GMM 6.23.07

Investigation: Garibaldi-Meucci Museum - Staten Island, NY

Date of Investigation: 6/23/07

Investigators: Arthur Matos, Jason Stroming, Laura Pennace, James Bricks

The Scene

On Saturday, June 23rd, the EPIC team investigated the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum on Staten Island, NY. The museum is the former home of Italian inventor Antonio Meucci, his wife Esther, and the Italian war hero Guiseppe Garibaldi. The home was built circa 1840, and you can read more about the history of this location at the museum website: http://garibaldimeuccimuseum.org/

Most of the activity that is currently being reported involves shadows, footsteps, strange feelings of being watched or overwhelming sadness, and the door to the basement moving on it's own.

The EPIC team set up its base of operations (or "safe room") in the main room of the first floor. The first floor also contains the gallery and a room containing many historical artifacts, including Meucci's hand-made piano. The second floor contains Garibaldi's bedroom, which also contains many artifacts, as well as the library and staff offices (these were also bedrooms in the past). The director of the museum was gracious enough to allow us full access to the building overnight. So at any given time, the only people in the museum were the investigators from the EPIC Team. A total of six infrared cameras, connected to the multi-channel DVR system, were used for this investigation, with 1 positioned facing the gallery, 1 in the basement, 1 looking up the stairs, and 3 more in the second floor bedroom & offices. Three camcorders were also set up, with one in the safe room, one in the library, and one on the second-floor stairway landing. Two digital audio recorders were running for the duration of the investigation, one set up in the attic, and one in the basement. A digital audio recorder, digital camera, and 35mm camera were also used by each team, as well as a Mini DV recorder to document the investigation.

The Investigation

For this investigation, two teams were established. Team 1 consisted of Laura and Jimmy, while Team 2 consisted of Jason and Artie. All video and audio equipment started recording at 9:45pm. Team 1 began the night at approximately 11:20pm by investigating the Garibaldi bedroom on the second floor, and eventually moving on to the library. At the same time, Team 2 stayed in the safe room to monitor the DVR system. Team 1 finished up at approximately 12:15am, and at approximately 12:30am, Team 2 moved in to investigate the gallery. They investigated the first floor briefly, moving on to the artifact room after investigating the gallery. At approximately 12:35am, they wrapped up Stage 1 of the investigation.

Stage 2 of the investigation started at approximately 1:10am, but this time Team 1 investigated the basement, while Team 2 moved upstairs to investigate the second floor areas. Stage 2 ended at approximately 1:30am, because both teams were hearing activity emanating from the first floor.

Stage 3 of the investigation started at approximately 1:40am, with both teams now seated in the gallery. Both teams had heard activity coming from the first floor while investigating the basement and second floor. It was at this point that Jimmy had a very personal experience, which was corroborated with our EMF meters.

Stage 4 of the investigation took place on the second floor, with both teams investigating, and commenced at approximately 2:30am. More EVP sessions were conducted, along with EMF sweeps, but nothing unusual was experienced. This session ended at approximately 3:30am. This ended the investigation, and at this point the Team packed up our equipment and headed home.

Each Team conducted EMF sweeps, took digital & 35mm photographs, and conducted EVP sessions in each room they investigated.

The Findings

During the investigation, the EPIC team had a number of personal experiences. Laura and Jimmy both heard strange sounds and saw shadows during Stage 1 of the investigation. During Stage 2, Jason heard what sounded like a cough or groan coming from the first floor. Laura, in the basement, also thought she heard a moan coming from the first floor at this time. The entire team heard unusual sounds throughout the night, including what sounded like faint conversations, unexplained "bumps" that were too loud and deliberate to be the house settling, and more. Jimmy had a very personal experience in the gallery, after we suspected that activity was occurring on the first floor while we were spread out. After stating, in Italian, "I feel fine, how are you?" Jimmy suddenly felt extremely panicked and had to leave the room. At the same time, our EMF meter, which had been reading a steady (and normal for no activity) 1.0 till this point, spiked into the 5.3 range. Once Jimmy left the house, the readings dropped back to normal. Once Jimmy felt comfortable enough to return, our meter was still reading a high 3.5.

As far as photographic and video evidence, we did catch some anomalies on the Hi8 camcorders. The first appears to be a candle-like light emanating from the bathroom. It flickers into sight, then flickers out, only to reappear 2 more times, in slightly different locations. In six hours of recording, this only occurred this one time. The second unusual occurrence was audio, on the same camcorder. Later in the night, you can hear us all in the gallery immediately following Jimmy's experience. You can hear something "touch" the camera, and then exhale loudly into the microphone. Since we were all downstairs, and this happened on the Hi8 on the second floor landing, we cannot explain these sounds. As usual, digital cameras were used, as well as standard 35mm film. We caught the usual dust orbs in a few pictures, and also saw them on video, but these were obviously dust, and nothing impressive. The IR cameras that were hooked up to the DVR also caught nothing unusual.

As far as the audio evidence is concerned, there were a few anomalies caught by the team. Interestingly, all of the EVPs that we caught sounded like grunts or coughs. So nothing is being said, but they do sound like a person or persons coughing/grunting/moaning. They are obviously not members of the team, and since we were the only ones in the building at the time, we cannot explain where these grunts came from.

Examine the audio & video evidence

Conclusions

The EPIC team found some unusual video evidence, with the candle-like light that appeared out of nowhere. We also found some intriguing audio evidence. They are not "Class A" EVPs, but they are still unexplainable and unusual. We have tried to find rational explanations for these sounds, but could not do so. We are hoping to go back to the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum soon, to conduct a follow up investigation.

Click below to see our video summary of the investigation.

Part 1

Part 2

At 39 seconds in, you can hear something touch the camera, and then a very loud "sigh" into the microphone, even though all team members were on the first floor. At approximately 1 minute and 7 seconds, you can see some unusual lights in the room the camera is directly shooting into. Again, all team members were downstairs on the first floor. You can actually hear us performing the video introduction to Part 1 of our investigation.