Original subtitles

He looked half burned and, like, half decomposed.

This is very bad. Like, I think I'm dying.

My marriage is in trouble.

He's always angry, it seems, when he's here.

You love your wife? I feel like something here is working against us.

Uh -oh. I think I'm really, really hurt.

Like, I just want to walk away and just look back.

It's not a good situation.

He wants everyone to just leave. He wants to be left alone.

He wants the person dead.

My name is Amy Allen.

I see dead people. I saw a winged creature.

I speak to dead people, and they speak to me.

This person feels like a monster.

But there's only one way to know if my findings are real.

They are sucking the life out of these people.

I rely on my partner.

I'm Steve DeShop. I'm a retired New York City homicide detective.

So how many bodies are we talking? And I know every person, every house has

secrets. It's my job to reveal them. But Steve and I never speak.

We never communicate during an investigation. Until the very end.

You're not going to like this.

When we uncover if it's safe for you to stay. I'm sorry. I need to take a break.

We're timed to get out at once inside the house because I want to kill you.

I'm here in the coastal city of Bluffton, South Carolina. It's a couple

south of Charleston.

I got a call from a small business owner named Michelle.

And she sounded real upset.

Tells me whatever's going on inside her restaurant is destroying her health and

her marriage.

Desperate. My husband and I were desperate.

We have a lot of activity here.

I don't think we're going to be here very much longer.

My heart goes out to Michelle. And I'm hoping we can help her out so she

have to shut down her family business.

Oh, boy.

I am very anxious here.

It's like to the point where I'm shaking.

I don't know why, but it's making me very upset and anxious.

So, Michelle, when I drive up and I look at this place, I'm like, well, she's

living the dream. She has her own restaurant.

But you sounded pretty desperate on the phone.

I am desperate.

We took this place over about four years ago.

Okay. We've been really successful here, but it's coming at a huge cost.

My marriage is in trouble.

The only explanation can be paranormal.

Can you do me a favor and just give me a list of what's going on here?

We hear voices, mood swings, mood changes. We see apparitions.

We feel like you're constantly being watched and my health.

It's deteriorated.

What's going on with your health?

My health has suffered really bad.

I had a heart attack.

I had a stroke.

I was recently diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic.

I have vertigo.

I have all over pain.

So I got to tell you, Michelle, I can't believe this help list of issues you

have. Yeah, it's embarrassing.

Well, it's not embarrassing.

I mean, you think the paranormal's causing this?

It's the only thing that makes sense to me. You said to me that the paranormal

here is trying to wreck your marriage.

I mean, what do you mean by that?

He's always angry, it seems, when he's here.

He thinks everyone's out to get him.

He's a little paranoid, depressed, quiet, withdrawn.

Now, what about you? Have you had these mood changes?

I don't get angry. I get really depressed.

Okay. I don't feel well when I'm here. I don't want to be here.

What do you think whatever is here wants?

I just felt like whatever it was just didn't want us here. And it was going to

do that just by making him miserable until he just left.

Or making me sick enough until I was dead.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Sometimes I feel like it's going to be okay, and then sometimes I feel like we

just need to leave.

Have you thought about that?

We have, but we've put everything we have into this place.

We don't have really a lot of options.

I'm seeing a lot of dead people around me.

Yeah, there's a lot of... Dead here, man.

They're coming like this?

These are some men.

I don't know why there's so many dead here. I don't know. It's weird.

There are a lot of dead that are coming and going around here.

They want to leave.

They're mainly trying to get help, trying to get people's attention.

What's going on in here?

A lot happens in the bar.

In this area in particular, you feel like you're always being watched, like

there's always, you know, someone here.

It's a really uncomfortable feeling. Okay, so while we're sitting here, do

feel this now?

I feel something. I don't feel the same as if I were alone.

Okay, so anything else?

Sometimes I'll be seated at the end of the bar, and I'll see a shadow walk from

the kitchen to the door.

Obviously, this is a main road out here.

Mm -hmm.

Couldn't have been something going by on the road?

No, because it's different. This clearly looked like a person walking on the

other side.

Do you think you're going a little nutty? Sometimes.

I see one tall shadow figure to the left and then a

bunch of little shadow figures.

The two, like, adult -sized ones both do seem to be female -shaped.

