Andrew and Abby Borden are two of Fall River’s most famous ghosts. Just axe them!
it too seriously, people are going to think we’re crazy. And if we don’t take it seriously enough, people are going to think we’re goofing around. We had to straddle the line, making sure we kept that skeptical edge, yet still making sure people knew that we had a belief in the paranormal.” Weisberg, along with Costa and on-air science advisor Matt Moniz, have become a repository for paranormal news throughout the South Coast. Everything from local folklore to alleged UFOs and alien abductions is reported. Their podcast, which started with 100 listeners back in 2006, is now downloaded nearly three thousand times each day. It’s a role each takes seriously. “We feel like we’re being given the chance to be on the radio and talk about this and not a lot of shows get that opportunity,” says Weisberg. “That puts on us a journalistic integrity that other [internet] shows don’t have to have.” But that is not to say theirs is the only paranormal occupation committed to integrity.
Who You Gonna Call? Growing up, Eric Lavoie wasn’t into ghosts; like many kids, he was interested more in UFO stories. But that all changed after he and his wife, Jeannie, moved into their first home in Fairhaven. Eerie events began to
occur. He’d hear his wife call out for him when she wasn’t even home. Pictures developed with disruptive streaks through them. Overnight guests felt as though they’d been tugged at all night long. One day, while looking for leaks in his garage, Lavoie uncovered a statue hidden behind insulation in the attic space above. “This thing had horns coming out of it, and fangs,” he recalls. “It was the creepiest thing.” He didn’t even want to touch it, let alone leave it for trash collectors. But it had to be gotten rid of. “My genius idea: we built a fireplace in the back and I smashed [the statue] up and threw it into the mix. That’s smart: put the devil with the fire. He was never going to want to leave!” Apparently, he didn’t. The house has had seven different owners since the Lavoies sold it eleven years ago, but the experience kindled an interest within Eric that became the foundation for Dartmouth Anomalies Research Team (DART), his paranormal investigative non-profit. Paranormal investigations are one of the many cottage industries springing from a growing worldwide preoccupation with the unearthly. Lavoie’s DART and Joly’s New Bedford Ghosts each report numerous inquiries per month, with two or three escalating to home investigations. Like most ghost
hunters, neither charges for their services, and although subjects are treated with deference, a heavy dose of objectivity goes into a site visit. “During my walkthrough, I do a quick debunking first,” says Lavoie. “That offends some people, and some people don’t mind. I’m not saying you want to totally disprove somebody; you want to listen first because everybody’s threshold is different when it comes to spirits.” “I don’t look at it as disproving as much as going into it with an open mind and doing the same protocol over and over again, taking what you have in front of you and looking at it,” agrees Joly, who also contends with a seasonality to her walkthroughs. “Winter months are busier than summer months, just because people spend more time in their homes. They’re able to notice if there’s activity going on.”
Paranormal becoming a definite maybe Winter or summer, Lizzie Borden’s house has become a favorite of Christopher Moon. He and his colleagues report experiencing paranormal activity in each of their visits, making this an ideal venue for their two-day ‘Ghost Hunter University’ seminar demonstrating investigative tools and techniques in action. Continued on next page
The South Coast Insider / October 2009
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