ABE Paranormal seeks to discover whether specters are real.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
By DOUGLAS B. BRILL
The Express-Times
WILLIAMS TWP. | The smell of flowers wafted past the alcove where the mobster was gunned down and stopped over the bar at Stemie's Place. The paranormal investigators couldn't trace it.
Al Stempo owns the restaurant and bar on South Delaware Drive. He told ABE Paranormal investigators a whiff of perfume might be a sign of Jan, a 49-year-old employee who died in December.
Jan isn't the most famous ghost at Stemie's, which was called the Black Horse Inn in 1928 when Saverio Damiano was killed there by fellow mobsters, reportedly over a stolen girlfriend.
But three hours of investigation had yielded no overt sign of Damiano. So the group followed the sweet smell.
"Where is it coming from?" the investigators asked, searching the rafters for an air freshener. They waved thermometers and devices that measure electromagnetic fields. "It has to be coming from somewhere," they said.
Jimmy Siegfried, 38, of Nazareth, and his wife, Carla Siegfried, 36, have hunted ghosts for three years. They have yet to see one. The hardest evidence they have is electronic voice phenomena captured on audio recordings. The voice phenomena sound like whispers. Some of them are tough to hear.
Jimmy, a police officer, and Carla, a payroll manager, aren't sure ghosts exist. But they aren't sure they don't. That's why they're looking. They don't get paid for investigations.
"I want to know what the truth is," Jimmy Siegfried said, sitting in a pitch-dark second-floor bedroom and begging Damiano to make a sign, to tap on a wall, to touch somebody. "You see these shows all the time about the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. Why do people go after them? They want to know."
The ABE team includes Carla's twin sister, Colleen Casterlin, 36, an account manager from Forks Township; Colleen Carlbon, 37, a police dispatcher from Raubsville; and Dave Jones, 42, a warehouse supervisor from Forks.
Group members said the former Cozmo's bar and restaurant in Stockertown is haunted and the Wilson Borough Republican Club might be. Investigations at private homes have had mixed results. The Stemie's investigation is incomplete.
About 20 people were at the Black Horse Inn about 9 p.m. July 22, 1928, when Damiano was cornered. The 29-year-old was wanted by Philadelphia police, who considered him a suspect in a doctor's killing.
Damiano talked on the phone at the top of the basement steps as four men barged in with handguns and shotguns. Damiano's body left the building after it was recovered in the basement. But some aren't sure Damiano left.
Stempo, 54, of Palmer Township, and his wife, Maria, 59, said they don't believe in ghosts but can't explain why dogs get spooked in the basement, why doors rattle, why there is one small, inaccessible room locked from the inside.
Maria Stempo said bread and knives move around the kitchen. Al Stempo said a repairman once left an unfinished job in the basement because he was shaking and sweating. "All I know is he came in clean cut and he left lookin' like a mess," he said.
ABE, meanwhile, caught a strange light on a photo and couldn't explain why the billiards room smelled like coffee. It also captured several electronic voice phenomena.
The group will dismiss as much of that evidence as it can. Carla Siegfried said the group prefers to strip cases down to only those elements that defy explanation.
"We do a lot of debunking," she said. "But we're always kind of disappointed when we do."
The Stemie's investigation ended at 1 a.m. As Jimmy Siegfried carried equipment out, he spotted an air freshener. "It doesn't smell like coffee," he said.
Reporter Douglas B. Brill can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at dbrill@express-times.com.