If people were to interact with them or see them, it would be mostly out here in

this area.

And what is it they'd see?

They would see shadows, all different heights.

It's making me very upset and anxious.

Okay, so anything else?

Every single employee of mine, including myself, has fallen in this restaurant.

Has everybody fallen in the same place?

Yes. There's two locations. One is right here in the bar in this area.

Okay. And the other place is going from the dining room into the hallway to the

kitchen. So there's no liquid on the floor or anything like that causing it?

In the bar, two people have actually said they feel like they were pushed.

So did anybody get badly hurt? The one girl ended up going to the hospital. She

didn't work for a few weeks.

Are you concerned that since it's now going after employees that it may start

going after customers?

Absolutely, yeah.

So with everything you're telling me, Michelle, it sounds like...

Trying to save the business you love, the man you love.

But it also sounds like we may be trying to save your life here because it

sounds like you're in danger.

And as the years go on, I feel more and more like that.

Any idea why there are so many dead here?

The dead just don't rest here.

They don't move on.

They need assistance.

What kind of effects would all of this traffic have on a living?

I think they would have quite a lot of experiences.

It would be very draining for them, I think.

This is just a weird thing that I've encountered.

It's just inexplicable. It's just bizarre.

So, Alexandra, I understand you work here.

I do. Have you had experiences here?

Yes. Okay, so let's talk about one of them. One night I was sitting at the bar

with my coworkers, and I got poked.

You got poked where?

I got poked in the middle of my shoulder blade.

Okay, on your back?

Yeah. Could something have fallen from the ceiling? I mean, there's palmetto

bugs. This is the South.

Could anything have hit you?

No. No, this was a poke from the back.

Okay, so anything else?

I see the apparition of two different women. Do me a favor and tell me about

first one.

She appears to be a showgirl.

Something you'd see in Vegas, like at a show? Yeah, it reminds me of that.

So now you said there was a second one.

That is an older woman with a little girl.

Okay. They're around the 1800 type period.

What do you think the entities that are here want?

I think they want to occupy the space, and I think they want to take over

anybody who's here.

There's a woman and she's wearing this dress and it reminds me of like a

pageant kind of dress.

I'm seeing another woman besides the one in the pageant dress.

She's looking very much like a bar girl out of the Old West.

The woman in the pageant looking dress very much tried to be seen.

She says that she's knocking a lot.

So I'm assuming she's knocking on the bar.

The other thing is, is I think there's a living female who's seen this dead

woman.

I think she freaked out.

This other woman, who I think was a prostitute, she does stuff in the

bathroom.

I think she chooses the bathroom to make people, you know, it's the most

uncomfortable. You know, people are the most vulnerable.

Yeah.

Julio, it's good to see you.

Congratulations on all the success of the restaurant. I hear you guys got a

bunch of awards.

But it sounds like it came at a price with all the paranormal stuff going on

here. Yes, we've been having a lot of problems.

What's going on? What have you experienced?

Okay, do me a favor and tell me about them.

Really?

So you've seen a lot of these shadow figures?

You're surprised you haven't ran out of here? I bet you it has.

What else is going on?

All right, now you're sure it's not some employee messing around with you?

Anything else?

Okay.

Show me what it might sound like with the dishes. Can you do that? Sure.

Like that. All right, so that's annoying.

I know you have a lot of truck traffic out here. Could the truck traffic, the

weight of the truck, make these things rattle?

No, because they are heavy.

I encountered a dead male.

He's in his death state.

So he's sitting on, like, a wooden rocking chair. He looked, like, half

and, like, half decomposed.

He's wearing a vest and he's got a hat on.

And I said, you know, what do you want? And he said he wants everyone to just

leave. He wants to be left alone.

This seems to be more where the dude in the rocking chair hangs out.

I think he does do things in this area to try to get

people out of here.

She says he's like throwing, he's making extremely loud noises.

You know, to me it almost sounds like if you took the pots and the pans and

you're banging them together, you know, like metal on metal, you know what I

mean? Like bang, bang, bang, clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter. So

that's his thing.

That's his situation.

Anything else?

I get a lot of mood changes.

Michelle told me about this.

Describe what kind of mood changes we're talking about.

Just out of the nowhere, I get really angry.

Okay. And I don't know why, but if I'm not angry, I feel kind of like

Okay. But just when I'm here.

