Fuck the Cardinals...Part 1

"So...you're a boob man." -D

"No Dan, but I have standards" -K

**We apologize for the lack of posts yesterday. Due to technical difficulties beyond our control we have discovered that most of Southern Illinois simply does not believe in the internets and we were reduced to sitting in a McDonalds lobby, sipping on a Sprite, in order to use their blazingly fast (Thats sarcastic.) WiFi to post the last entry.

After an eventful stay at the Original Springs Hotel we were back on the road. Getting gas I ran inside to grab something to drink. When I was checking out the woman in front of me asked the clerk where the Original Springs Hotel was located. In a simple yet weird way it felt like she was taking our spot. Anyways, we were on the road towards St. Louis. Yes I know this is not what the original post said we were going to do. Well here's the thing. APPARENTLY there are two Lincoln Theaters in the state of Illinois and the one we were scheduled to visit was not the one with the haunting. My amazing luck continues.

In St. Louis we arrived, despite google maps attempt to drop us off on an on ramp to the expressway, at the Lemp Mansion. The mansion has a long an illustrious history. The building is now a bed and breakfast and is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A little backstory on the place.

It was built in 1868 by a St. Louis local and Charles Lemp an his wife Julia moved in in 1876. In 1911 the building went under massive renovations to convert some rooms to offices and add on an atrium. The house then became a center point for the brewing company. The Lemp's lived in the home until 1949 when Charles committed suicide. The building was sold off in 1950 and became a boarding house which destroyed much of its charm. When I-55 was constructed in the 60's much of the Lemp grounds were destroyed in the process. The current owners, the Pointer family, bought the house in 1975 and have renovated it back to some of its former glory turning it into the bed and breakfast that it is today.

There were four suicides committed in the house. Charles Lemp, who has been rumored to have been deathly afraid of germs, took his life on May 9th of 1949. He was found, by his brother Edwin, with a single gunshot wound to the head and .38 caliber Army Colt revolver clutched in his hand. Charles was the only one of the family to have left a note behind. William J. Lemp Sr., son of Charles, took over the brewing company after his fathers death. Sr. saw times of great success and great decline for the company. On February 13, 1904 William J. Lemp Sr. shot himself in the head at 9:30.

After breakfast. William J. Lemp Jr. then took over. Although the brewing company was doing well the good times would not last. Jr. had been married to Lillian Handlan but she filed for divorce in 1908. She was known as the "Lavender Lady" and had a tendency to spend the family fortune as quickly as it was being made. Although Jr. had enjoyed his trophy wife he eventually grew tired of her and divorced her.

After the divorce Lillian went into seclusion from the public eye but can still be seen in countless paintings in the mansion. When prohibition hit the family took a steep down turn. Jr. was able to sell off the company and the plant for $588,000.

Nothing compared to the 7 million dollars it was worth in the years before prohibition. On December 29th, 1922 William J. Lemp Jr. shot himself in the heart with a .38 caliber revolver. The fourth and final suicide was Lemp Sr.'s daughter Elsa. Elsa was married to Thomas Wright but the two got divorced. For a while. They then reconciled and got remarried in March of 1922. On March 20th of the same year, while suffering from insomnia, Elsa shot herself in the heart while in bed.

The mansion is elegant with original paintings of it's former owners, large rooms that contain beautiful pieces of 19th and early 20th century furniture, and plenty of glass cabinets that

contain historical artifacts or clues to the mansion's true past. We were greeted by a friendly waiter who asked us if we were there for lunch. After politely declining his offer, he mentioned that we were curious about the troubled past of this house. Almost immediately the waiter gave us two pamphlets containing the mansion's history and gave us permission to explore the entire house.

As we walked upstairs the floor boards creaked beneath us, a healthy reminder of the mansions old age. We walked around the 2nd floor for about 15 minutes, looking for any hints of a haunting and trying to feel the overall tone that the house was emitting. There was surely a sense of darkness, like a hidden secret, that covered the house; the elegance acting as a mask, trying to hide the deaths and suicides of many. After about 35 minutes of completely exploring the mansion, we realized that only so much could be proven in the middle of the day with only so much time to kill, thus we decided to leave the mansion with many questions unanswered.

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Name: Lemp Mansion

Location: St. Louis, MO

Research Conducted: N/A

Hours Visited: 1:16 pm - 1:45 pm

Forms of Evidence: Psychic Energies

Conclusion: Level 1 - Casper is... Staying in his Room

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Our next stop on our hunt was the Lewis Center in University City, MO just outside out St. Louis. The Lewis Center is a residence facility and office for Washington University in St. Louis, and is said to be haunted by a woman in a white dress who walks the floors sobbing and calling out for her husband. People who visit here claim to have heard knocking, doors closing, whispers, and footsteps all within the walls of this building.

When we walked up to the gates of the Lewis Center we realized that one side of the building was abandoned, while the other side was still an operating facility...very strange. Unfortunately, we could not find a way in as all the doors were locked and there didn't seem to be anyone that we could ask questions to; however, we did find one resident of the building studying outside in a small park next to the building. When I asked her if she knew anything about the haunting, she gave me a puzzled look and told me that she "had no clue". Because of this, and the fact that very little information could be found about a haunting at this place, we decided that there just wasn't enough evidence to make this one plausible. If a resident, that has lived here for a while, not only hasn't had an encounter with a spirit, but also hasn't even heard of the possibility that there is a ghost...I would say that this is Busted.

Name: Lewis Center

Location: University City, MO

Research Conducted: N/A

Hours Visited: 2:06 pm - 2:35 pm

Forms of Evidence: None

Conclusion: Level 0 - Casper is... Non-Existent

Part 2 of our St. Louis hunt will be posted soon, including our drive through two cemeteries and a small look at one of the creepiest places I have ever seen.

Off to hunt,

TPB