Luann Joly from the Curse of Lizzie Borden: What did we talk about?

After watching The Curse of Lizzie Borden, I couldn’t help but wonder: Is the house still haunted? After all, it appeared from the seance that Dave Schrader, Chris Fleming, Sam Baltrusis, and Luann Joly conducted during their investigation, it was possible they’d cleansed the house.

When I got a chance to talk with Luann Joly, that was definitely one of the questions I asked. But what else did we chat about? I’ve embedded the entire interview below if you want to watch, but here are some of the highlights.

Luann Joly’s Haunted Past

Something that’s very common in the paranormal is that people are often drawn to investigating it because of personal experiences they’ve had earlier in life. That’s the case with Luann Joly too.

She explained that she started experiencing a haunting at the age of six. It lasted for 22 years. It wasn’t until she had kids that she figured out how to end it.

But her kids experienced the entity differently than she did. It waged invisible assaults on her, but for her kids it presented itself as “creepy black thing” that crawled around on the floor.

She explained how back then, it wasn’t like how it is now. She didn’t want to risk being thrown in the looney bin by talking about being haunted. She instead found someone who could help her figure out how to take control and deal with “the scary stuff” on her own.

Once she did, she felt as if it was all part of a process. One that ultimately helped groom her to be an investigator.

The Bridgewater Triangle and the Hockomock Swamp

One thing I always enjoy when talking to investigators from other parts of the U.S. is their perspective on the most haunted places in their neck of the woods. In addition to her experiences in the Lizzie Borden house, Luann also talked a little about the Hockomock Swamp. Or, as she put it, the heart of the Bridgewater Triangle.

All I know is that anyone from Massachusetts that I’ve ever talked with has encouraged me to visit the Bridgewater Triangle. However, if anyone had ever mentioned before that “Hockomock” is a Native American word for “place where evil spirits dwell,” I’d forgotten. But Luann brought that up to basically say, “Well, it’s no surprise so many weird things happen there.”

Skeletal Remains and Burial Grounds

Could Fall River have been built on sacred Native American or burial grounds? Luann isn’t sure, but she wouldn’t be surprised if it was and has a strong feeling it might be.

She also mentioned a skeleton that had been found in 1832. (She wasn’t positive the year was right, but it was sometime around then.) It was thought to be Native American and had been dug up about a block from where the Borden house would eventually be built.

But there were a couple of strange things about the skeleton. For one, it had been found buried sitting upright. For another, there was copper tubing on his regalia.

Luann explained the copper tubing was very curious because the Indians in that area had no way of smelting metal. So where had that copper tubing come from? Had he traded with a European? Or was he a European who had somehow gained status in the tribe?

It’s a mystery that perhaps modern technology would be able to solve, except for one small detail: the skeleton no longer exists. It was destroyed when the building it was housed in burned down. We both agreed that was a major bummer.

Not Her First Seance

Investigators are often split on the value of seances. I wondered if she had ever participated in one at the Lizzie Borden house before the one she was part of for The Curse of Lizzie Borden Shock Docs.

She explained seances aren’t something she normally does, but she had participated in a couple of public ones during events at the Lizzie Borden house prior to her investigation with Dave, Chris, and Sam.

In the Shock Docs, she experienced automatic writing and explained how scary and unnerving that was. But she also talked about one of the public seances and how the psychic who was conducting it broke the circle when she felt like she was going to throw up and went to use the bathroom.

Luann wondered what would happen, if anything, if she stepped in and took over. The psychic had felt they had made contact with Andrew Borden, but Luann felt it was actually the darker entity. However, she proceeded under the assumption it was Andrew and asked questions that he might take exception to. For instance, how did he feel about women working these days and no longer being considered property?

Whether it was Andrew or the entity, the questions worked. The table not only levitated, but she found herself having to protect her face from it being hurled at her. The only thing that saved her was when the table broke.

However, this is how she summed up the one during The Curse of Lizzie Borden: The seance was kind of like a long-awaited conclusion with her connection to the entity. For her, it helped break the connection.

Anvelo

Speaking of the entity —or, rather, not speaking of it since Luann brought it up without saying its name— during the episode, Dave, Chris, and Sam called it Anvelo.

However, Luann didn’t want to risk invoking it when she was talking with me. She said Chris and Sam had a difficult time after they left the house, because of Anvelo.

Which of course only makes me want to know more about it. If I find out anything, I’ll share it in a separate post.

Will we see Luann Joly on A Ghost Ruined My Life?

When Luann shared the experiences that ultimately led her to become a paranormal investigator, I wondered if we’d see her on Eli Roth’s A Ghost Ruined My Life.  At that time, I’d only seen two episodes but her story sounded like a perfect match for the show’s formula.

I didn’t get a chance to explain to her that the show’s title is misleading because no lives have been ruined. I’m thinking a lot of the people could relate to Luann’s answer, which was:

“To tell the truth it didn’t ruin my life, though. It made growing up very difficult and maybe back then it felt like it was ruined, but…look at what I do. Even dark, when it’s something that kept coming in to me because the dark was trying to extinguish my light, to stop me from doing exactly what I’m doing right now. But they didn’t stop me. They conditioned me for it.”

Her Night in Bridget Sullivan’s Room

Luann said from past experience she knew that negative activity often happened on the third floor. She had been sleeping in Abby’s room, but it had been pretty quiet there. One night she decided to sleep in Bridget’s room to see if anything happened.

She explained that the crew told her to call Dave if anything happened. He was also staying in the house, but on another floor. But he could come right up and they could investigate if she noticed activity.

Even though she was a bit embarrassed to admit it, she said there was no way she was going to call on Dave. Not that Dave was acting weird. She loved working with him. They’d really hit it off and had been working together great.

However, on that particular night she sensed a weird vibe from him. They would be alone in a home full of axes everywhere. What if Anvelo somehow overtook Dave?

As she turned in for the night, she plugged in her camera. They’d been plagued by battery drains all day, but she figured if she left her camera plugged in she’d still be able to record. Except then she started hearing things. A whispering in the corner of her room. A weird rubbing sound.

She noticed her camera had died. But how? It was plugged in? What had happened?

When she looked behind the dresser, the plug had come out from the socket. She believed the rubbing noise she’d heard was the plug wiggling itself out —or, rather, something wiggling it out.

She’d also been drawn out into the hallway and felt pulled to the chimney room. The trouble was she had a strong sense that if she went in there, something meant to try and harm her. As she put it, “I’m not scared of ghosts but I’m also not crazy.”

You can never fault someone for adopting a “better safe than sorry” motto.

Winning

There was no better way to end the interview than when Luann said:

“Did the entity know that later on in life my ghost magnetism was going to drive me to run a team that drives out entities from houses? Maybe. But in the end, everything serves the light. So no matter how hard it tried, all that it did was make me a more effective weapon, if you think about it. So, who won?”

Then she licked her finger and chalked up a point in her column.

Watch the Interview

Check-In

Did you know the Lizzie Borden house was full of axes?

I didn’t. I’ve never had the chance to visit yet. But I think even with my own room, I’d feel uncomfortable staying by myself with a stranger, even if it was a familiar face from TV. I could do it, but I might barricade the door for good measure.

Unless, of course, I was the one who succumbed to Anvelo. Then hopefully whoever I was sharing the house with barricaded their room.

Again, you can never fault someone for adopting a “better safe than sorry” motto.