When I talk to Michelle, she actually thinks that your marriage is in danger

with all this mood stuff going on. Yes, I've been thinking to leave everything,

to leave my wife, the restaurant, the house. I mean, I get to walk.

Do you love your wife?

Yes, I do.

And you don't want to leave her?

No.

Do you think whatever's here is putting these thoughts in your head?

I

just

feel really weak.

I feel like I can't control my legs.

This is coming from the guy in the rocking chair.

I don't think that this would be a very comfortable area to be in. Would the

living have any experiences with this? You definitely feel fear, an insane

amount of fear and anxiety.

So I did some digging, and it turns out Michelle and Julio's restaurant sits

right in the middle of an old plantation.

I'm heading over to meet a local author who says the place ended up literally

going up in flames.

So, Dr. Rowland, I appreciate you meeting with me and helping me out with

case. So let's get down to it. Who owned this plantation that my client's

property is built on? The Colleton family.

They acquired it in 1718 after the Indian Wars.

Did this Colleton family live on the plantation and oversee everything? How

it work?

No, they lived near Charleston. They left the work to the overseer and

maybe 100 slaves on that plantation.

That's a lot of slaves, though.

So what were the living conditions like if they didn't live there? Did they have

a house for the overseers, or how did it work?

Yes, they would have had a large house for the overseers and small cabins on

street for the slaves.

So, Doctor, you mentioned on the phone to me that the plantation literally went

up in flames. What year did that happen?

1779. Okay, so do the Colletons still own the property when it went on fire?

Yes, it was owned by Louisa Carolina Colleton, and here is her portrait.

All right, so, Doctor, what caused the fire?

The British Army.

on their way to Charleston in 1779, burned the houses, stole the goods,

destroyed the crops, and laid waste to the country.

So, Doctor, you mentioned there was almost 100 slaves on this plantation.

What happened to them? Did they die in the fire? I mean, did they get taken

prisoner? Many would have left with the British Army. Some of those would have

found freedom in Canada and Sierra Leone. Okay.

And many died.

Whatever happened to Louisa Carolina?

Louisa Carolina died in 1823, and her son inherited the property, mostly

destroyed, and he had to sell it off to pay debts.

All that money the Carlton family had was for nothing.

Pretty much disappeared, yeah.

So I'm just hearing, oh no, there was land, land, and land.

I'm seeing some not well -made places.

Like I'm just seeing wood and tiny wooden structures.

They're very small. I see like maybe a handful of these wooden

structures. Then there's something else.

I don't know what that is. It's a bigger structure.

I mean, it's better than those like shacks.

And then I saw...

Some fire and everybody was scattering.

So I just got a call from a journalist I've worked with before.

He says something happened in 1913 that put a target on every black man in

Bluffton. I'm heading back to Michelle and Julio's restaurant to find out

exactly what happened.

So, Barry, thanks for meeting with me. I appreciate it. So before we get to what

happened, what can you tell me about this town during that time period?

Bluffton in 1913, Bluffton, South Carolina, was about 50 years out of the

devastation of the Civil War. Okay. The black people who lived here were Gullah

Geechee. They were from West Africa.

They were the descendants of black slaves, and they were farmers, and they

a lot of money doing it.

All right, so this had to piss a lot of people off. Absolutely.

Racial tensions were fairly tough in the area.

Barry, do me a favor and tell me about this unrest.

On June 11, 1913, a white woman claimed that a black man had come into their

home, accosted her, put his hands around her throat.

She was able to escape and run to a neighbor's home and gave a description.

What did she describe him as? She described him as a black man,

six feet tall, about 30 years old.

All right, so, I mean, how did everybody react to what happened?

Well, they were up in arms immediately. The white citizens from the area started

rounding up posses, started looking for every black man in the community as a

possible suspect.

All right, so I take it that they're just going around picking up any black

on the street and taking him in. That's right, and that included a black

constable who was here with a detective, E .F.

Hammond, from the state police. They were out looking for these suspects, and

this black constable was...

Basically arrested by some of these posses twice before he said, I'm out of

I'm leaving.

So let me get this straight. There's a black constable working to try to figure

out what the hell is going on.

And even he became a suspect. And he became a suspect. That's right.

