Ghost Hunters was an unscripted paranormal investigation series on Syfy that saw its
cast, well, hunt ghosts.
But how did this whole thing get started?
Has the team actually discovered evidence of the paranormal, or has it all been one
big con?​
Jason Hawes, former co-lead investigator for Ghost Hunters, founded a paranormal support
group called Rhode Island Paranormal Society in 1990.
In his book, Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal
Society, Hawes writes about RIPS saying:
"It wasn't a ghost-hunting organization...at least not at first.
It was more of a support group.
I was trying to connect with people who had gone through experiences similar to mine."
Those experiences included seeing things.
He said:
"Usually it started with a mist, out of which emanated a dim light, and then out of the
light came other things - including see-through animals and full-body human apparitions."
They terrified him, but the support group and, bizarrely, eating green olives, helped
him feel less crazy.
During the early days of RIPS, Hawes received a call from someone offering to improve their
website for free.
That person turned out to be Grant Wilson.
After a period of working together, Hawes and Wilson wanted to develop a more rational
approach to investigating paranormal activity, something that relied less on emotions, and
more on science and logic.
The duo formed The Atlantic Paranormal Society - T.A.P.S. - which was the start of what would
eventually grow into the Ghost Hunters made famous on television.
In addition to the standard electromagnetic field meters and electronic voice phenomenon
recorders, EMF and EVP devices respectively, Ghost Hunters investigators use a wide variety
of unconventional items to detect paranormal activity.
Among the more unusual items are helium balloons, which Grant Wilson says are used in cases
where property owners experience cold spots thought to be made by nearby ghosts.
Half-deflated balloons can be put into play to show that, no, there's just an actual draft
in the home.
"You don't even gotta take it out of here, just make it roll back and forth."
A few other items in their toolbox that you wouldn't expect to see include crepe paper,
which is sometimes used as a cheap motion detector, and talcum powder, which Wilson
says ghost hunters sometimes sprinkle on the ground to pick up footprints left behind by
creeping apparitions.
Steve Gonsalves, former lead investigator and case manager for Ghost Hunters, recommended
some of his favorite tools of the trade in a gear guide for Roadtrippers, and put a good
old fashioned flashlight at the top of the list.
Just goes to show that it doesn't take a lot of money to hunt ghosts.
"For what we do, I get excited when I see a new flashlight.
Check that one out."
There's plenty of evidence Ghost Hunters is fake, and always has been.
While filming at the Overbrook Asylum for the 2009 episode "Garden State Asylum," a
member of the crew left behind what appeared to be staging notes.
Further first-hand evidence is found in a Reddit thread of people involved in various
"reality" shows.
In it, a user going by the name BosskHogg says:
"I was on set for a filming of Ghost Hunters in Buffalo.
On the show, they are 'investigating' an upper level of the Buffalo Central Terminal when
they hear a 'disembodied' voice say 'Get out!'
It was the property manager on a lower level yelling at some homeless people to clear out.
Everyone knew it was him, but it somehow made it in the show as an 'unexplained' event."
It's Reddit, so take that "proof" with a grain of salt, but it definitely seems plausible.
Even the equipment used on the show has been called into question.
An in-depth article by The Atlantic details how EMF meters, specifically the K-2 meters
frequently used on Ghost Hunters, are, quote, "erratic, prone to false positives, [and]
easily manipulated."
EMF meters supposedly detect electromagnetic fields.
The readings spike when in proximity of something as simple as wiring in the walls of a building,
which isn't accurate, but great if you want "evidence" of ghosts for your TV show.
If the ghost sleuthing business suddenly dried up, many of the investigators on Ghost Hunters,
both past and present, have side jobs they could rely on to keep food on their tables.
The New York Times reports both Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson are former Roto-Rooter plumbers,
so they're the ones to call if your pipes are full of tormented souls.
Kristen Luman, the new co-lead investigator for A&E's Ghost Hunters reboot, is a licensed
hypnotherapist.
Former tech manager Steve Gonsalves is a film producer, even working alongside Guillermo
Del Toro to create the horror short "The Captured Bird."
And Daryl Marston, another new co-lead investigator on the re-boot, is a former firearms instructor
and a contractor.
Looking at that list, compiling a team that knows how to properly fire a gun, fix a leaky
pipe, patch up the wall when its fixed, film the whole process, and then hypnotize you
into thinking the whole mess never happened, sounds like a pretty well-rounded crew.
Donna Lacroix, a case manager and investigator for Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International,
has been very vocal in expressing her distaste towards the show, as well as her former cast
members.
Calling in to a radio program called "Ghost Divas" in 2009, Lacroix said that her contract
while on the show was so bad she nearly went bankrupt, plus everyone was out to stab each
other in the back, and there was a staging crew for episodes.
As for her opinion about Ghost Hunters leads, Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes, she referred
to them as, quote, "the kings" during her call, going so far as to say they treated
tech manager and investigator Brian Harnois like their, quote, "whipping boy" to the point
of mental abuse.
In 2012, Harnois scared his fans, friends and family, when he went missing after posting
a note on his Facebook that appeared to threaten self harm, which has since been deleted.
In 2012, Grant Wilson, co-lead investigator for Ghost Hunters, announced during an episode
that he'd be leaving the show at the end of his eighth year to focus on other aspects
of his personal life.
