Barefoot Mysteries
The Haunting Tales of Texas' Most Frightening Home
Why are we so drawn to the eerie and mysterious? Join us on this spine-chilling episode as we uncover the dark history of the Haunted Hill House in Mineral Wells, Texas.
Theme Music courtesy of Uppbeat
Artist: Alex Besss
Track Title: Threatened
Theme Music courtesy of Uppbeat
Artist: Alex Besss
Track Title: Threatened
Contact us at: barefootmysteries @gmail.com
Why are we so drawn to the eerie and mysterious? Join us on this spine-chilling episode as we uncover the dark history of the Haunted Hill House in Mineral Wells, Texas.
Theme Music courtesy of Uppbeat
Artist: Alex Besss
Track Title: Threatened
Theme Music courtesy of Uppbeat
Artist: Alex Besss
Track Title: Threatened
Contact us at: barefootmysteries @gmail.com
Welcome back to Barefoot Mysteries with your Barefoot Mystery Junkies, Pat and Dave. I'm Pat And I'm Dave And he's Dave.
Speaker 2:Yes, I am.
Speaker 1:You know, Dave, what is it about being scared? that seems to attract us human beings.
Speaker 2:That's a very good question.
Speaker 1:Our hearts beat really fast. It feels like your heart's going to just beat out of your chest. The hair on our arms and the back of our neck stand straight up on end. Sometimes we even forget to breathe Well, at least I do. And then what's ironic is that every day, we do our best to make sure that we and our loved ones are safe.
Speaker 2:Good point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but then we'll be the first in line for the Haunted Hayride, the Halloween zombie corn maze oh, stories that go. You know stories about things that go bump in the night and movies that keep us all awake all night, burrowed under our blanket. We all know I mean in the back of our heads or the front of our heads, or we just know that these haunted attractions are staged. They're not real. But what if you had the opportunity to experience the real thing yourself? Would you do it?
Speaker 2:What do you mean? the real thing?
Speaker 1:Would you spend the night alone?
Speaker 2:I would, would you. No, i thought not No, No.
Speaker 1:Well, let's find out if our listeners would Join us today as we talk about one of the most haunted places in Texas. Kick off your shoes, get comfortable And let's get into today's episode the Haunted.
Speaker 2:Hill.
Speaker 1:House.
Speaker 2:If we're down in Texas, don't you have to kick off your boots?
Speaker 1:That would be your boots. Okay, yeah, it would be your dirty, dusty boots. Nice, you know. The Haunted Hill House is not the same. as I don't know if you ever watched that movie, i think they've had a couple of versions of it. The Haunting of Hill House scariest movie ever made.
Speaker 2:I've heard that that topic.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, this is the Haunted Hill House. Not to be confused with the Haunting of Hill House, it's actually named the Haunted Hill, the House on Haunted Hill Interesting. Well, let's meet Catherine and Eddie Estes. They are a couple who love ghost hunting and they have traveled all over the United States investigating paranormal locations. During one of these investigations it was actually a ghost walk that was being offered in Jefferson, texas. They met a team of paranormal investigators that had taken a photo of three ghosts. They showed them this photo. All three of these ghosts were little children, two boys and one girl In the same picture, or three separate pictures.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in the same picture it was just all of the people. the ghosts in the photo were children two boys and one girl And they suggested that Catherine and Eddie go to the haunted Hill House in Mineral Wells, texas, which is where they captured this photo. And they suggested they go there because Catherine and Eddie live in Springtown, which is really close to Mineral Wells.
Speaker 2:I bet they're excited.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, they didn't go. They hadn't gone yet. That was on their list, but they hadn't been there, and it was about a year later that Catherine saw that the sales price for the haunted Hill House had been lowered from 180,000 to 80,000.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a big discount.
Speaker 1:That's you know, and that's my first warning, but of course, they love this sort of thing. So what did she do? She called the owner and immediately set up an appointment for her and Eddie to her, the home Good idea. It was on their very first visit, their very first tour, that Catherine and Eddie saw a green figure of a little boy going up the stairs. They heard disembodied voices. They saw a ball bouncing on its own. Well, they didn't need to give it any more thought. They'd seen enough. They had never seen so much activity in any of the places they've gone to. They said the house was calling their names, it was meant to be theirs and they purchased the house on top of the Hill in 2017.
