I saw the buzz about Haunted Collector on other blogs, but I didn’t pay much attention because I didn’t plan to watch. Not until I saw Facebook posts by Brooke Haramija, Chris Mancuso, and Laura Pennance. Someone they know very well was going to be on the show: Brian J. Cano. (He’s an FB friend of mine too, but they’ve actually worked with Brian in person. I came to be FB friends with him after interviewing Brooke about another show they’re both affiliated with: SCARED!)
Anyway. That was enough to pique my interest. It was worth tuning in just to see him.
But now I’m left with questions galore.
- In “A Focused Haunting,” New York Shadow Chasers wrote: “There are countless reports of homes and buildings with no reports of hauntings spontaneously having ghostly activity after a ‘trigger object’ is brought onto the premises. The actual question is whether or not it is triggering a haunting or simply bringing one with it.” So how exactly do you determine if the place is haunted but only needed the right catalyst, or trigger object, or if the object itself is actually haunted and causing the activity?
- Can you always stop a haunting by taking out a haunted object? (For those instances where it’s identified that an object is likely the root of the paranormal activity.) Can whatever’s haunting the object unattach itself and remain on the property? (My only concern here was Haunted Collector seemed to suggest spirits have a propensity to attach themselves to items and you can “cure” a haunting by removing suspected objects. That’s a message I fear the show may send and not mean to.)
- How is it spirits haunt certain objects? Do they mean to, or is it something about the object itself that binds with a person’s love/passion/hate that ends up holding on to them? (And perhaps they don’t mean their spirits to be held on to.)
- Are the spirits of the haunted objects disoriented when they get relocated? (Nuts, I know. I’m cursed with being too empathetic. I’m always thinking of feelings, even the feelings of seemingly inanimate objects.)
- Barry at Gnostalgia raised a good question in his write up of Haunted Collector: Did the cold spot vanish after they removed the gun from under the house?
- Speaking of that gun, did they ever notify anybody (meaning any authorities) of their find? What if it really had been used in a crime? Sure, it was all gunked up, and between that and them manhandling it, perhaps it wouldn’t yield any useful forensics, but…maybe it might’ve? (I have a personal reason for asking this one. Which I’ll explain below.)
- Yet another question posed in the comments on the Gnostalgia write-up about the gun was: Could the gun have been planted? (Sorry John and Brian. I’m trying to raise this as delicately as possible. You both seem like good people, but the show is on Syfy and the tricks Ghost Huntershas gotten busted pulling have made everyone wary of the lengths Syfy will go to for entertainment sake.)
- A clown cookie jar? Really? Did anybody ever dare steal cookies out of it? (I know I sure wouldn’t! Which actually might be a good reason to buy some scary clown kitchen wares. I need to lose weight. Creepy clown stuff would keep me out of the kitchen!)
- On HJ’s Facebook page, Traci wrote: “…what does that man do with the haunted objects and if he brings them home is he haunted???” Great questions. I wondered the same thing. What’s it like in his house? Must be interesting.
- But I also wondered about having all those allegedly haunted objects in one place, do they all get along? Can haunted objects clash? (Yep, the empath in me is showing again.) Seriously, though. Say you put a haunted brooch on a haunted shawl or scarf, or a haunted book on a haunted table, and the spirits hate each other. Does that magnify activity?
- What’s John’s exit strategy with the items? I know he has his paranormal museum, but when he dies what happens to the items? Does he plan to sell them, or bury them as he’s done with some other items that were too potent to be cleansed? (Refer to the FAQs on his museum’s website for more about that.)
BOTHERED BY THE HANDLING OF THE GUN
As I’ve written about before, my aunt was murdered. Shot in the head.
When they found the gun during the Bayou Ghost investigation, my stomach roiled. Even before their research led them to the story about a robbery that had resulted in a murder where no weapon was recovered. all I could think was: “When a gun’s in a box buried beneath a house like that, that ain’t good. Somebody was up to some kind of mischief.”
Then they told about the robbery homicide and I immediately thought of the family’s loved ones, if they were still alive. If that gun had been used for sinister purposes, whether in that robbery homicide or something else, taking it in may have yielded evidence to bring someone somewhere peace because a piece of a puzzle was finally found.