Okay. After the black constable left town, Detective Hammond continued

for a suspect.

And he encountered a black man named William Jackson.

Okay. He attempted to take Mr. Jackson into custody.

Mr. Jackson ran away.

and Detective Hammond shot him in the back.

Okay, was this our guy?

Absolutely was not. Not only was he not the right guy, he was 52 years old.

All right, so this guy's at least 20 years older than the suspect.

That's right.

All right, so they killed this guy for nothing.

Right. All right, so whatever happened to Hammond, the guy that shot William

Jackson? His shooting was deemed justified, so nothing happened to him.

All right, so what about this guy that did attack this woman?

Did they ever find him?

No.

Do we think it was all that she made it up? It's a distinct possibility.

So there's one male that's joining me.

He's probably in his early 70s.

He's a black male. He's telling me there was something going on.

One night that was really not good. People were freaking out, and, you know,

people were running.

This incident was more around, like, the 1920s, and it killed two

or three people or something.

He is feeling guilty.

He didn't intend for things to go that way.

He showed me he was back here.

He feels he's been seen.

Like is he doing things to people to try to get them to leave?

For more information about the show, and if you need us to investigate

unexplained activity in your home, please visit TravelChannel .com slash

Dead Files. Click on Help Me Dead Files to submit your story, and we'll help if

we can.

So far, I've got a couple who believes the paranormal is destroying their

marriage and their business on a property that was once a plantation

by British soldiers.

But I want to see if there's anything else.

Searching through the archives, I come across the brutal murder of a local rock

star. Turns out this guy's death shocked not only the community here, but music

fans around the world.

So I managed to track down the cop who responded to the scene. He promised to

give me a first -person account of what happened. Now, he tells me there are

still parts of this case that haunt him to this day.

Walt, I appreciate you meeting with me and helping me out. So I understand the

victim in this murder case was a local celebrity?

Yes, sir. His name was Anthony Tony Hooks.

He was a musician, and I got a picture of him right there.

This is him? Yes, sir.

I grew up in the 70s. This looks like Sly and the Family Stone.

Is that who he played with? Yes, and George Clinton and the Ohio Players.

This guy played with them?

Yeah, he got around. He was pretty.

Pretty well known. I'd say pretty famous.

Bluffton's a pretty small town.

Did you know Tony?

Tony and I basically both grew up here.

We were friends.

Okay, let's move on to the murder. When did it happen?

Happened in 1988, January 31st. I was working for the Bluffton Police

Department. Okay, so take me through it. What happened?

Okay, it was late night, early morning. I was sitting there with windows rolled

down, beautiful night.

And heard a gunshot. You heard the gunshot? Heard the gunshot. Probably 1

yards from right here when I saw a set of headlights leaving the scene, you

know, the area.

So I immediately turned around on the car.

And as we came up to Highway 46, I attempted a traffic stop.

The car turned.

Went towards Savannah, Georgia. I immediately fell in behind him, told my

dispatch, you know, basically I'd heard a gunshot and I was trying to stop this

car. Okay, so you're assuming this guy is the shooter.

Yes. You try to pull him over, he takes off, you give chase.

Yep. We continued towards Savannah, so the Savannah PD set up a

barricade. Okay. And when he came through, they got in the car, stopped

him out.

And he was arrested by Savannah, Georgia.

Lawrence went over from South Carolina.

Okay. So where exactly did the murder take place?

The front porch on this house.

This house here? Yes.

Do we know what kind of weapon it was?

A shotgun.

Okay.

I'm seeing the murdered man in the rocking chair again.

Uh -oh, uh -oh.

Somebody's in front of me.

Totally caught off guard, you know what I mean? Was not expecting that at all.

It's dark.

And I'm scared.

What the hell was that? Like, I totally, like, felt that.

Any idea when it was? I think this was pretty recent.

I'm thinking, like, I got hit. I got, like, punched in the stomach.

And then I'm feeling very bad.

I think I'm really, really hurt, really bad.

I feel like the person went that way, who did this, it's another male.

This is very bad.

Like, I think I'm dying.

All right, so this is where Tony Hooks lived and where he was murdered. Yes.

So now the guy that killed him, who was he? What the hell was this all about?

The guy's name was Peter Hines.

He was from Hilton Head, and he was a musician over there.