Speaker 2:Was it for less than 80,000? I don't know Okay.
Speaker 1:It might have been. It depends on how badly that owner wanted to unload the haunted house.
Speaker 2:Well, if they've already discounted it that much, you think you might be able to come in with a little bit lower.
Speaker 1:Well, that's true too. Well, Mineral Wells, Texas, lies about 56 miles north of Fort Worth And if you drive down Hubbard Street, just behind the abandoned Baker Hotel, which is a beautiful hotel that was built in the 20s, just a spectacular hotel that has been abandoned and run down. But I understand that they're actually going to try to bring it back to life and make it a luxury hotel.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic.
Speaker 1:So right behind this hotel, which actually has a connection to where we're going, you'll find the most haunted house in the paranormal world. Or, if you're a scaredy cat like me, you might want to make a U-turn at the stop sign and continue driving.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you all about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, take pictures. The home was built before the Civil War. It is 3,800 square feet and of course it's a Victorian style and it's a mansion. You know how I love those Victorian mansions.
Speaker 2:They are beautiful.
Speaker 1:This home has seen a variety of nefarious activities, including prostitution, moon shining, bootlegging, black magic, murders.
Speaker 2:It's got some history.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not a good history Now. its location to the Baker Hotel in the 20s was very advantageous because they could provide the hotel guests with bootlegged items as well as companions for the evening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they would be very popular.
Speaker 1:Oh you betcha. Well, here's what I can't understand. I know they loved it and they fell in love with all these paranormal things, but would you want to live there? I'll tell you. Maybe you would rent it out. Oh my gosh, well funny. you should ask, because I'm going to tell you what they will do and what has happened to people that have rented it out. They are very smart. They put cameras inside every room of the house and even the outside grounds, and these cameras are running and recording 24-7. Great idea.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's fabulous because they can then look every day. They can look and see if anything has been recorded, and they don't want to miss a thing. Now let me ask you a question, pat.
Speaker 2:You wouldn't stay there, but would you watch the film of it?
Speaker 1:Sure, from my house, okay, right exactly. Or from my computer, but I'm not going to sit there and watch it. No, thank you, no exactly. Yeah well, they never miss a thing and they have recorded some frightening activity. Now they, of course the estus' are used to this type of thing and they get it there. The furniture gets moved, they hear voices, they see apparitions and all sorts of paranormal activity in their home. They love it. They think this is fascinating. This is great.
Speaker 2:Right up their alley.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, but despite Catherine's deep attachment and love for the house, catherine will no longer sleep in the house or go upstairs As a result of both her and Eddie having been attacked multiple times, attacked, attacked, wow.
Speaker 2:Now, that's more than furniture being moved.
Speaker 1:When Catherine is asked which entity or which ghost or which spirit she thinks attacks them or attack to them, she says oh, these attackers were not your run of the mill Ghostly spirits. They were entities, very, very, very bad evil entities. Entities Oh, there's a difference between evil entities and ghosts, for sure.
Speaker 2:I would imagine.
Speaker 1:Well, this is what you brought up. They do offer tours. Besides offering tours, though, the house can be rented for those that want to conduct paranormal investigations.
Speaker 2:I would think that would be a perfect entry.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and they've had a ton of paranormal investigators, even the ones that you see on TV and on YouTube. they've come and they've rented it to stay for the night.
Speaker 2:They're going to make that money back quick.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, but you know what. You know what Eddie says. He says most of these people, even though they're professional paranormal investigators, won't make it through the night. Actually, 50% of the people that come to stay, 50% half of them, leave before checkout time. They don't even make it through the entire night.
Speaker 2:Do they give them a?
Speaker 1:Discount sheet. I don't think so. No discounts allowed.
Speaker 2:Are you?
Speaker 1:kidding me. Well, visitors often left with scratches, burn marks, markings carved in their faces and bite marks.