Maybe they did do that and just didn’t show it. Maybe they didn’t even think of it. I did, because I don’t have answers about my aunt and I would very much like to.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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Thanks again for mentioning my inane babble
I can certainly relate about the gun. There are still forensics that can be retrieved from the weapon. Serial number, rifling of the barrel to compare ballistics, etc. I really respect John Zaffis but the show just felt like a ‘Ghost Hunters’ episode with the cast replaced. Heh, the paranormal museum makes me think of that show Warehouse 13. I really don’t know what he hopes to accomplish by containing all of these objects in one place though.
I’d like to know if he pays the people for the items. Seems to me very convenient that all of the “haunted” items are prob. worth quite a bit of money. I watched one episode and felt the whole thing was kinda scammy.
I am curious about that too. Real museums have bequethment processes. He might too, but it’s very interesting he just sort of gathers them. I had a lot of respect for him before this show. Now I’m kind of thinking he’s a little shady…
Yep, Warehouse 13 came to mind, and I don’t get what he expects to accomplish either. On the FAQs on his museum site it says he hopes to educate people about the dangers of dabbling in the paranormal without understanding the consequences of what might happen. I don’t know…some of the people with haunted items didn’t dabble in anything I bet.
It was not inane. If it ever is, I will tell you, though! 😉
The area in which the gun was found had been flooded and the gun and box was full of mud. I seriously doubt that any uselful forensic evidence could have been found. I think a lot of you people are just looking for pissy little issues to trash the show, John, and SyFy. I am certain that if the viewers thought about contacting authorities about the gun, I am certain John, having at least half a brain thought about the same thing. Being a 22 minute program they can only show so much of the actual investigation. Do you think if they found a gun that could be conclusively linked to a murder and a haunting that this would not have been the main theme of the episode? As far as the items themselves….I think John has better things to do than travel around the country looking for an opportunity to steal someones music box….What a con man!!!! John has to be an experienced grifter to come up with that scam…..Sounds very profitable! If you respected John before the show and now think he is shady because he puts items in his museum you must think he is ripping people off. There has been absolutely no indication that he is attempting to steal from people or mislead them. This past weeks episode which had the music box that was supposedly at the heart of the haunting, the owner admitted she had asked the spirits to make contact with her and that her legs were grabbed as well as other physical contact….I think asking spirits to make contact with you classifies as “dabbling in the paranormal”. Also, I am completely aware of the little trick by Ghost Hunters and the jacket collar. What other tricks have they been caught doing? I really would like to know since I have not witnessed or heard of other incidents. I have a hard time watching Ghost Hunters because of a certain investigator that has an irrational fear of everything and a superiority complex, but I still think they come up with some valid evidence on oocassion.
I had the same thought about the gun, wondering if it had any forensic value but I too expect that John checked it out.
Also, he asks the homeowners if they wish him to take the object out of the house, he does not just take them. They have the opportunity to dispose of the object as they will. On the typewriter episode I had to laugh thinking they are lucky it wasn’t the stove that was haunted LOL.
LOL! I thought the same thing about the stove. How heavy did they say it was? Good luck moving that! Shoot. That would’ve been quite the add to his haunted museum.
I think it would’ve been nice, since they brought up the murder and all, if they clarified how they investigated it to make sure it wasn’t linked to anything. I’m thinking they must’ve, but they didn’t show that. Yet, they sure suggested it was involved in something, so…that’s why I would’ve liked them to be more specific and not let us draw our own assumptions.
I don’t think he’s stealing from people. I’m well aware he asks them if he’d like to take the item off their hands. I should’ve been more clear about that. I just was curious about the technicalities that could stem from that and what kind of legal forms he has them sign when they give it to him. (That would make for boring TV. Just the paralegal in me being curious…)
Oh, and here’s the link to other stunts GH may, or may not, have faked: https://hauntjaunts.net/blog/2009/12/28/the-faked-footage-ghost-hunters-doesnt-want-you-to-see/
did you know that he sells the items for high price?
No I didn’t but it also wouldn’t surprise me if he does that. I thought he kept them, though, because they were too dangerous for the public. No?