Now, you mentioned on the phone that something about this case haunted you.

was that all about?

Nobody knows why. I never found out why.

We don't have a motive. Nope.

Whether it was maybe jealousy or... Never. Never got an answer. All the

investigations just never came up with anything on that.

So did he do any time? He was arrested, was tried, was found not guilty, reason

of insanity.

You kidding me? Tony really never got justice.

Wow. That's so sad to hear. Still think about it. It's got to be an answer

somewhere, and I hope someday I get to find out what.

During my walk, I saw several disturbing things, but two concerned me the most.

First, the group of dead people heading toward the restaurant.

I saw 10 to 15 people.

The majority were men.

And some were like kind of following with purpose towards me.

Next, the murdered man in the rocking chair.

The left side of his face is kind of decomposing. The right side

looks burned.

So he had a big, deep...

pot with a long handle and he was banging that.

Just make sure that his right hand looks burned.

Amy, is this what you saw?

Yes, that's what I saw.

Now that Amy and I have completed our investigations, we're ready to reveal

findings to each other and our clients for the first time.

So, guys, this is Amy.

She's going to be doing a reveal in a separate room so she can focus on your

case and the dead without any distractions.

Amy, meet the owners of this restaurant. This is Michelle and Julio.

Now, they are a married couple for now.

Things are so bad that they believe their marriage and even their lives are

danger.

And even though they've poured their hearts into this place, if you can't

them, they're ready to close the place down and walk.

So unless Amy's got some questions for you, we should close about a walk.

Before I even came inside, there were a lot of dead people

coming towards me. I kept hearing land, land, land.

Then I saw a few wooden structures, not well built, and

another structure that was fairly large, and it was better condition than the

other little wooden shack thing.

Then I was shown a fire. I just literally saw fire.

I was shown people running.

So Amy, you said you kept hearing land and land over and over again. I think I

might know why.

Now,

you mentioned you saw fire, right? Yeah.

So in 1779, during the height of the Revolutionary War, the British came

here on their way to Charleston. Everything in the area was looted and

the ground.

The enslaved people ran off, hoping to find their freedom.

So is it possible this could be what you might be running into? Yeah, that's

very possible, yeah.

What do these dead people want?

Most of them want to leave, but they're stuck.

I did have a sketch done of what I saw.

Christ, this looks like something out of a movie.

Oh, God.

The way it feels. I think I imagined, like, it would be something like that.

So, Amy.

What would it be like for people to always be around like this many dead

Consistent exposure to them could make you sick and could drain you pretty

severely. So, Michelle, when we spoke, you told me you're 52, but you feel like

you're 82.

Tell Amy what's going on with you.

When we were getting ready to reopen two years ago, I had a heart attack.

I was only 50.

I then had a stroke.

That makes sense because that's a lot of dead energy that could drain you.

Okay, so what else?

I saw a lot of shadow figures. Two of them were female

-shaped, and then the rest were smaller, like their children.

So it made me very uneasy and kind of shaky.

And I feel like people would see them.

I would sit at the end of the bar at the end of the night, and you would see

this shadow. I would think it was him.

So are

these the same shadows that are outside, or is it different?

There's so many dead people, so it's hard to say.

So what else?

The next two people I'm going to talk about quickly are two females. One woman

looks like straight out of the 80s, like pageant circuit.

I saw her rapping on the bar, so like making knocking noises of some type.

Second female that I encountered, she's from a long time ago, like, you know,

late 1800s. She hangs out in the bathroom, especially the male bathroom.

She likes to make people feel very uncomfortable.

That's her thing.

Amy, their employee, Alexandra, she's actually seen both those apparitions.

Oh, okay.

She described the one female as like a showgirl, and the other one she said was

older. So she saw both of them. Okay.

Would you mention the men's rooms? We never talked about it, but have you had

experiences back there? Oh, yeah.

It's definitely palpable.

Like, you know something's there with you. That sound like something this

would do? Yeah, yeah.

She's delightful.

So what else, Amy?

The last person that I'm going to talk about, he is definitely an issue.

When I first encountered him, he showed me him sitting in an old

wooden rocking chair.

I mean, probably from the late 70s, early 80s. I got that he was murdered.

It was extremely unexpected.

I think I'm really, really hurt really bad.

I feel like the person went that way, who did this, it's another male.