Speaker 2:No one left.
Speaker 1:Oh, seriously, now, Catherine thinks that most of these attacks, or a lot of these attacks, are caused by an entity That they call Toby. They have a room that's named after Toby Toby, toby, toby, t O B? Y, t O B? Y, thank you. They have a room for certain guests, or certain rooms for the guests that are named after people that they know lived in that home during the 20s, during the prostitution and and the prohibition, and Guess oh, is Toby a male or a female?
Speaker 1:That would be a male. Okay, I would think the name would be a male.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would think that on the front side of my brain and I thought maybe it's not because you're talking about prostitution.
Speaker 1:It would probably be Tobias, oh and short for you know, and Toby for short. Well, guests in the room, the guests that decide they're gonna stay in that room or they pick that room. We'll often hear a demonic voice and what sounds like growling throughout the night. In fact, catherine says when they're touring a lot of times they'll hear that and she'll go oh Yeah, that's Toby.
Speaker 2:Toby being Toby.
Speaker 1:Toby being Toby. There was one night when a guest decided to take a photo. She was taking photos of Of Toby's room and all around, and when they looked at the photo You can see what appears to be like a demonic type of apparition in the background.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is an apparition?
Speaker 1:an apparition would be something that you see that looks like a figure standing there. Okay, apparition appear. So that's what they're seeing something that looks demonic, of the demonic figure in the background. Thank you for that explanation or There is a recorded murder That they feel that spirit is still in the house, and that was, sadly, an eight-year-old boy named Jacob Henry Kyle. Jacob was the son of one of the working girls in the brothel.
Speaker 1:I was wondering why he was there and Well, i would imagine that they probably did have. you know children there, that Sure, they're kids there, yeah, that who knows who their father is? but that's where the ladies live, so Well, i said his father was was like this high.
Speaker 2:Yeah this wide.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and his name was John. Oh, yes, yeah, it was a John. But poor Jacob story is very sad because, apparently, while he was in the house, this poor boy was raped. Oh, and in order to keep him quiet, he was hung.
Speaker 2:That will quiet him up for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they made it look like he had committed suicide, but he may have felt like committing suicide, but that's ridiculous kid, it is in Jacob's room That the activity is quite active as well. They'll hear furniture Moving, or actually they'll see the furniture moving. They'll hear the disembodied voices. They will actually see apparitions again, figures that will appear kind of like shadows, and it looks like a child. One woman who slept in Jacob's room said when she woke up her hair was tied to the posts of the bed.
Speaker 2:That's very strange.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a prank a child would pull, doesn't it? It does. That would be like oh she's asleep, i'm just gonna tie her hair up and she wakes up.
Speaker 2:Hee, hee, hee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now, one of the oldest bedrooms is located in one of the oldest parts of the house, which is downstairs, and it is reportedly haunted by a spirit named Dr Yeager. Dr Yeager, dr Yeager was a practicing physician in Mineral Wells who apparently was called on to perform the, the oh, i'll just say it perform abortions on the working women.
Speaker 1:You would think that would be a very Yeah, needed skill Yeah, well, this is where the owner, catherine, says that the most horrible things have happened in Dr Yeager's room, or the room named after Dr Yeager. There was a female visitor who was lying on the bed and she began taunting Dr Yeager. Now I've seen this video, so I'm just gonna tell you that you can. There's a video online that you can all go look, listeners, if you wanna look at this. She was taunting him when suddenly, without warning, she's in the middle of a sentence. She is. Her body has come just violently yanked off the bed.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And it was captured on camera And that's a video I was talking about And when you watch it, she's just there. It's not like oh, someone, just it was like one second. She's there and it's rough Watching her get yanked off.
Speaker 2:So it's really, really happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And then, about an hour later, a man enters the same room and you know, number one, you never want to confront these people and their people, these spirits, in an evil, in a you know kind of an angry way. I think that just brings out the worst in him.
Speaker 2:You might be asking for trouble.
