The Southern Illinois Ghost Hunters Society, S.I.G.H.S., spent the night at the Williamson County Museum located at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion, Sunday night. The group arrived at the museum at 7 P.M. Sunday night, November 9, and departed at 3:30 A.M on Monday morning. They were hosted at the museum by Williamson County Historical Society board member, Sam Lattuca, who sat with them through the night. This was the third time that the society has spent the evening in the historic museum setting up devices to try and catch paranormal activity.
The group consisting of Justin Timmons, Donna Smith, Briana Smith, Hayley Triplett, Ashley Kunkel, Jon Reed, Bethann Cline and Erin Settle try to regularly visit historic sites such as historic buildings, cemeteries and residential homes. They have invested in EVP recorders to catch unearthly voices, infrared cameras to detect normally invisible objects and events and a host of other tools to tease the paranormal to reveal itself.
Three cameras were set up this time, one in the Sheriff’s master bedroom on the second floor, the jury sequester room on the third floor and a second floor jail cell in the jail portion of the building. According to Justin Timmons, the group had prior paranormal activity in these locations which included spontaneous hair pulling and EVP activity. One of the group members reported that she had taken a photo from outside the building and the photo revealed a figure standing in one of the first floor windows which could no longer be possible since the windows are not accessible from the inside any longer. Pickings were a little slimmer on this trip as the group documented only one unidentified noise and a handprint that appeared on the bed upstairs.
The old county jail museum was built in 1913 and has certainly seen its share of strife, including a hanging by suicide in one of the jail cells, a prisoner death related to a fall down stairs and a legal hanging which took place in Paradise Alley just outside the jail in 1927.
The group plans on reviewing all of their data for more activity and will report back to the museum of any new findings.