This is very bad. Like, I think I'm dying.

Now, Bluffton's a small town, right? Most years, they don't even have

But what you are describing to me sounds a lot like a homicide I came across in

research. Anthony Tony Hooks was a famous guitar player from Bluffton.

This is the guy right here on the bottom.

Now, he played with George Clinton, the Ohio Players, Sly and the Family Stone.

I knew who this guy was. I never knew he got murdered.

On January 31, 1988, Hooks was in his little house right near here. So about

o 'clock at night, a local musician named Peter Hines showed up at his door.

Now, Hooks answered, and Hines just shot him in the chest with a shotgun.

Hines took off and was later arrested and tried, but he was found not guilty

reason of insanity.

He didn't serve a day in jail.

What? So I talked to the retired cop who actually helped arrest him that night.

He says the murder still haunts him to this day because nobody to this day

has a clue why he did it.

What? Yeah.

Amy, do you think Hooks could be the dead guy who's here?

Yeah, it could be.

You said you were very concerned about this guy. How come?

He's pretty angry. He does not want anyone here. And I saw him, like, in the

kitchen area.

He's making extremely loud noises.

You know, to me, it almost sounds like if you took the pots and the pans and

you're banging them together, you know, like bang, bang, bang, clatter, clatter,

clatter, clatter, clatter. So that's his thing.

And that I had a sketch of what I saw.

Wow.

I feel like somebody was there.

I just didn't expect that it was there, like, all the time, and that I actually

was sharing the space with him.

You mentioned to me about hearing the plates and stuff.

A lot of times I hear the plates moving, the doors opening and closing.

Tell her about your stuff going missing.

Sometimes my knife disappears, and then I look for it, like, for an hour, and

finally when I give up.

You know, like looking for it, it just appears.

It makes me feel like really uncomfortable and, you know, like it

really the creeps.

So Amy, this guy is so physical. I'm wondering if he might be responsible for

tripping employees in the hallway by the kitchen.

Every single employee that we've had has tripped at least

once where they've gone down on the ground.

Not good at all.

Remember when I said these guys' marriage is in trouble?

Michelle believes Julio has changed. He's become angry and irritated all the

time, right? So I'm wondering if that could be the influence of this dead guy.

Do me a favor. Tell Amy how you've changed.

Since we got here, my personality started to change.

I'm turning, like, really antisocial, either angry or depressed.

He was angry all the time, and he would have these outbursts, and he would yell,

and he would say really, you know, not nice things.

It's highly likely that you and this dead guy are meshing with one another,

you're taking on all of his anger.

It makes sense.

We have no reason to fight.

I just want to walk away and just done.

Look, Bart.

It's not a good situation.

So, guys, the South has a lot of history, and unfortunately, it seems

guys are still dealing with it.

But now let's answer the big question. Can you keep this restaurant open

And can you guys get back to a happy marriage?

For that question, I'm going to turn it over to Amy.

The first thing that I would recommend,

a medium should come to the restaurant.

This medium should be an attractive female who is

also very firm in their approach.

dead male will respond more favorably if this is the type of individual

that approaches him.

Is she going to move this person on? Yes.

Now, while this is taking place, Julio should be at the office or

location of a Reiki practitioner.

Now, what this person will be doing is cutting all cords and ties.

with this dead male.

The second day, a few psychics and mediums should come and

move on all the dead who want to move on.

The third day, have the Reiki master come to the restaurant.

Now, what she will do is cleanse the entire restaurant and then placing up

protective barriers.

And that will keep out all the rest of these dead people.

You look stunned.

It's just, it's a lot to process.

And it's just overwhelming.

The question I always ask is, are you going to take Amy's advice?

Absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah.

It feels like for the first time in a long time that, you know, there's hope.

Don't lie to me. I wouldn't. Okay.

I'm really happy with everything that we found out today.

And we definitely want to do everything that Amy did.

Okay. She's already snuggling up on you.

He's like, oh, no.

First time I've seen you two smile since I got here.

I love you. There you go.

See, now that makes me feel better.

I really hope.

Michelle and Julio contact a medium to remove the murdered man, as well as all

of the other dead who are stuck inside their restaurant.

I believe once they're cleared out and Julio works with the Reiki master, their

relationship and their business will grow stronger than it ever was before.