Speaker 1:Oh, you bet. And that's what this woman, this woman, i'm sorry. this man found out an hour and a half later because he went into the room and there was a couple of women next to you're behind him actually in the video And he starts saying oh so you like to mess with women? Try messing with me. He was pushed so hard, suddenly, just boom, pushed in the chest, that he fell back into two women standing behind him and the bedroom door slam shut in front of him.
Speaker 2:So he was being the big man and got us, got us upcoming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Now I don't know about this one woman, the one that got yanked off the bed, whether she is just a masochist or whatever, but that very same woman that was yanked off the bed came back about a year later and went into that Dr Yeager's room.
Speaker 2:She's got a a point to prove.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. And she was sitting there and she's talking and all of a sudden she goes ow ow, it feels like I'm getting burned, or something. On her back They pulled up and I've seen the pictures to this too. They pulled up the back of her shirt and she was gouged so deeply that her shirt was soaked with blood. Ouch, yeah, yeah, it was, it was just it was deep. Now, was this caused by the spirit of Dr Yeager, or could it have been a demon?
Speaker 2:I think we have two good choices there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that bad of a gouge. You know, with claws Says demon to me, but you know.
Speaker 2:As Jager turned into demon.
Speaker 1:I don't think they can. Okay or maybe he was possessed as a demon when he was a lot, i don't know. Huh interesting, yeah Well, because they know that children's spirits inhabit the house and They know how sensitive the children are, the estus's Will separate the men Visitors from the women when they're conducting a tour. They'll. The men will go with maybe Eddie or Catherine, and then the women will go with either Eddie or Catherine.
Speaker 2:And why would they separate them?
Speaker 1:Well, the reason they separate them is for the children, hmm, and this started because they think that the children are afraid of the men. They don't come out and and and be Seen or heard or give any indication that they're there when the men are coming through. But Eddie was doing a tour one day with women and During that tour everyone heard them say that and it's on, it's been recorded. They could hear a child, a little child, saying look, we have new mummies.
Speaker 2:Hmm, need some helpers.
Speaker 1:So the working women probably watched over each other's children when the mothers were entertaining. Catherine is really proud of the home because she says it's been rated as the most haunted house in Texas And the third most haunted in the nation.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a, that's a high marking.
Speaker 1:Yep, haunted Hill House has attracted a lot of attention, you know from ghost hunters and investigators who can't seem to stay the night and get scared out, at least happily early. Yeah well, you can imagine them attracting so much attention. I mean rightfully so, because this is not staged. More than 10,000 people have come through its doors since it Oh, it was opened by Catherine in Eddie in 2017. Now, if you'd like to go, oh yeah, if you'd like to go and stay there, haunted Hill House offers tours And overnight stays For anyone who'd like to experience the phenomenon personally.
Speaker 2:I know Pat will not stay overnight, but will Pat go for a Walkthrough?
Speaker 1:visit. Let me think about it. No, okay, that didn't take, not happening, not noob, i might stand outside, but nope, nope, nope, nope.
Speaker 2:Okay, you stand outside and wait for me. If I don't come back, then you're right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, and when you come screaming out of there, I'll be laughing my ass off.
Speaker 2:Exactly you would yeah, i would.
Speaker 1:Anyone wanting to schedule a tour, a reserve a room or even get more in information about the house. You can visit Their website online. It's called the haunted hillhousecom. So if you do decide to go, don't worry, because when you leave, catherine asks all her guests If they would like to be blessed with holy water or other spirit cleansing items To ensure their safe travels. Home alone, oh, alone, alone, alone. You don't want anyone. You don't want to take anyone with you.
Speaker 2:Good point.
Speaker 1:Now I wonder if any of our listeners have visited haunted hillhouse. Oh, you know what I'm going to ask. If you have, we want to hear from you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because path's not going.
Speaker 1:No, that's right. What were your feelings? What did you see? What did you hear? Send us an email at barefoot mysteries at gmailcom. barefoot mysteries at gmailcom, and let us know if you'd like us to share your experiences On one of our episodes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to know because I'm not going to get to go with path.
Speaker 1:You're on your own. Have a. Have a fun trip Exactly until next time. Have a bootiful day.
Speaker 2:Oh scary.