Patrick Burns, star of the series “Haunting Evidence” on TruTV and a presenter at TAPSCON examines Synergy, one of the 12 Crystal Skulls purported to be several thousand years old. At right is Synergy’s caretaker, Sherry Whitfield.
BELLEAIR – At first glance there is no question that the Belleview Biltmore with its imposing facade, multitude of gables and rows of blank, staring windows was the perfect venue for a ghost hunter’s getaway.
TAPS, The Atlantic Paranormal Society, had the same impression and last weekend hosted its TAPSCON at the Biltmore. Billed as a gathering of everything paranormal, the convention featured celebrities from the world or the netherworld of the ghostly, extraterrestrial and supernatural.
Linda Blair whose portrayal of the character Regan in the 1973 horror classic “The Exorcist” was on hand to meet convention visitors as were paranormal researchers, authors and the stars of the Sci Fi channel’s “Ghost Hunters” series, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson.
The two-day event featured ghost hunter tours through the fabled hotel’s sub-basements, lectures and a market venue where visitors could purchase everything paranormal from books to Dream Catchers and Electro Magnetic Field detectors useful for locating ghostly manifestations.
Rumors have abounded for years that there was something more than meets the eye to the Biltmore’s reputation as a first class hotel.
“There’s ghosts there,” people would whisper; the ghost of Maisie Plant, wife of Morton Plant, the son and heir to Biltmore creator Henry Plant. Maisie is said to have been spotted by guests and hotel employees wandering furtively through the halls in search of a lost string of “perfect” pearls.
Throughout the years guests have claimed to hear strange noises, scraping sounds and rattles emanating from the vacant fourth floor. Hotel security routinely checks out these reports and several staff are said to have learned to accept the ghostly presences.
Another legend is that a new bride distraught over hearing that her husband had been killed in an accident threw herself from the couple’s fourth floor balcony; guests routinely point to a woman’s silhouette spied briefly standing in a window on the fourth story. That floor along with the floor above it is now closed to the public and according to the TAPS Web site, security would be in place during the event to keep it that way; the hotel maintains the two floors are used for storage.
As guests and convention attendees wandered the hotel’s ornate Victorian corridors others attended lectures, enjoyed a free concert on the lawn, which included an appearance by Underbelly comprised of original band members from the Blue Oyster Cult or traded stories of ghostly encounters while sharing a favorite spirit from one of several bars open for the event.
From Key West, the celebrity list included a 100-year-old doll named Robert who it is said possesses the personality of a young boy long since dead. Robert’s current companion, “Angelique” accompanying the life-size straw doll explained, “This is the first time Robert has ever left his home in East Martello,” the abandoned fort on Key West built by the Confederacy during the Civil War but never occupied.
Angelique, whose job at the convention was to protect the doll, which some claim has Voodoo origins, expressed some consternation that while on display Robert had begun to shift his gaze as visitors pressed his display case in an effort to take a photo of the strange looking doll from the island named by the early Spanish Cayo Hueso, Bone Island.
Among the visitors were three friends from Decatur, Ala., who were there to network, presumably with the living. They had just recently formed DPTI, the Decatur Paranormal Investigative Team, a business service to, as one of the founders, Decatur firefighter James Daugette explained, “typically rule out paranormal sightings.”
Another team member, firefighter Wendy Stetler, said, “When we get calls it’s usually from families who have experienced something they don’t understand. They don’t know who to call,” she added smiling. “We can help.”
The third member of DPIT, Travis Stetler, a college student studying prearchitecture was particularly interested in the Biltmore’s unique history and architecture.
“It’s an amazing structure he said, perfect for hauntings.”
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