"Jay and I have been talking, and it's been a very difficult decision to make, but I'm
going to be leaving Ghost Hunters."
In a recent interview with Den of Geek, Wilson says that at the time he felt as though the
show had started to rely on gimmicks, and that they were, quote, "kicking a dead horse,"
which ultimately led to his decision to leave the show.
"I was tired.
And I was ready to get back to my family."
But in 2019, A&E picked up Ghost Hunters for a reboot, with Wilson returning to head up
a whole new team of investigators.
This thrilled fans, while also causing a bit of confusion.
What prompted Wilson to change his tune?
In an interview with TV Insider, Grant said:
"I never stopped investigating the paranormal...My youngest is about to graduate from high school,
and he's got it all figured out, so why not get back into it?"
"Still doing it, still gonna do it, will always do it, and just because, you know, you want
to take a break doesn't mean people don't need help."
Makes sense.
But, why didn't his previous partner in ghosts, Jason Hawes, come back as well?
Looking at the chain of events for Ghost Hunters, specifically those having to do with key members
leaving the show, there are a few mysteries to puzzle over.
Why is it that Grant Wilson was the first to announce he was leaving, then returned
for the A&E reboot in 2019, but co-lead investigator Jason Hawes rode the sinking ship to the very
end of its run on Syfy, and stayed gone?
You'd think that when A&E picked the show back up for new seasons, and Wilson announced
he'd be returning, Hawes would have jumped on board as well, but that wasn't the case.
Instead, Hawes heads an entirely different show, with a very similar name, Ghost Nation,
which debuted on the Travel Channel in October 2019.
Although Wilson and Hawes have both stuck with their stories that, when it came to their
working relationship, everything was rosy, it's hard not to wonder if that's as true
as they make it seem.
Shortly after Grant announced he was leaving Ghost Hunters in 2012, he and Hawes listed
Spalding Inn, a New Hampshire property they co-owned, for sale.
Hawes spoke about Grant's initial split during an episode of Beyond Reality Radio, which
he co-hosts, saying:
"Anytime a cast member leaves there is a change in the dynamics of the team - sometimes good,
sometimes not good."
If there was ever a feud here, Hawes and Wilson are playing it cool.
On June 7th, 2016, Jason Hawes posted a message to Facebook that read:
"With heavy heart we want to inform everyone that we are choosing at this time to end our
relationship with SyFy channel."
Further insight, however, points more towards a cancellation than a voluntary departure.
During a speaking engagement in Vermont in 2015, Kris Williams, a former case manager
and investigator for Ghost Hunters and its spin-off series Ghost Hunters International,
said that a dip in ratings, and the subsequent envelope-pushing stunts in a desperate effort
to bring them up again, led to Ghost Hunters International getting cancelled.
In an episode of Ghost Hunters International titled "Sacrificed Mayan Spirits: Belize,"
cast member Susan Slaughter cut herself during a bloodletting ritual and Williams thought
that the stunt was too much.
After expressing her reservations and then pleading for the episode not to air, Williams
quit when her requests were ignored.
Knowing this, it would make sense that Ghost Hunters, which experienced a ratings dip of
its own, was next on the chopping block.
In 2015, the year before Hawes' announcement, the show was averaging ratings of just 1.7
million viewers, a significant drop from the three million it brought in during earlier
seasons.
And Syfy was going in a different direction, towards mostly scripted television.
Within a few years only one paranormal show, Paranormal Witness, remained.
The women of Ghost Hunters have proven themselves more than capable of holding their own.
One woman in particular, Amy Bruni, an investigator for the show from 2008-2014, sleuthed spooks
while pregnant.
In a 2013 interview with Glamour, Bruni said:
"If we're local, I'll investigate until I go into labor - as long as I'm close to the
hospital, it's fine,"
A proclivity for the paranormal has fallen within the wheelhouse of women for many years
now, believe it or not.
When the director Paul Feig made the announcement in 2014 that he'd be making a new Ghostbusters
film with an all female cast, the negative reaction was immediate.
Bruni, as one would guess, had a lot to say on the topic, and admitted in a 2015 Huffington
Post article that at first she thought the angle was, quote, "a stunt," but gave it more
thought and concluded it was actually a perfect way to add to the arc of the films without
attempting to replace the original cast.
She also chimed in with some pearls as to why women have every right to be ghost hunters,
or fans of the paranormal in general.
"I would say the paranormal field strongly skews female.
When you attend a paranormal convention, you've usually got 75 percent ladies to 25 percent
men...However, on television, the field is strongly represented by men and frankly, it's
just not accurate."
Throughout the years, Jason Hawes has spoken about the infamous Amityville haunting in
such a way that leads one to believe he doesn't believe it at all.
In an interview with the blog Geek Mom in 2015, Hawes was asked what location he would
investigate, if he had unlimited access, and he said:
"To answer this, I would need a time machine...I would want to see what truly happened at the
Amityville house.
I know the claims and have studied the case for many years...I just believe there was
way too much hype and not enough truth to it."
Furthering evidence of his doubts on the matter, Hawes shared a video of the home's patriarch,
George Lutz, discussing the Amityville events to his Facebook page in 2018 with the caption:
"In this video, George Lutz talks about his and his families experiences at the Amityville
house.
Take a listen and tell me, your thoughts.
'Real or hype?'"
Seems like Hawes had long since answered that question for himself.
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