside. But while sitting in that room, I saw another shadow move across the hallway that runs between the salon and hair washing room.

EMF EXPERIMENT: After having the EMF Cell Sensor trigger on its own for no logical reason multiple times in the area of the staircase we decided to focus our efforts on the staircase using EMF meters. We employed all possible forms of EMF meter available to us.

The Following meters were used:

• EMF Cell Sensor x2
• KII EMF Meter
• Trifield Meter
• Luton Digital EMF Meter

Going on the basis that we felt the previous readings were only going off after someone would walk by the area, we felt that we were possibly causing the spirit to move up or down the stairs. Recently, other paranormal investigators have started using KII EMF meters to try and communicate with spirits. We thought we'd try other EMF meters at the same time and attempt the same sort of comunication. We then completely circled the stairs, so if a spirit was moving up or down the stairs to avoid us, it would no longer have anywhere to go. I sat on the top of the stairs; Paul on the bottom to the left in the adjacent room. John was at the bottom to the right and Nick in the middle of them along with the clients. Frank moved freely to help assist with wherever was needed. I had the KII and Digital EMF, John a Tri Field Meter and Paul a Cell Sensor.

We then started asking questions to any spirit present. The first question asked was if the spirit felt trapped... with no response. We then asked if the spirits name was Butler and a spike was registered on all meters and the audio recorder being used by myself at the time registered a short click on the recording. The recorder was not being held and was just simply resting on the floor. A few more questions were asked with out any spikes. We then asked if Butler had a son named George Washington Goodrich (this was found to be true in the Goodrich family tree) and a spike was registered on all meters. At this point we asked a series of questions that we knew to be true.

We then told Butler that we were there to understand him and asked him if he wanted us to help him. At this point a large bang was heard and Paul said “ I didn’t do that”. When asked what happened, Paul stated that his Cell Sensor which he had resting on a table top near him flew off onto the floor on it’s own. After this we no longer received any “answers” from the spirit and deciding to regroup and gather our thoughts and try again in a few minutes.

We then reconvened in the same manner in which we did prior to taking a brake. During this course of questioning we did not turn on our digital recorders but later wished we did. This questioning was more directly asked to Butler and with many more "yes" answers (EMF responses). We asked Butler if he as a Major in the war in which we got a yes answer. We asked him if he killed anyone in the war and he again stated yes. This line of questioning continued in the fashion but the exact questions can not be recalled. But as the questions about the war continued the readings on the meters actually started to read higher then what was previously registering. The previous answers would range differently on each piece of equipment. The Cell Sensors would read between 2 – 3 milliguess while the digital would read between 1 – 2 milligueas. During the questions about the war these numbers jumped up by at least 1 to 1 ˝ milligues on each piece of equipment. Then after one question asking Butler about killing people in the war, a large very distinct knock on the wall came from the room adjacent to the one everyone was presently in. No one was inside this room and the source of this bang is unknown. The questioning continued with mixed results for answers until the time came that the group needed to leave.

EMF EXPERIMENT CONCLUSION: The possibility of a strong radio transmission nearby setting off the meters still cannot be ruled out until a second investigation is completed using a frequency counter. I do find it highly odd that these transmissions would be occurring at times immediately after a question was asked of “Butler”, especially on questions we knew to be "yes", based on historical information. In future investigations of the building the BPG plans on finding more on the history of Butler Goodrich and his family to better arm ourselves with questions and to better know if what we a receiving for answers is relevant to the supposed spirit present.
At this time, other than the slight chance of stray radio signals causing the meters to register, I cannot find a logical reason why they would behave they way they did during the questioning portion of our investigation.

Being a group who likes to show solid presentable evidence after a case to prove a haunting, we were unable to do so in this case and this was somewhat disappointing after the experience we had in the building. But, I did walk out of the building with a strong sense of another presence inside after performing the EMF Experiment on the stairs. I do feel that some sort of paranormal activity is taking place inside this building and further investigations are needed to either prove me wrong or to gather that solid presentable evidence we seek.

Personal experiences alone ( ie. Paul’s meter flying to the floor, the knock on the wall and even my shadow person in the hair washing room) are what I am basing all conclusions on in this case, together with the EMF “communication”. I simply cannot ignore something as significant as an object flying off on it’s own and say there is no paranormal activity taking place - especially when this took place in the presence of multiple investigators and the clients. Just weeks after the investigation, the Spa’s owner informed me that she had a glass of wine fly off a table on it own and to the floor. Hopefully, we will be able to investigate this building further in the future and find the evidence we need to prove who is haunting the Butler Goodrich house.

Prepared by J. Mantello - Founder / Lead investigator


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