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New York ghost hunters search old city jail

Bernadette Peck is a skeptic. It's a rather unusual description for a person who actively seeks out ghosts.

"I'm not impressed with orbs for the most part," said the founder and president of Ghost Seekers of Central New York (GSCNY).

"I've been lucky enough to have filmed a whole body apparition.

"This isn't something we do flippantly. I'm absolutely, always skeptical."

But Peck, who spent the night in the Cornwall Jail with five members of the Oneida, N.Y. group, as well as some Ottawa Haunting and Paranormal Group (OHPG) members, believes ghosts are all around us, it's just up to them whether they want to go public.

"We could be here all night and see some amazing things," she said. "Or we could be here and not see a thing, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

"Ghosts retain the same personalities and intellect they had in life, and we're not going to make up any stories just for publicity."

The GSCNY was actually on the second leg of an exchange with the Ottawa organization. Earlier this summer the OHPG travelled to Beardslee Castle, in Johnsville, N.Y. to participate in a joint investigation with the GSCNY.

"It's kind of exciting to work with another group," Peck said. "It really enhances the whole subject."

It isn't surprising, she said, that the Cornwall Jail appears to be a haven for paranormal activity.

It was a place that harboured strong emotions like pain, fear, loneliness and sadness, and it has stone walls which take on an imprint of those same emotions.

There have been a couple of occasions where Peck has felt fear in her quest to uncover the unusual. In particular, during an investigation at an abandoned tuberculosis clinic/asylum/orphanage in Saratoga, N.Y., she was overcome by an incredible immediacy to leave the premises.

"We went into the place and it was in shambles," recalled Peck. "The first things I noticed was a horrible odour, and we thought it was a dead rat, or something like that."

Winding her way down stone staircases into the basement, she was overcome with a gripping claustrophobic fear that she needed to leave immediately.

Another team member followed her back upstairs to see her safely outside.

It was later she was informed by this person a dark cloaked figure, about four-feet in height, was whisking along silently beside her as she wound her way back up the steps.

"I stood outside that building, and I couldn't believe I'd left the rest of them in there," she said. "But I couldn't go back in there." She wasn't sure what the future would hold in store Saturday night, but is was sure of one thing.

"Ghosts are everywhere. And any place where people died the way they did here at the Cornwall Jail, there are bound to be ghosts.

"It's up to them, however, to make their presence known to us," Peck said.